GCK'S FILE SIGNATURES TABLE

This table of file signatures (aka "magic numbers") is a continuing work-in-progress. I had found little information on this in a single place, with the exception of the table in Forensic Computing: A Practitioner's Guide by T. Sammes & B. Jenkinson (Springer, 2000); that was my inspiration to start this list in 2002. See also Wikipedia's List of file signatures. Comments, additions, and queries can be sent to Gary Kessler at gck@garykessler.net.

This list is not exhaustive although I add new files as I find them or someone contributes signatures. Interpret the table as a one-way function: the magic number generally indicates the file type whereas the file type does not always have the given magic number. If you want to know to what a particular file extension refers, check out File Extension Seeker: Metasearch engine for file extensions.

Some other useful information:

If you are using a Linux/MacOS/Unix system, you can use the file command to determine the file type based upon the file signature, per the system's magic file.

And, one last and final item — if you are searching for network traffic in raw binary files (e.g., RAM or unallocated space), see Hints About Looking for Network Packet Fragments.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & COPYRIGHT NOTICE


Hex Signature                ASCII Signature
File Extension              File Description

TGA   Truevision Targa Graphic file
Trailer:
54 52 55 45 56 49 53 49   TRUEVISI
4F 4E 2D 58 46 49 4C 45   ON-XFILE
2E 00                     ..

00   .
PIC   IBM Storyboard bitmap file
MOV   Apple QuickTime movie file
PIF   Windows Program Information File
SEA   Mac Stuffit Self-Extracting Archive
YTR   IRIS OCR data file

00 00 00   ...
AVIF   Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) Video 1 (AV1) Image File

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
  ........
........
XXX   Compucon/Singer embroidery design file

[11 byte offset]
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
  [11 byte offset]
........
........
........
PDB   Palmpilot Database/Document File

[512 (0x200) byte offset]
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
  [512 (0x200) byte offset]
........
RVT   Revit Project File subheader

00 00 00 00 14 00 00 00   ........
TBI   Windows Disk Image file

[4 byte offset]
66 74 79 70 68 65 69 63
  [4 byte offset]
ftypheic
HEIC   High Efficiency Image Container (HEIC), holding one or more High Efficiency Image File (HEIF)
— aka H.265 — images, created using the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) algorithm.
Developed by the Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) and adopted by Apple as the standard image
file format in 2017.

[8 byte offset]
00 00 00 00 62 31 05 00
09 00 00 00 00 20 00 00
00 09 00 00 00 00 00 00
  [8 byte offset]
....b1..
..... ..
........
DAT   Bitcoin Core wallet.dat file

00 00 00 0C 6A 50 20 20
0D 0A
  ....jP
..
JP2   Various JPEG-2000 image file formats

00 00 01 00   ....
ICO   Windows icon file
SPL   Windows NT/2000/XP printer spool file

00 00 01 Bx   ....
MPEG, MPG   MPEG video file
Trailer:
00 00 01 B7 (...·)

00 00 01 BA   ....º
MPG, VOB   DVD Video Movie File (video/dvd, video/mpeg) or DVD MPEG2
Trailer:
00 00 01 B9 (...¹)

00 00 02 00   ......
CUR   Windows cursor file
WB2   QuattroPro for Windows Spreadsheet file

00 00 02 00 06 04 06 00
08 00 00 00 00 00
  ........
......
WK1   Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet (v1) file

00 00 03 F3   ...ó
n/a   Amiga Hunk executable file

00 00 1A 00 00 10 04 00
00 00 00 00
  ........
....
WK3   Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet (v3) file

00 00 1A 00 02 10 04 00
00 00 00 00
  ........
....
WK4, WK5   Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet (v4, v5) file

00 00 1A 00 05 10 04   .......
123   Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet (v9) file

00 00 49 49 58 50 52 or   ..IIXPR
00 00 4D 4D 58 50 52   ..MMXPR
QXD   Quark Express document (Intel & Motorola, respectively)
NOTE: It appears that the byte following the 0x52 ("R") is
the language indicator; 0x33 ("3") seems to indicate English
and 0x61 ("a") reportedly indicates Korean.

00 00 FE FF   ..þÿ
n/a   Byte-order mark for 32-bit Unicode Transformation Format/
4-octet Universal Character Set (UTF-32/UCS-4), big-endian files.
(See the Unicode Home Page.)

[6 byte offset]
00 00 FF FF FF FF
  [6 byte offset]
..ÿÿÿÿ
HLP   Windows Help file

00 01 00 00 00   .....
TTF   TrueType font file

00 01 00 00 4D 53 49 53
41 4D 20 44 61 74 61 62
61 73 65
  ....MSIS
AM Datab
ase
MNY   Microsoft Money file

00 01 00 00 53 74 61 6E
64 61 72 64 20 41 43 45
20 44 42
  ....Stan
dard ACE
 DB
ACCDB   Microsoft Access 2007 file

00 01 00 00 53 74 61 6E
64 61 72 64 20 4A 65 74
20 44 42
  ....Stan
dard Jet
 DB
MDB   Microsoft Access file

00 01 00 08 00 01 00 01
01
  ........
.
IMG   Ventura Publisher/GEM VDI Image Format Bitmap file

00 01 01   ...
FLT   OpenFlight 3D file

00 01 42 41   ..BA
ABA   Palm Address Book Archive file

00 01 42 44   ..BD
DBA   Palm DateBook Archive file

00 06 15 61 00 00 00 02
00 00 04 D2 00 00 10 00
  ...a....
...Ò....
DB   Netscape Navigator (v4) database file

00 0D BB A0   ..» 
n/a   Mbox table of contents file. (NOTE: The next four bytes
appear to be the number of e-mails in the associated mbox file.)

00 11 AF   ..¯
FLI   FLIC Animation file

00 14 00 00 01 02 xx xx
03
  ........
.
n/a   BIOS details in RAM images

00 1E 84 90 00 00 00 00   ..„.....
SNM   Netscape Communicator (v4) mail folder

00 20 AF 30   . ¯0
TPL   Wii images container

00 3B 05 00 01 00 00 00   .;......
DB   Paessler PRTG Monitoring System database file

00 5C 41 B1 FF   .\A±ÿ
ENC   Mujahideen Secrets 2 encrypted file

[512 (0x200) byte offset]
00 6E 1E F0
  [512 (0x200) byte offset]
.n.ð
PPT   PowerPoint presentation subheader (MS Office)

00 BF   .¿
SOL   Adobe Flash shared object file (e.g., Flash cookies)

00 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
FF FF FF 00 00 02 00 01
  .ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
ÿÿÿ.....
MDF   Alcohol 120% CD image

01 00 00 00   ....
EMF   Extended (Enhanced) Windows Metafile Format, printer spool file
(0x18-17 & 0xC4-36 is Win2K/NT; 0x5C0-1 is WinXP)

01 00 00 00 01   .....
PIC   Unknown type picture file

01 00 09 00 00 03   ......
WMF   Windows Metadata file (Win 3.x format)

01 00 02 00   ....
ARF   Webex Advanced Recording Format files.

01 00 39 30   ..90
FDB, GDB   Firebird and Interbase database files, respectively. See
IBPhoenix for more information.

01 01 47 19 A4 00 00 00
00 00 00 00
  ..G.#xA4...
....
TBI   The Bat! secure e-mail Message Base Index file

01 0F 00 00   ....
MDF   Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database

01 10   ..
TR1   Novell LANalyzer capture file

01 C0 0C   .À.
HED   HighEdit document

01 DA 01 01 00 03   .Ú....
RGB   Silicon Graphics RGB Bitmap

01 FF 02 04 03 02   .ÿ....
DRW   Micrografx vector graphic file

02 64 73 73   .dss
DSS   Digital Speech Standard (Olympus, Grundig, & Phillips), v2

03   .
DAT   MapInfo Native Data Format
DB3   dBASE III file

03 00 00 00   ....
NFC   Nokia PC Suite Content Copier file
QPH   Quicken price history file

03 00 00 00 41 50 50 52   ....APPR
ADX   Approach index file

03 64 73 73   .dss
DSS   Digital Speech Standard, v3

04   .
DB4   dBASE IV data file

04 00 00 00 xx xx xx xx
xx xx xx xx 20 03 00 00
or
  ........
.... ...
05 00 00 00 xx xx xx xx
xx xx xx xx 20 03 00 00
  ........
.... ...
n/a   INFO2 Windows recycle bin file. NOTE: Bytes 12-13
indicate the size of each INFO2 record; the most common
value is 0x20-03 (0x0320 = 800 bytes).

