About FileSignature.org

Mission

The goal is straightforward: make file-type verification easier to trust. Each record captures magic bytes, MIME types, byte offsets, and risk levels so developers, security teams, and forensics practitioners can inspect files with something more reliable than the extension alone.

Data Sources

The database aggregates multiple sources to maximize coverage while preserving attribution.

• • Apache Tika - Enterprise-grade content detection and MIME identification.
• • Gary Kessler’s File Signatures Table - Long-running reference used across digital forensics work.
• • Wikipedia - Format descriptions, magic numbers, and specification context for major file types.
• • Neil Harvey’s format documentation - Additional forensic references and signature coverage.

Methodology

An automated pipeline fetches, normalizes, and cross-references every source. When sources disagree, the database keeps all known variants and surfaces the most authoritative primary signature for the main page experience.

Hex signatures are normalized to uppercase, space-separated bytes, for example 25 50 44 46, and generated code snippets are derived from the primary signature.