Magic Bytes Reference

Fav

descriptive	extension name	Magic Number
Adobe Illustrator	.ai	25 50 44 46 [%PDF]
Bitmap graphic	.bmp	42 4D [BM]
Class File	.class	CA FE BA BE
JPEG graphic file	.jpg	FF D8
JPEG 2000 graphic file	.jp2	0000000C6A5020200D0A [....jP..]
GIF graphic file	.gif	47 49 46 38 [GIF89]
TIF graphic file	.tif	49 49 [II]
PNG graphic file	.png	89 50 4E 47 .PNG
WAV audio file	.wav	52 49 46 46 RIFF
ELF Linux EXE	.elf	7F 45 4C 46 .ELF
Photoshop Graphics	.psd	38 42 50 53 [8BPS]
Windows Meta File	.wmf	D7 CD C6 9A
MIDI file	.mid	4D 54 68 64 [MThd]
Icon file	.ico	00 00 01 00
MP3 file with ID3 identity tag	.mp3	49 44 33 [ID3]
AVI video file	.avi	52 49 46 46 [RIFF]
Flash Shockwave	.swf	46 57 53 [FWS]
Flash Video	.flv	46 4C 56 [FLV]
Mpeg 4 video file	.mp4	00 00 00 18 66 74 79 70 6D 70 34 32 [....ftypmp42]
MOV video file	.mov	6D 6F 6F 76 [....moov]
Windows Video file	.wmv	30 26 B2 75 8E 66 CF
Windows Audio file	.wma	30 26 B2 75 8E 66 CF
PKZip	.zip	50 4B 03 04 [PK]
GZip	.gz	1F 8B 08
Tar file	.tar	75 73 74 61 72
Microsoft Installer	.msi	D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1
Object Code File	.obj	4C 01
Dynamic Library	.dll	4D 5A [MZ]
CAB Installer file	.cab	4D 53 43 46 [MSCF]
Executable file	.exe	4D 5A [MZ]
RAR file	.rar	52 61 72 21 1A 07 00 [Rar!...]
SYS file	.sys	4D 5A [MZ]
Help file	.hlp	3F 5F 03 00 [?_..]
VMWare Disk file	.vmdk	4B 44 4D 56 [KDMV]
Outlook Post Office file	.pst	21 42 44 4E 42 [!BDNB]
PDF Document	.pdf	25 50 44 46 [%PDF]
Word Document	.doc	D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1
RTF Document	.rtf	7B 5C 72 74 66 31 [{ tf1]
Excel Document	.xls	D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1
PowerPoint Document	.ppt	D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1
Visio Document	.vsd	D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1
DOCX (Office 2010)	.docx	50 4B 03 04 [PK]
XLSX (Office 2010)	.xlsx	50 4B 03 04 [PK]
PPTX (Office 2010)	.pptx	50 4B 03 04 [PK]
Microsoft Database	.mdb	53 74 61 6E 64 61 72 64 20 4A 65 74
Postcript File	.ps	25 21 [%!]
Outlook Message File	.msg	D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1
EPS File	.eps	25 21 50 53 2D 41 64 6F 62 65 2D 33 2E 30 20 45 50 53 46 2D 33 20 30
Jar File	.jar	50 4B 03 04 14 00 08 00 08 00
SLN File	.sln	4D 69 63 72 6F 73 6F 66 74 20 56 69 73 75 61 6C 20 53 74 75 64 69 6F 20 53 6F 6C 75 74 69 6F 6E 20 46 69 6C 65
Zlib File	.zlib	78 9C
SDF File	.sdf	78 9C

About Magic Bytes:

1. Magic Bytes: Also known as magic numbers, these are special sequences of bytes used in computer science to identify or validate file formats.

2. They are typically located at the beginning of a file or elsewhere. By checking these specific byte sequences, a program can determine the file type without relying on the file extension.

3. The Role of Magic Bytes

(1) File Type Identification: Operating systems and applications use magic numbers to determine a file’s type.

(2) Error Detection: In some cases, magic numbers can be used to detect whether a file is corrupted or has been tampered with.

(3) Compatibility Checking: Software can use magic numbers to determine whether it supports a specific version of a file format.

4. Use Cases

(1) File Viewers: When opening a file in a file manager, the operating system reads the file’s magic number to determine which application should be used to open it.

(2) Data Recovery: During data recovery, the magic number can help identify unknown file fragments.

(3) Network Protocols: In some network protocols, the beginning of a data packet may contain a magic number so that the recipient can verify the packet type.