06 06 ED F5 D8 1D 46 E5
BD 31 EF E7 FE 74 B7 1D
  ..íõØ.Få
½1ïçþt·.
INDD   Adobe InDesign document

06 0E 2B 34 02 05 01 01
0D 01 02 01 01 02
  ..+4....
......
MXF   Material Exchange Format file

07   .
DRW   A common signature and file extension for many drawing
programs.

07 53 4B 46   .SKF
SKF   SkinCrafter skin file

07 64 74 32 64 64 74 64   .dt2ddtd
DTD   DesignTools 2D Design file

08   .
DB   dBASE IV or dBFast configuration file

08 00 45   ..E
n/a   Possibly, maybe, might be a fragment of an Ethernet frame carrying
an IPv4 packet. See Hints About Looking for Network Packet Fragments.

[512 (0x200) byte offset]
09 08 10 00 00 06 05 00
  [512 (0x200) byte offset]
........
XLS   Excel spreadsheet subheader (MS Office)

0A nn 01   ...
PCX   ZSOFT Paintbrush file
(where Version (nn) = 0x00, 0x02, 0x03, 0x04, or 0x05)

0A 16 6F 72 67 2E 62 69
74 63 6F 69 6E 2E 70 72
  ..org.bi
tcoin.pr
WALLET   MultiBit Bitcoin wallet file

0C ED  
MP   Monochrome Picture TIFF bitmap file (unconfirmed)

0D 44 4F 43   .DOC
DOC   DeskMate Document file

0E 4E 65 72 6F 49 53 4F   .NeroISO
NRI   Nero CD Compilation

0E 57 4B 53   .WKS
WKS   DeskMate Worksheet

[512 (0x200) byte offset]
0F 00 E8 03
  [512 (0x200) byte offset]
..è.
PPT   PowerPoint presentation subheader (MS Office)

0F 53 49 42 45 4C 49 55
53
  .SIBELIU
S
SIB   Sibelius Music - Score file

10 00 00 00   ....
CL5   Easy CD Creator 5 Layout file

1A 00 00   ...
NTF   Lotus Notes database template

1A 00 00 04 00 00   ......
NSF   Lotus Notes database

1A 0x   ..
ARC   LH archive file, old version
(where x = 0x2, 0x3, 0x4, 0x8 or 0x9
for types 1-5, respectively)

1A 0B   ..
PAK   Compressed archive file
(often associated with Quake Engine games)

1A 35 01 00   .5..
ETH   GN Nettest WinPharoah capture file

1A 45 DF A3   .Eߣ
MKV   Matroska stream file
WEBM   WebM video file

1A 52 54 53 20 43 4F 4D
50 52 45 53 53 45 44 20
49 4D 41 47 45 20 56 31
2E 30 1A
  .RTS COM
PRESSED
IMAGE V1
.0.
DAT   Runtime Software compressed disk image

1D 7D   .}
WS   WordStar Version 5.0/6.0 document

1F 8B 08   .‹.
GZ, TGZ   GZIP archive file
VLT   VLC Player Skin file

1F 8B 08 00   .‹..
DSS   Synology router configuration backup file

1F 9D   ..
TAR.Z   Compressed tape archive file using standard (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) compression

1F A0  
TAR.Z   Compressed tape archive file using LZH (Lempel-Ziv-Huffman) compression

21   !
BSB   Pitney Bowes' MapInfo Sea Chart format

21 0D 0A 43 52 52 2F 54
68 69 73 20 65 6C 65 63
74 72 6F 6E 69 63 20 63
68 61 72 74 20 77 61 73
20 70 72 6F 64 75 63 65
64 20 75 6E 64 65 72 20
74 68 65 20 61 75 74 68
6F 72 69 74 79 20 6F 66
20 55 53 41 2D 4E 4F 41
41 2F 4E 4F 53 2E 0D 0A
  !..CRR/T
his elec
tronic c
hart was
 produce
d under
the auth
ority of
 USA-NOA
A/NOS...
BSB   NOAA Raster Navigation Chart (RNC®) file (https://charts.noaa.gov/RNCs/RNCs.shtml).
See also the BSB/KAP File Format specification

21 12   !.
AIN   AIN Compressed Archive

21 3C 61 72 63 68 3E 0A   !<arch>.
LIB   Unix archiver (ar) files and Microsoft Program Library
Common Object File Format (COFF)

21 42 44 4E   !BDN
    Microsoft Outlook Personal Folder Files (PFF):
OST   Microsoft Outlook Offline Storage Folder File
PAB   Microsoft Outlook Personal Address Book File
PST   Microsoft Outlook Personal Folder File

23 20   #
MSI   Cerius2 file

23 20 44 69 73 6B 20 44
65 73 63 72 69 70 74 6F
  # Disk D
escripto
VMDK   VMware 4 Virtual Disk description file (split disk)

23 20 4D 69 63 72 6F 73
6F 66 74 20 44 65 76 65
6C 6F 70 65 72 20 53 74
75 64 69 6F
  # Micros
oft Deve
loper St
udio
DSP   Microsoft Developer Studio project file

23 20 54 68 69 73 20 69
73 20 61 6E 20 4B 65 79
  # This i
s an Key
ETA   Google Earth Keyhole Placemark file

23 21 41 4D 52   #!AMR
AMR   Adaptive Multi-Rate ACELP (Algebraic Code Excited Linear Prediction)
Codec, commonly audio format with GSM cell phones. (See RFC 4867.)

23 21 53 49 4C 4B 0A   #!SILK.
SIL   Audio compression format developed by Skype; also used by other applications.

23 3F 52 41 44 49 41 4E
43 45 0A
  #?RADIAN
CE.
HDR   Radiance High Dynamic Range image file

23 40 7E 5E   #@~^
VBE   VBScript Encoded script

23 4E 42 46   #NBF
NBF   NVIDIA Scene Graph binary file

23 50 45 43 30 30 30 31
4C 41 3A
  #PEC0001
LA:
PEC   Brother/Babylock/Bernina Home Embroidery file

23 50 45 53 30   #PES0
PES   Brother/Babylock/Bernina Home Embroidery file

24 46 4C 32 40 28 23 29
20 53 50 53 53 20 44 41
54 41 20 46 49 4C 45
  $FL2@(#)
 SPSS DA
TA FILE
SAV   SPSS Statistics (née Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, then
Statistical Product and Service Solutions) data file

25 21 50 53 2D 41 64 6F
62 65 2D
  %!PS-Ado
be-
PS   PostScript file

25 21 50 53 2D 41 64 6F
62 65 2D 33 2E 30 20 45
50 53 46 2D 33 20 30
  %!PS-Ado
be-3.0 E
PSF-3.0
EPS   Adobe encapsulated PostScript file
(If this signature is not at the immediate
beginning of the file, it will occur early
in the file, commonly at byte offset 30 [0x1E])

25 50 44 46   %PDF
PDF, FDF, AI   Adobe Portable Document Format, Forms Document Format, and Illustrator graphics files
Trailers:
0A 25 25 45 4F 46 (.%%EOF)
0A 25 25 45 4F 46 0A (.%%EOF.)
0D 0A 25 25 45 4F 46 0D 0A (..%%EOF..)
0D 25 25 45 4F 46 0D (.%%EOF.)
NOTE: There may be multiple end-of-file marks within the
file. When carving, be sure to get the last one.

