strindex

A command line utility program (with GUI support) that allows you to easily extract, list and patch (replace) the strings embedded in a few filetypes.

It's useful to change the text of a program without having to recompile it; for example, to translate it into another language.

A string can be referenced not only by its pointer / offset, but also by the original string itself to ensure compatibility with different versions of the same program.

It features various built-in features to help with translation, such as spellchecking & filtering strings by length and character set.

Supported filetypes

Support for more filetypes is not planned.

• PE files (".exe", ".dll"...) (direct pointers only!)
• Gamemaker data files ("data.win")
• Every filetype, if using force mode*...

*Force mode doesn't allow the replaced strings to be bigger in length than the original strings.

Installation

You can install the program with the command pip install strindex.

Alternatively, the releases tab includes a precompiled version of the program, which by default opens in gui mode (unless executed with arguments). Warning: the precompiled version has a high chance of being detected as a false positive by antivirus software. You can compile the program yourself to avoid this.

Usage

You can run the program with the command strindex <action> <input file(s)> [arguments].

strindex -h will show the available arguments.

These are the available actions:

• create: Create a list of strings (a strindex) extracted from a file. Use -f to enable "force" mode, and replace strings at the same offset they were found. Use -c to create a strindex that uses the original strings as references, instead of pointers.
• patch: Patch a file with a strindex. Strindex files compressed with gzip are also supported for all actions.
• unpatch: Unpatch a file that was patched with a strindex, using the backup file.
• infer: List the most common bytes that can prefix or suffix a pointer in a file, as well as the most suitable range to use.
• update Update a strindex file pointers' with the updated version of a file.
• filter: Filter a strindex by detected language, wordlist or length. You can specify those in the strindex settings.
• delta: Create a delta file between two strindex files, that only contains the lines of the first strindex missing in the second one (their difference).
• spellcheck: Spellcheck a strindex. You can specify the target language in the strindex settings as an ISO 639-1 code.
• gui: Open Strindex in GUI mode.

Usage Examples

• Open strindex in GUI mode:

  strindex gui
  

• Create a strindex from a PE file, considering only pointers prefixed by the bytes "24c7442404" or "ec04c70424".

  strindex create program.exe -p "24c7442404" -p "ec04c70424"
  

• Create a strindex from a PE file, considering only strings that are present between offsets 0x018bc5ec and 0x01a09fb1.

  strindex create program.exe -m 3 -r "018bc5ec:01a09fb1"
  

• Patch a PE file with a strindex:

  strindex patch program.exe strindex.txt
  

Strindex Example

You can find an example of a strindex file and an explanation of its settings here.