libmagic

A couple of years ago I released PolyFile: a utility to identify and map the semantic structure of files, including polyglots, chimeras, and schizophrenic files. It’s a bit like file, binwalk, and Kaitai Struct all rolled into one. PolyFile initially used the TRiD definition database for file identification. However, this database was both too slow and prone to misclassification, so we decided to switch to libmagic, the ubiquitous library behind the file command.

This is an excerpt from the Trail of Bits blog. You can read the full post here.