25 62 69 74 6D 61 70   %bitmap
FBM   Fuzzy bitmap (FBM) file

28 54 68 69 73 20 66 69
6C 65 20 6D 75 73 74 20
62 65 20 63 6F 6E 76 65
72 74 65 64 20 77 69 74
68 20 42 69 6E 48 65 78
20
  (This fi
le must
be conve
rted wit
h BinHex
 
HQX   Macintosh BinHex 4 Compressed Archive

2A 2A 2A 20 20 49 6E 73
74 61 6C 6C 61 74 69 6F
6E 20 53 74 61 72 74 65
64 20
  ***  Ins
tallatio
n Starte
d
LOG   Symantec Wise Installer log file

[2 byte offset]
2D 6C 68
  [2 byte offset]
-lh
LHA, LZH   Compressed archive file

2E 52 45 43   .REC
IVR   RealPlayer video file (V11 and later)

2E 52 4D 46   .RMF
RM, RMVB   RealMedia streaming media file

2E 52 4D 46 00 00 00 12
00
  .RMF....
.
RA   RealAudio file

2E 72 61 FD 00   .raý.
RA   RealAudio streaming media file

2E 73 6E 64   .snd
AU   NeXT/Sun Microsystems µ-Law audio file

2F 2F 20 3C 21 2D 2D 20
3C 6D 64 62 3A 6D 6F 72
6B 3A 7A
  // <!--
<mdb:mor
k:z
MSF   Thunderbird|Mozilla Mail Summary File

30   0
CAT   Microsoft security catalog file

30 00 00 00 4C 66 4C 65   0...LfLe
EVT   Windows Event Viewer file

30 20 48 45 41 44   0 HEAD
GED   GEnealogical Data COMmunication (GEDCOM) file

30 26 B2 75 8E 66 CF 11
A6 D9 00 AA 00 62 CE 6C
  0&²u.fÏ.
¦Ù.ª.bÎl
ASF, WMA, WMV   Microsoft Windows Media Audio/Video File
(Advanced Systems Format)

30 31 4F 52 44 4E 41 4E
43 45 20 53 55 52 56 45
59 20 20 20 20 20 20 20
  01ORDNAN
CE SURVE
Y       
NTF   National Transfer Format Map File

30 37 30 37 30 nn   07070.
n/a   Archive created with the cpio utility (where nn
values 0x37 ("7"), 0x31 ("1"), and 0x32 ("2") refer to the
standard ASCII format, new ASCII (aka SVR4) format, and CRC
format, respectively. (The swpackage(8) page has additional
information.) (Thanks to F. Webber for this....)

31 BE or  
32 BE  
WRI   Microsoft Write file

32 03 10 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 80 00 00 00 FF 00
  2.......
......ÿ.
PCS   Pfaff Home Embroidery file

34 CD B2 A1   4Ͳ¡
n/a   Extended tcpdump (libpcap) capture file (Linux/Unix)

37 7A BC AF 27 1C   7z¼¯'.
7Z   7-Zip compressed file

37 E4 53 96 C9 DB D6 07   7äS–ÛÖ.
n/a   zisofs compression format, recognized by some Linux kernels. See the
zisofs: format specification page.

38 42 50 53   8BPS
PSD   Photoshop image file

3A 56 45 52 53 49 4F 4E   :VERSION
SLE   Surfplan kite project file

3C   <
ASX   Advanced Stream redirector file
XDR   BizTalk XML-Data Reduced Schema file
WSF   Windows Script Component

3C 21 64 6F 63 74 79 70   <!doctyp
DCI   AOL HTML mail file

3C 3F   <?
WSC   Windows Script Component

3C 3F 78 6D 6C 20 76 65
72 73 69 6F 6E 3D
  <?xml ve
rsion=
MANIFEST   Windows Visual Stylesheet XML file

3C 3F 78 6D 6C 20 76 65
72 73 69 6F 6E 3D 22 31
2E 30 22 3F 3E
  <?xml ve
rsion="1
.0"?>
XUL   XML User Interface Language file

3C 3F 78 6D 6C 20 76 65
72 73 69 6F 6E 3D 22 31
2E 30 22 3F 3E 0D 0A 3C
4D 4D 43 5F 43 6F 6E 73
6F 6C 65 46 69 6C 65 20
43 6F 6E 73 6F 6C 65 56
65 72 73 69 6F 6E 3D 22
  <?xml ve
rsion="1
.0"?>..<
MMC_Cons
oleFile
ConsoleV
ersion="
MSC   Microsoft Management Console Snap-in Control file

3C 43 54 72 61 6E 73 54
69 6D 65 6C 69 6E 65 3E
  <CTransT
imeline>
MXF   Picasa movie project file

3C 43 73 6F 75 6E 64 53
79 6E 74 68 65 73 69 7A
  <CsoundS
ynthesiz
CSD   Csound music file

3C 4B 65 79 68 6F 6C 65 3E   <Keyhole>
ETA   Google Earth Keyhole Overlay file

3C 4D 61 6B 65 72 46 69
6C 65 20
  <MakerFi
le
FM, MIF   Adobe FrameMaker file

3C 67 70 78 20 76 65 72
73 69 6F 6E 3D 22 31 2E
31
  <gpx ver
sion="1.
1
GPX   GPS eXchange file (v1.1 schema)

[58 byte offset]
3C 6B 39 73 65 74 74 69
6E 67 73
  [58 byte offset]
<k9setti
ngs
K9S   K-9 Mail settings file (Android e-mail app)

3C 7E 36 3C 5C 25 5F 30
67 53 71 68 3B
  <~6<\%_0
gSqh;
B85   ASCII85 (aka BASE85) encoded file, sometimes used with PostScript and PDF.
Trailer: 7E 3E 0A (~>.)

[24 (0x18) byte offset]
3E 00 03 00 FE FF 09 00
06
  [24 (0x18) byte offset]
>...þÿ..
.
WB3   Quatro Pro for Windows 7.0 Notebook file

3F 5F 03 00   ?_..
GID   Windows Help index file
HLP   Windows Help file

[32 (0x20) byte offset]
40 40 40 20 00 00 40 40
40 40
  [32 (0x20) byte offset]
@@@ ..@@
@@
ENL   EndNote Library File

41 42 6F 78   ABox
ABOX2   Analog Box circuit files

41 43   AC
DWG   Generic AutoCAD drawing file

NOTES on AutoCAD file headers: The 0x41-43 (AC) is a generic header, occupying the first
two bytes in the file. The next three or four bytes give further indication about the version
(see also DWG file specifications released by OpenDesign):

  • 0x31-2E-32 (1.2) — AutoCAD v1.2 (Release 2)
  • 0x31-2E-33 (1.3) — AutoCAD v1.3 (Release 3)
  • 0x31-2E-34-30 (1.40) — AutoCAD v1.40 (Release 4)
  • 0x31-2E-35-30 (1.50) — AutoCAD v2.05 (Release 5)
  • 0x32-2E-31-30 (2.10) — AutoCAD v2.10 (Release 6)
  • 0x31-30-30-32 (1002) — AutoCAD v2.5 (Release 7)
  • 0x31-30-30-33 (1003) — AutoCAD v2.6 (Release 8)
  • 0x31-30-30-34 (1004) — AutoCAD v9.0 (Release 9)
  • 0x31-30-30-36 (1006) — AutoCAD v10.0 (Release 10)
  • 0x31-30-30-39 (1009) — AutoCAD v11.0 (Release 11)/v12.0 (Release 12)
  • 0x31-30-31-32 (1012) — AutoCAD v13.0 (Release 13)
  • 0x31-30-31-34 (1014) — AutoCAD v14.0 (Release 14)
  • 0x31-30-31-35 (1015) — AutoCAD 2000 (v15.0)/2000i (v15.1)/2002 (v15.2) -- (Releases 15-17)
  • 0x31-30-31-38 (1018) — AutoCAD 2004 (v16.0)/2005 (v16.1)/2006 (v16.2) -- (Releases 18-20)
  • 0x31-30-32-31 (1021) — AutoCAD 2007 (v17.0)/2008 (v17.1)/2009 (v17.2) -- (Releases 21-23)
  • 0x31-30-32-34 (1024) — AutoCAD 2010 (v18.0)/2011 (v18.1)/2012 (v18.2) -- (Releases 24-26)
  • 0x31-30-32-37 (1027) — AutoCAD 2013 (v19.0)/2014 (v19.1)/2015 (v20.0)/2016 (v20.1)/2017 (v20.2) -- (Releases 27-31)
  • 0x31-30-33-32 (1032) — AutoCAD 2018 (v22.0) (Release 32)
41 43 76   ACL
SLE   Steganos Security Suite virtual secure drive

41 43 53 44   ACSD
n/a   Miscellaneous AOL parameter and information files

41 45 53   AES
AES   AES Crypt file format. (The fourth byte is the version number, 0-2.)

41 4D 59 4F   AMYO
SYW   Harvard Graphics symbol graphic

41 4F 4C 20 46 65 65 64
62 61 67
  AOL Feed
bag
BAG   AOL and AIM buddy list file

41 4F 4C 44 42   AOLDB
ABY, IDX   AOL database files: address book (ABY) and user configuration
data (MAIN.IDX)

41 4F 4C 49 44 58   AOLIDX
IND   AOL client preferences/settings file (MAIN.IND)

41 4F 4C 49 4E 44 45 58   AOLINDEX
ABI   AOL address book index file

41 4F 4C 56 4D 31 30 30   AOLVM100
ORG, PFC   AOL personal file cabinet (PFC) file
NOTE: See PFC-Details.zip for PFC file format information.

41 56 47 36 5F 49 6E 74
65 67 72 69 74 79 5F 44
61 74 61 62 61 73 65
  AVG6_Int
egrity_D
atabase
DAT   AVG6 Integrity database file

41 72 43 01   ArC.
ARC   FreeArc compressed file

42 41 41 44   BAAD
n/a   NTFS Master File Table (MFT) entry (1,024 bytes)

42 44 69 63   BDic
BDIC   Google Chrome dictionary file

42 45 47 49 4E 3A 56 43
41 52 44 0D 0A
  BEGIN:VC
ARD..
VCF   vCard file

42 4C 49 32 32 33   BLI223
BLI, RBI   Thomson Speedtouch series WLAN router firmware

NOTES on BLI/RBI file headers: The signature above is correct for the generic first six bytes.
Reportedly, the 7th & 8th bytes vary by version, and the 9th byte is always 0x30.

  • v6.0.7.1 (.bli) — 0x42-4C-49-32-32-33-51-4B-30 (BLI223QK0)
  • v7.4.1.7 (.bli) — 0x42-4C-49-32-32-33-51-48-30 (BLI223QH0)
  • v8.2.2.5 (.bli) — 0x42-4C-49-32-32-33-55-46-30 (BLI223UF0)
  • v8.4.3 (.bli/.rbi) — 0x42-4C-49-32-32-33-57-31-30 (BLI223W10)
42 4D   BM
BMP, DIB   Windows (or device-independent) bitmap image
NOTE: Bytes 2-5 contain the file length in little-endian order.

42 4F 4F 4B 4D 4F 42 49   BOOKMOBI
PRC   Palmpilot resource file

42 50 47 FB   BPG#xFB;
BPG   Better Portable Graphics image format

42 5A 68   BZh
BZ2, TAR.BZ2, TBZ2, TB2   bzip2 compressed archive
DMG   Mac Disk image (BZ2 compressed)

42 65 67 69 6E 20 50 75
66 66 65 72 20 44 61 74
61 0D 0A
  Begin Pu
ffer Dat
a..
APUF   Puffer ASCII-armored encrypted archive

42 6C 69 6E 6B 20 62 79
20 44 2E 54 2E 53
  Blink by
D.T.S
BLI   BLINK compressed archive

43 23 2B 44 A4 43 4D A5
48 64 72
  C#+D¤CM¥
Hdr
RTD   RagTime document file

43 41 54 20   CAT
IFF   Electronic Arts' Interchange Format Files (IFF) format.

43 42 46 49 4C 45   CBFILE
CBD   WordPerfect dictionary file (unconfirmed)

43 44 30 30 31   CD001
ISO   ISO-9660 CD Disc Image
This signature usually occurs at byte offset 32769 (0x8001),
34817 (0x8801), or 36865 (0x9001).
More information can be found at MacTech or at ECMA.

43 49 53 4F   CISO
CSO   Compressed ISO (CISO) CD image

43 4D 4D 4D 15 00 00 00   CMMM....
DB   Windows 7 thumbcache_sr.db or other thumbcache file
(except thumbcache_idx.db)

43 4D 58 31   CMX1
CLB   Corel Binary metafile

43 4F 4D 2B   COM+
CLB   COM+ Catalog file

43 4F 57 44   COWD
VMDK   VMware 3 Virtual Disk (portion of a split disk) file

43 50 54 37 46 49 4C 45   CPT7FILE
CPT   Corel Photopaint file

43 50 54 46 49 4C 45   CPTFILE
CPT   Corel Photopaint file

43 52 45 47   CREG
DAT   Windows 9x registry hive

43 52 55 53 48 20 76   CRUSH v
CRU   Crush compressed archive

43 57 53   CWS
SWF   Macromedia Shockwave Flash player file (zlib compressed, SWF 6 and later).
See SWF File Format Specification.

43 61 6C 63 75 6C 75 78
20 49 6E 64 6F 6F 72 20
  Calculux
Indoor
CIN   Calculux Indoor lighting design software project file

43 61 74 61 6C 6F 67 20
33 2E 30 30 00
  Catalog
3.00.
CTF   WhereIsIt Catalog file

43 6C 69 65 6E 74 20 55
72 6C 43 61 63 68 65 20
4D 4D 46 20 56 65 72 20
  Client U
rlCache
MMF Ver
DAT   Microsoft Internet Explorer cache file (index.dat) file

43 72 32 34   Cr24
CRX   Google Chrome Extension

43 72 4F 44   CrOD
CRX   Google Chromium patch update

43 72 65 61 74 69 76 65
20 56 6F 69 63 65 20 46
  Creative
Voice F
VOC   Creative Voice audio file

44 41 41 00 00 00 00 00   DAA.....
DAA   PowerISO Direct-Access-Archive image

44 41 58 00   DAX.
DAX   DAX Compressed CD image

44 42 46 48   DBFH
DB   Palm Zire photo database

44 4D 53 21   DMS!
DMS   Amiga DiskMasher compressed archive

44 4F 53   DOS
ADF   Amiga disk file

44 53 44 20   DSD
DSF   DSD Storage Facility audio file

44 53 54 62   DSTb
DST   DST compressed file

44 56 44   DVD
DVR   DVR-Studio stream file
IFO   DVD info file

45 4C 49 54 45 20 43 6F
6D 6D 61 6E 64 65 72 20
  ELITE Co
mmander
CDR   Elite Plus Commander saved game file

45 4E 54 52 59 56 43 44
02 00 00 01 02 00 18 58
  ENTRYVCD
.......X
VCD   VideoVCD (GNU VCDImager) file

45 52 02 00 00   CD...
ISO   Apple ISO 9660/HFS hybrid CD image

45 52 46 53 53 41 56 45
44 41 54 41 46 49 4C 45
  ERFSSAVE
DATAFILE
DAT   Kroll EasyRecovery Saved Recovery State file

45 50   EP
MDI   Microsoft Document Imaging file

45 56 46 09 0D 0A FF 00   EVF...ÿ.
Enn, Snn   Expert Witness Compression Format (EWF) file, including EWF-E01
and EWF-S01, as used in EnCase and SMART evidence files. Byte
offset 9 (i.e., byte #10) contains the segment number, starting with 0x01.
nn are the segment sequence number, taking on values 00..99, AA, AB...AZ, BA, BB...BZ, etc.
See the EWF specification.

45 56 46 32 0D 0A 81   EVF2...
Exnn   EnCase® Evidence File Format Version 2.
nn are the segment sequence number, taking on values 00..99, AA, AB...AZ, BA, BB...BZ, etc.
See the EWF 2 specification.

45 6C 66 46 69 6C 65 00   ElfFile.
EVTX   Windows Vista event log file

45 86 00 00 06 00   E†....
QBB   Intuit QuickBooks backup file

46 41 58 43 4F 56 45 52
2D 56 45 52
  FAXCOVER
-VER
CPE   Microsoft Fax Cover Sheet

46 44 42 48 00   FDBH.
FDB   Fiasco database definition file

46 45 44 46   FEDF
SBV   (Unknown file type)

46 49 4C 45   FILE
n/a   NTFS Master File Table (MFT) entry (1,024 bytes)

46 4C 56 01   FLV.
FLV   Flash video file

46 4F 52 4D   FORM
ANM   IFF ANIM (Amiga delta/RLE encoded bitmap animation) file
IFF   Electronic Arts' Interchange Format Files (IFF) format.

46 4F 52 4D 00   FORM.
AIFF   Audio Interchange File
DAX   DAKX Compressed Audio

46 57 53   FWS
SWF   Macromedia Shockwave Flash player file (uncompressed). See
See SWF File Format Specification.

46 72 6F 6D 20 20 20 or   From
46 72 6F 6D 20 3F 3F 3F or   From ???
46 72 6F 6D 3A 20   From:
EML   A commmon file extension for e-mail files. Signatures shown here
are for Netscape, Eudora, and a generic signature, respectively.
EML is also used by Outlook Express and QuickMail.

47   G
TS, TSA, TSV   MPEG transport stream file. (This is not a lot to go on, but MPEG-2 Part 1
Transport (MP2T) files are reportedly broken into 188-byte packets and the
0x47 byte is the sync byte, so should repeat every 188 bytes in the file.)

47 46 31 50 41 54 43 48   GF1PATCH
PAT   Advanced Gravis Ultrasound patch file

47 49 46 38 37 61 or   GIF87a
47 49 46 38 39 61   GIF89a
GIF   Graphics interchange format file
Trailer: 00 3B (.;)

47 50 41 54   GPAT
PAT   GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) pattern file

47 52 49 42   GRIB
GRB   GRIdded Binary or General Regularly-distributed Information in Binary file, commonly used in
meteorology to store historical and forecast weather data

47 58 32   GX2
GX2   Show Partner graphics file (not confirmed)

47 65 6E 65 74 65 63 20
4F 6D 6E 69 63 61 73 74
  Genetec
Omnicast
G64   Genetec video archive

48 44 52 2A 50 6F 77 65
72 42 75 69 6C 64 65 72
  HDR*Powe
rBuilder
PBD   SAP PowerBuilder integrated development environment file

48 45 41 44 45 52 20 52
45 43 4F 52 44 2A 2A 2A
  HEADER R
ECORD***
XPT   SAS Transport dataset file format

48 48 47 42 31   HHGB1
SH3   Harvard Graphics presentation file

49 20 49   I I
TIF, TIFF   Tagged Image File Format file

49 44 33   ID3
MP3   MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 (MP3) audio file

49 44 33 03 00 00 00   ID3....
KOZ   Sprint Music Store audio file (for mobile devices)

49 49 1A 00 00 00 48 45
41 50 43 43 44 52 02 00
  II....HE
APCCDR..
CRW   Canon digital camera RAW file

49 49 2A 00   II*.
TIF, TIFF   Tagged Image File Format file (little
endian, i.e., LSB first in the byte; Intel)

49 49 2A 00 10 00 00 00
43 52
  II*.....
CR
CR2   Canon digital camera RAW file

49 4D 4D 4D 15 00 00 00   IMMM....
DB   Windows 7 thumbcache_idx.db file

49 53 63 28   ISc(
CAB, HDR   Install Shield v5.x or 6.x compressed file

49 54 4F 4C 49 54 4C 53   ITOLITLS
LIT   Microsoft Reader eBook file

49 54 53 46   ITSF
CHI, CHM   Microsoft Compiled HTML Help File

49 6E 6E 6F 20 53 65 74
75 70 20 55 6E 69 6E 73
74 61 6C 6C 20 4C 6F 67
20 28 62 29
  Inno Set
up Unins
tall Log
 (b)
DAT   Inno Setup Uninstall Log file

49 6E 74 65 72 40 63 74
69 76 65 20 50 61 67 65
  Inter@ct
ive Page
IPD   Inter@ctive Pager Backup (BlackBerry) backup file

4A 41 52 43 53 00   JARCS.
JAR   JARCS compressed archive

4A 47 03 0E or   JG..
4A 47 04 0E   JG..
ART   AOL ART file
Trailers:
For 0x4A-47-03-0E: D0 CB 00 00 (ÐË..)
For 0x4A-47-04-0E: CF C7 CB (ÏÇË)

4B 44 4D   KDM
VMDK   VMware 4 Virtual Disk (portion of a split disk) file

4B 44 4D 56   KDMV
VMDK   VMware 4 Virtual Disk (monolitic disk) file

4B 47 42 5F 61 72 63 68
20 2D
  KGB_arch
 -
KGB   KGB archive

4B 49 00 00   KI..
SHD   Windows 9x printer spool file

4B 57 41 4A 88 F0 27 D1   KWAJˆð'Ñ
n/a   KWAJ file format used by DOS COMPRESS.EXE and EXPAND.EXE commands.
This command compresses a single file, replacing the last character in the file name
with an underscore or dollar sign, e.g., FOO.BAZ would be renamed FOO.BA_ or
FOO.BA$. (See the SZDD/KWAJ page for more information.)

4C 00 00 00 01 14 02 00   L.......
LNK   Windows shell link (shortcut) file. See also The Meaning of Linkfiles in Forensic Examinations
and Evidentiary Value of Link Files.

4C 01   L.
OBJ   Microsoft Common Object File Format (COFF) relocatable
object code file for an Intel 386 or later/compatible processors

4C 41 3A   LA:
DST   Tajima embroidery sticj image file

4C 45 46 32 0D 0A 82 00   LEF2....
Lxnn   Logical File Evidence Format (EWF2-Lx01), used in Expert Witness Compression Format (EWF)
version 2 for Guidance Software Encase.
nn are the segment sequence number, taking on values 00..99, AA, AB...AZ, BA, BB...BZ, etc.
See the EWF2 specification.

4C 49 53 54   LIST
IFF   Electronic Arts' Interchange Format Files (IFF) format.

4C 4E 02 00   LN..
GID   Windows Help index file
HLP   Windows Help file

4C 50 46 20 00 01   LPF ..
ANM   DeluxePaint Animation file

4C 56 46 09 0D 0A FF 00   LVF...ÿ.
Lnn   Logical File Evidence Format (EWF-L01) as used in Expert Witness Compression Format (EWF)
for Guidance Software Encase. Byte offset 9 (i.e., byte #10) contains the segment number, starting with 0x01.
nn are the segment sequence number, taking on values 00..99, AA, AB...AZ, BA, BB...BZ, etc.
See the EWF specification.

4D 2D 57 20 50 6F 63 6B
65 74 20 44 69 63 74 69
  M-W Pock
et Dicti
PDB   Merriam-Webster Pocket Dictionary file

4D 41 52 31 00   MAR1.
MAR   Mozilla archive

4D 41 52 43   MARC
MAR   Microsoft/MSN MARC archive

4D 41 54 4C 41 42 20 35
2E 30 20 4D 41 54 2D 66
69 6C 65
  MATLAB 5
.0 MAT-f
ile
MAT   MATLAB v5 workspace file (includes creation timestamp)

4D 41 72 30 00   MAr0.
MAR   MAr compressed archive

4D 43 57 20 54 65 63 68
6E 6F 67 6F 6C 69 65 73
  MCW Tech
nogolies
MTE   TargetExpress target file

4D 44 4D 50 93 A7   MDMP“§
HDMP   Windows heap dump file
DMP   Windows minidump file

4D 49 4C 45 53   MILES
MLS   Milestones v1.0 project management and scheduling software
(Also see "MV2C" and "MV214" signatures)

4D 4C 53 57   MLSW
MLS   Skype localization data file

4D 4D 00 2A   MM.*
TIF, TIFF   Tagged Image File Format file (big
endian, i.e., LSB last in the byte; Motorola)

4D 4D 00 2B   MM.+
TIF, TIFF   BigTIFF files; Tagged Image File Format files >4 GB

4D 4D 4D 44 00 00   MMMD..
MMF   Yamaha Corp. Synthetic music Mobile Application Format (SMAF)
for multimedia files that can be played on hand-held devices.

4D 52 56 4E   MRVN
NVRAM   VMware BIOS (non-volatile RAM) state file

4D 53 43 46   MSCF
CAB   Microsoft cabinet file
ONEPKG   OneNote Package file
PPZ   Powerpoint Packaged Presentation
SNP   Microsoft Access Snapshot Viewer file

4D 53 46 54 02 00 01 00   MSFT....
TLB   OLE, SPSS, or Visual C++ type library file

4D 53 48 7C 5E 7E 5C 26
7C
  MSH|^~\&
|
HL7   Health Level-7 data (pipe delimited) file

4D 53 57 49 4D   MSWIM
WIM   Microsoft Windows Imaging Format file

4D 53 5F 56 4F 49 43 45   MS_VOICE
CDR, DVF   Sony Compressed Voice File
MSV   Sony Memory Stick Compressed Voice file

4D 54 68 64   MThd
MID, MIDI   Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) sound file
PCS   Yamaha Piano sound file

4D 56   MV
DSN   CD Stomper Pro label file

4D 56 32 31 34   MV214
MLS   Milestones v2.1b project management and scheduling software
(Also see "MILES" and "MV2C" signatures)

4D 56 32 43   MV2C
MLS   Milestones v2.1a project management and scheduling software
(Also see "MILES" and "MV214" signatures)

4D 5A   MZ
COM, DLL, DRV, EXE, PIF, QTS, QTX, SYS   Windows/DOS executable file
(See The MZ EXE File Format page for the structure of an EXE file,
with coverage of NE, TLINK, PE, self-extracting archives, and more.)
Note: MZ are the initals of Mark Zbikowski, designer of the DOS executable file format.
ACM   MS audio compression manager driver
AX   Library cache file
CPL   Control panel application
FON   Font file
OCX   ActiveX or OLE Custom Control
OLB   OLE object library
SCR   Screen saver
VBX   VisualBASIC application
VXD, 386   Windows virtual device drivers

4D 5A 90 00 03 00 00 00   MZ......
API   Acrobat plug-in
AX   DirectShow filter
FLT   Audition graphic filter file (Adobe)

4D 5A 90 00 03 00 00 00
04 00 00 00 FF FF
  MZ......
....ÿÿ
ZAP   ZoneAlam data file

4D 69 63 72 6F 73 6F 66
74 20 43 2F 43 2B 2B 20
  Microsof
t C/C++
PDB   Microsoft C++ debugging symbols file

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
  Microsof
t Visual
 Studio
Solution
 File
SLN   Visual Studio .NET Solution file

[84 (0x54) byte offset]
4D 69 63 72 6F 73 6F 66
74 20 57 69 6E 64 6F 77
73 20 4D 65 64 69 61 20
50 6C 61 79 65 72 20 2D
2D 20
  [84 (0x54) byte offset]
Microsof
t Window
s Media
Player -
-
WPL   Windows Media Player playlist

4D 73 52 63 66   MsRcf
GDB   VMapSource GPS Waypoint Database

4E 41 56 54 52 41 46 46
49 43
  NAVTRAFF
IC
DAT   TomTom traffic data file

4E 42 2A 00   NB*.
JNT, JTP   MS Windows journal file

4E 45 53 4D 1A 01   NESM..
NSF   NES Sound file

4E 49 54 46 30   NITF0
NTF   National Imagery Transmission Format (NITF) file

4E 61 6D 65 3A 20   Name:
COD   Agent newsreader character map file

4F 50 43 4C 44 41 54   OPCLDAT
attachment   1Password 4 Cloud Keychain encrypted attachment

4F 50 4C 44 61 74 61 62
61 73 65 46 69 6C 65
  OPLDatab
aseFile
DBF   Psion Series 3 Database file

4F 54 54 4F 00   OTTO.
OTF   OpenType font file

4F 67 67 53 00 02 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00
  OggS....
......
OGA, OGG, OGV, OGX   Ogg Vorbis Codec compressed Multimedia file

4F 7B   O{
DW4   Visio/DisplayWrite 4 text file (unconfirmed)

50 00 00 00 20 00 00 00   P... ...
IDX   Quicken QuickFinder Information File

50 35 0A   P5.
PGM   Portable Graymap Graphic

50 41 43 4B   PACK
PAK   Quake archive file

50 41 47 45 44 55 36 34   PAGEDU64
DMP   Windows 64-bit memory dump

50 41 47 45 44 55 4D 50   PAGEDUMP
DMP   Windows memory dump

50 41 58   PAX
PAX   PAX password protected bitmap

50 45 53 54   PEST
DAT   PestPatrol data/scan strings

50 47 50 64 4D 41 49 4E   PGPdMAIN
PGD   PGP disk image

50 49 43 54 00 08   PICT..
IMG   ADEX Corp. ChromaGraph Graphics Card Bitmap Graphic file

50 4B 03 04   PK..
ZIP   PKZIP archive file (Ref. 1 | Ref. 2)
Trailer: filename 50 4B 17 characters 00 00 00
Trailer: (filename PK 17 characters ...)
Note: PK are the initals of Phil Katz, co-creator of the ZIP file format and author of PKZIP.
ZIP   Apple Mac OS X Dashboard Widget, Aston Shell theme, Oolite eXpansion Pack,
Opera Widget, Pivot Style Template, Rockbox Theme package, Simple Machines
Forums theme, SubEthaEdit Mode, Trillian zipped skin, Virtual Skipper skin
APK   Android package
JAR   Java archive; compressed file package for classes and data
KMZ   Google Earth saved working session file
KWD   KWord document
ODT, ODP, OTT   OpenDocument text document, presentation, and text document template, respectively.
OXPS   Microsoft Open XML paper specification file
SXC, SXD, SXI, SXW   OpenOffice spreadsheet (Calc), drawing (Draw), presentation (Impress),
and word processing (Writer) files, respectively.
SXC   StarOffice spreadsheet
WMZ   Windows Media compressed skin file
XPI   Mozilla Browser Archive
XPS   XML paper specification file
XPT   eXact Packager Models

50 4B 03 04 0A 00 02 00   PK......
EPUB   Open Publication Structure eBook file. (Should also include the string:
mimetypeapplication/epub+zip)

50 4B 03 04 14 00 01 00
63 00 00 00 00 00
  PK......
c.....
ZIP   ZLock Pro encrypted ZIP

50 4B 03 04 14 00 06 00   PK......
DOCX, PPTX, XLSX   Microsoft Office Open XML Format (OOXML) Document
NOTE: There is no subheader for MS OOXML files as there is with
DOC, PPT, and XLS files. To better understand the format of these files,
rename any OOXML file to have a .ZIP extension and then unZIP the file;
look at the resultant file named [Content_Types].xml to see the content
types. In particular, look for the <Override PartName= tag, where you
will find word, ppt, or xl, respectively.

Trailer: Look for 50 4B 05 06 (PK..) followed by 18 additional bytes
at the end of the file.

50 4B 03 04 14 00 08 00
08 00
  PK......
..
JAR   Java archive

50 4B 05 06   PK..
ZIP   PKZIP empty archive file

50 4B 07 08   PK..
ZIP   PKZIP multivolume archive file

[30 (0x1E) byte offset]
50 4B 4C 49 54 45
  [30 (0x1E) byte offset]
PKLITE
ZIP   PKLITE compressed ZIP archive (see also PKZIP)

[526 (0x20E) byte offset]
50 4B 53 70 58
  [526 (0x20E) byte offset]
PKSFX
ZIP   PKSFX self-extracting executable compressed file (see also PKZIP)

50 4D 43 43   PMCC
GRP   Windows Program Manager group file

50 4E 43 49 55 4E 44 4F   PNCIUNDO
DAT   Norton Disk Doctor undo file

50 4D 4F 43 43 4D 4F 43   PMOCCMOC
DAT   Microsoft® Windows® User State Migration Tool (USMT). USMT 3.0
applies to Windows XP and Windows Vista®, and USMT 4.0 is for Windows 7.

50 53 46 12   PSF.
DSF   Dreamcast Sound Format file, a subset of the Portable Sound Format.

50 55 46 58   PUFX
PUF   Puffer encrypted archive

50 61 56 45   PaVE
n/a   Parrot Video Encapsulation file

[92 (0x5C) byte offset]
51 45 4C 20
  [92 (0x5C) byte offset]
QEL
QEL   Quicken data file

51 46 49 FB   QFIû
IMG   QEMU Qcow Disk Image

51 57 20 56 65 72 2E 20   QW Ver.
ABD, QSD   Quicken data file

[512 (0x200) byte offset]
52 00 6F 00 6F 00 74 00
20 00 45 00 6E 00 74 00
72 00 79 00
  [512 (0x200) byte offset]
R.o.o.t.
.E.n.t.
r.y.
MSG   Outlook/Exchange message subheader (MS Office)

52 41 5A 41 54 44 42 31   RAZATDB1
DAT   Shareaza (Windows P2P client) thumbnail

52 44 58 32 0A   RDX2.
RDATA   R (programming language) saved work space

52 45 47 45 44 49 54   REGEDIT
REG, SUD   Windows NT Registry and Registry Undo files

52 45 56 4E 55 4D 3A 2C   REVNUM:,
ADF   Antenna data file

52 49 46 46   RIFF
ANI   Windows animated cursor
CMX   Corel Presentation Exchange (Corel 10 CMX) Metafile
CDR   CorelDraw document
DAT   Video CD MPEG or MPEG1 movie file
DS4   Micrografx Designer v4 graphic file
4XM   4X Movie video

52 49 46 46 xx xx xx xx
41 56 49 20 4C 49 53 54
  RIFF....
AVI LIST
AVI   Resource Interchange File Format -- Windows Audio Video
Interleave file
, where xx xx xx xx is the file size (little endian)

52 49 46 46 xx xx xx xx
43 44 44 41 66 6D 74 20
  RIFF....
CDDAfmt
CDA   Resource Interchange File Format -- Compact Disc Digital
Audio (CD-DA) file, where xx xx xx xx is the file size (little endian)

52 49 46 46 xx xx xx xx
51 4C 43 4D 66 6D 74 20
  RIFF....
QLCMfmt
QCP   Resource Interchange File Format -- Qualcomm
PureVoice, where xx xx xx xx is the file size (little endian)

52 49 46 46 xx xx xx xx
52 4D 49 44 64 61 74 61
  RIFF....
RMIDdata
RMI   Resource Interchange File Format -- Windows Musical
Instrument Digital Interface file
, where xx xx xx xx is the file
size (little endian)

52 49 46 46 xx xx xx xx
57 41 56 45 66 6D 74 20
  RIFF....
WAVEfmt
WAV   Resource Interchange File Format -- Audio for Windows
file
, where xx xx xx xx is the file size (little endian)

52 49 46 46 xx xx xx xx
57 45 42 50
  RIFF....
WEBP
WEBP   Google WebP image file, where xx xx xx xx is the file size

52 54 53 53   RTSS
CAP   Windows NT Netmon capture file

52 61 72 21 1A 07 00   Rar!...
RAR   RAR (v4.x) compressed archive file

52 61 72 21 1A 07 01 00   Rar!....
RAR   RAR (v5) compressed archive file

52 65 74 75 72 6E 2D 50
61 74 68 3A 20
  Return-P
ath:
EML   A commmon file header for e-mail files.

[4 byte offset]
53 43 43 41
  [4 byte offset]
SCCA
PF   Windows prefetch file. The first four bytes indicate the OS:
0x11-00-00-00 = XP, 0x17-00-00-00 = Vista/Win7,
and 0x1A-00-00-00 = Win8.1 (and probably Win8, as well).
See "Forensic Analysis of Prefetch files in Windows".

53 43 48 6C   SCHl
AST   Need for Speed: Underground Audio file

53 43 4D 49   SCMI
IMG   Img Software Set Bitmap

53 44 50 58   SDPX
DPX   Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE)
Digital Picture Exchange (DPX) image file (big endian)

53 48 4F 57   SHOW
SHW   Harvard Graphics DOS Ver. 2/x Presentation file

53 49 45 54 52 4F 4E 49
43 53 20 58 52 44 20 53
43 41 4E
  SIETRONI
CS XRD S
CAN
CPI   Sietronics CPI XRD document

53 49 4D 50 4C 45 20 20
3D 20 20 20 20 20 20 20
20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20
20 20 20 20 20 54
  SIMPLE
=

     T
FITS   Flexible Image Transport System (FITS), Version 3.0 file

53 49 54 21 00   SIT!.
SIT   StuffIt compressed archive

53 4D 41 52 54 44 52 57   SMARTDRW
SDR   SmartDraw Drawing file

53 50 46 49 00   SPFI.
SPF   StorageCraft ShadownProtect backup file

53 50 56 42   SPVB
SPVCHAIN   MultiBit Bitcoin blockchain file

53 51 4C 4F 43 4F 4E 56
48 44 00 00 31 2E 30 00
  SQLOCONV
HD..1.0.
CNV   DB2 conversion file

53 51 4C 69 74 65 20 66
6F 72 6D 61 74 20 33 00
  SQLite f
ormat 3.
DB   SQLite database file

53 5A 20 88 F0 27 33 D1   SZ ˆð'3Ñ
n/a   QBASIC SZDD file header variant. (See the SZDD or KWAJ format entries
for additional information.)

53 5A 44 44 88 F0 27 33   SZDDˆð'3
n/a   SZDD file format used by DOS COMPRESS.EXE and EXPAND.EXE commands.
This command compresses a single file, replacing the last character in the file name
with an underscore or dollar sign, e.g., FOO.BAZ would be renamed FOO.BA_ or
FOO.BA$. (See the SZDD/KWAJ page for more information.)

53 6D 62 6C   Smbl
SYM   (Unconfirmed file type. Likely type is Harvard Graphics
Version 2.x graphic symbol or Windows SDK graphic symbol)

53 74 75 66 66 49 74 20
28 63 29 31 39 39 37 2D
  StuffIt
(c)1997-
SIT   StuffIt compressed archive

53 75 70 65 72 43 61 6C
63
  SuperCal
c
CAL   SuperCalc worksheet

54 48 50 00   THP.
THP   Wii/GameCube video file

54 68 69 73 20 69 73 20   This is
INFO   UNIX GNU Info Reader File

55 43 45 58   UCEX
UCE   Unicode extensions

55 46 41 C6 D2 C1   UFAÆÒÁ
UFA   UFA compressed archive

55 46 4F 4F 72 62 69 74   UFOOrbit
DAT   UFO Capture v2 map file

55 6E 46 69 6E 4D 46   UnFinMF
MF4   Unfinalized Measurement Data Format (MDF) file

56 43 50 43 48 30   VCPCH0
PCH   Visual C PreCompiled header file

56 45 52 53 49 4F 4E 20   VERSION
CTL   Visual Basic User-defined Control file

56 65 72 73 69 6F 6E 20   Version
MIF   MapInfo Interchange Format file

57 04 00 00 53 50 53 53
20 74 65 6D 70 6C 61 74
  W...SPSS
templat
SCT   SPSS Statistics (née Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, then
Statistical Product and Service Solutions) template file

57 4D 4D 50   WMMP
DAT   Walkman MP3 container file

57 53 32 30 30 30   WS2000
WS2   WordStar for Windows Ver. 2 document

[29,152 (0x71E0) byte offset]
57 69 6E 5A 69 70
  [29,152 (0x71E0) byte offset]
WinZip
ZIP   WinZip compressed archive

57 6F 72 64 50 72 6F   WordPro
LWP   Lotus WordPro document.

58 2D   X-
EML   A commmon file extension for e-mail files. This variant is
for Exchange.

58 43 50 00   XCP.
CAP   Cinco NetXRay, Network General Sniffer, and
Network Associates Sniffer capture file

58 50 43 4F 4D 0A 54 79
70 65 4C 69 62
  XPCOM.Ty
peLib
XPT   XPCOM type libraries for the XPIDL compiler

58 50 44 53   XPDS
DPX   Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE)
Digital Picture Exchange (DPX) image file (little endian)

58 54   XT..
BDR   MS Publisher border

5A 4F 4F 20   ZOO
ZOO   ZOO compressed archive

5A 57 53   ZWS
SWF   Macromedia Shockwave Flash player file (LZMA compressed, SWF 13 and later).
See SWF File Format Specification.

5B 47 65 6E 65 72 61 6C
5D 0D 0A 44 69 73 70 6C
61 79 20 4E 61 6D 65 3D
3C 44 69 73 70 6C 61 79
4E 61 6D 65
  [General
]..Displ
ay Name=
<Display
Name
ECF   MS Exchange 2007 extended configuration file

5B 4D 53 56 43   [MSVC
VCW   Microsoft Visual C++ Workbench Information File

5B 50 68 6F 6E 65 5D   [Phone]
DUN   Dial-up networking file

5B 56 45 52 5D or   [VER]
5B 76 65 72 5D or   [ver]
SAM   Lotus AMI Pro document

5B 56 4D 44 5D or   [VMD]
VMD   VocalTec VoIP media file

[2 byte offset]
5B 56 65 72 73 69 6F 6E
  [2 byte offset]
[Version
CIF   (Unknown file type)

5B 57 69 6E 64 6F 77 73
20 4C 61 74 69 6E 20
  [Windows
 Latin
CPX   Microsoft Code Page Translation file

5B 66 6C 74 73 69 6D 2E
30 5D
  [fltsim.
0]
CFG   Flight Simulator Aircraft Configuration file

5B 70 6C 61 79 6C 69 73
74 5D
  [playlis
t]
PLS   WinAmp Playlist file

5D FC C8 00   ]üÈ.
HUS   Husqvarna Designer I Embroidery Machine file

5F 27 A8 89   _'¨‰
JAR   Jar archive

5F 43 41 53 45 5F   _CASE_
CAS, CBK   EnCase case file (and backup)

60 EA  
ARJ   Compressed archive file

62 65 67 69 6E   begin
n/a   UUencoded files start with a string:
  begin mode path
where mode is the set of permissions as used in
Linux/Unix and path is the name given to the decoded
file. (See this uuencode page for more information.)

62 65 67 69 6E 2D 62 61
73 65 36 34
  begin-ba
se64
b64   UUencoded BASE64 file
Trailer: 0A 3D 3D 3D 3D 0A (.====.)

62 70 6C 69 73 74   bplist
plist   Binary property list (plist)
(NOTE: Next two bytes are the version number, currently
0x30-30, or "00")

63 61 66 66   caff
CAF   Apple Core Audio File

63 64 73 61 65 6E 63 72   cdsaencr
DMG   Macintosh encrypted Disk image (v1)

63 6F 6E 65 63 74 69 78   conectix
VHD   Virtual PC Virtual HD image footer

63 75 73 68 00 00 00 02
00 00 00
  cush....
...
CSH   Photoshop Custom Shape

63 78 73 70 61 72 73 65   cxsparse
VHD   Virtual PC Virtual HD image dynamic disk header

64 00 00 00   d...
P10   Intel PROset/Wireless Profile

64 38 3A 61 6E 6E 6F 75
6E 63 65
  d8:annou
nce
TORRENT   Torrent file

64 65 78 0A   dex.
dex   Dalvik executable file (Android)

64 6E 73 2E   dns.
AU   Audacity audio file

64 73 77 66 69 6C 65   dswfile
DSW   Microsoft Visual Studio workspace file

65 6E 63 72 63 64 73 61   encrcdsa
DMG   Macintosh encrypted Disk image (v2)

66 49 00 00   fI..
SHD   Windows NT printer spool file

66 4C 61 43 00 00 00 22   fLaC..."
FLAC   Free Lossless Audio Codec file

[4 byte offset]
66 74 79 70 33 67 70
  [4 byte offset]
ftyp3gp
3GG, 3GP, 3G2   3rd Generation Partnership Project 3GPP multimedia files

[4 byte offset]
66 74 79 70 4D 34 41 20
  [4 byte offset]
ftypM4A
M4A   Apple Lossless Audio Codec file

[4 byte offset]
66 74 79 70 4D 34 56 20
  [4 byte offset]
ftypM4V
FLV, M4V   ISO Media, MPEG v4 system, or iTunes AVC-LC file

[4 byte offset]
66 74 79 70 4D 53 4E 56
  [4 byte offset]
ftypMSNV
MP4   MPEG-4 video file

[4 byte offset]
66 74 79 70 69 73 6F 6D
  [4 byte offset]
ftypisom
MP4   ISO Base Media file (MPEG-4) v1

[4 byte offset]
66 74 79 70 6D 70 34 32
  [4 byte offset]
ftypmp42
M4V   MPEG-4 video|QuickTime file

[4 byte offset]
66 74 79 70 71 74 20 20
  [4 byte offset]
ftypqt
MOV   QuickTime movie file

67 49 00 00   gI..
SHD   Windows 2000/XP printer spool file

67 69 6d 70 20 78 63 66
20
  gimp xcf
XCF   GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) eXperimental Computing Facility (XCF)
image file

68 49 00 00   hI..
SHD   Windows Server 2003 printer spool file

6B 87 08 38 76 C1 48 4E
B7 AE 04 04 6E 6C C7 52
01 00
  h‡.8vÁHN
·®..nlÇR
..
VSC   Windows OS Volume Shadow Copy, index block header

69 63 6E 73   icns
ICNS   MacOS icon file

6C 33 33 6C   l33l
DBB   Skype user data file (profile and contacts)

[4 byte offset]
6D 6F 6F 76
  [4 byte offset]
moov
MOV   QuickTime movie file

.MOV files have a complicated file signature. The string "moov" is the most common but I have also seen:
  0x66-72-65-65   free
  0x6D-64-61-74   mdat
  0x77-69-64-65   wide

And the following have been reported to me:
  0x70-6E-6F-74   pnot
  0x73-6B-69-70   skip

Furthermore, if you look at byte position xxxxxxxx+4 (where xxxxxxxx is bytes 0-3 of the header), you
will find one (or more!) of these strings repeated; the string "free" seems to be the most common. For
more information, see the QuickTime File Format page. (Thanks to D. Wright for getting me started on this!)

6D 73 46 69 6C 74 65 72
4C 69 73 74
  msFilter
List
TPL   Internet Explorer v11 Tracking Protection List file

6D 75 6C 74 69 42 69 74
2E 69 6E 66 6F
  multiBit
.info
INFO   MultiBit Bitcoin wallet information file

6F 3C   o<
n/a   Short Message Service (SMS), or text, message stored on a
Subscriber Identification Module (SIM).

6F 70 64 61 74 61 30 31   opdata01
n/a   1Password 4 Cloud Keychain encrypted data

72 65 67 66   regf
DAT   Windows NT registry hive file

72 69 66 66   riff
ACD   Sonic Foundry Acid Music File (Sony)

72 74 73 70 3A 2F 2F   rtsp://
RAM   RealMedia metafile

73 6C 68 21 or   slh!
DAT   Allegro Generic Packfile Data file (compressed)

73 6C 68 2E   slh.
DAT   Allegro Generic Packfile Data file (uncompressed)

73 6D 5F   sm_
PDB   PalmOS SuperMemo file

73 6F 6C 69 64   solid
STL   ASCII STL (STereoLithography) file for 3D printing.

73 72 63 64 6F 63 69 64
3A
  srcdocid
:
CAL   CALS raster bitmap file

73 7A 65 7A   szez
PDB   PowerBASIC Debugger Symbols file

[60 (0x3C) byte offset]
74 42 4D 50 4B 6E 57 72
  [60 (0x3C) byte offset]
tBMPKnWr
PRC   PathWay Map file, used with GPS devices

74 72 75 65 00   true.
TTF   TrueType font file

[257 (0x101) byte offset]
75 73 74 61 72
  [257 (0x101) byte offset]
ustar
TAR   Tape Archive file (http://www.mkssoftware.com/docs/man4/tar.4.asp)

76 2F 31 01   v/1.
EXR   OpenEXR bitmap image format

76 32 30 30 33 2E 31 30
0D 0A 30 0D 0A
  v2003.10
..0..
FLT   Qimage filter

77 4F 46 32   wOF2
WOFF2   Web Open Font Format 2

77 4F 46 46   wOFF
WOFF   Web Open Font Format

78 01 73 0D 62 62 60   x.s.bb`
DMG   Mac OS X Disk Copy Disk Image file

78 61 72 21   xar!
XAR   eXtensible ARchive file

7A 62 65 78   zbex
INFO   ZoomBrowser Image Index file (ZbThumbnal.info)

7B 0D 0A 6F 20   {..o
LGC, LGD   Windows application log

7B 22 75 72 6C 22 3A 20
22 68 74 74 70 73 3A 2F
  {"url":
"https:/
GDOC   Google Drive Document link
GDRAW   Google Drive Drawing link

7B 44 52 4D 50 44 4B 7D   {DRMPDK}
....
DRMX, DRMZ   Drumlin Fully Secure PDF file. These files use a proprietary format that requires the Javelin PDF
Reader to be viewed and a unique authorization code. DRMZ files are compatible with mobile devices.

7B 5C 70 77 69   {\pwi
PWI   Microsoft Windows Mobile personal note file

7B 5C 72 74 66   {\rtf
RTF   Rich text format word processing file
Trailer: 7D (})

7C 4B C3 74 E1 C8 53 A4
79 B9 01 1D FC 4F DD 13
  |KÃtáÈS¤
y¹..üOÝ.
CSD   Huskygram, Poem, or Singer embroidery design file

7E 42 4B 00   ~BK.
PSP   Corel Paint Shop Pro image file

7E 45 53 44 77 F6 85 3E
BF 6A D2 11 45 61 73 79
20 53 74 72 65 65 74 20
44 72 61 77
  ~ESDwö…>
¿jÒ.Easy
 Street
Draw
ESD   Easy Street Draw diagram file

7E 74 2C 01 50 70 02 4D
52 01 00 00 00 08 00 00
00 01 00 00 31 00 00 00
31 00 00 00 43 01 FF 00
01 00 08 00 01 00 00 00
7e 74 2c 01
  ~t,.Pp.M
R.......
....1...
1...C.ÿ.
........
~t,.
IMG   Reportedly a proprietary recording system, possibly a
Digital Watchdog DW-TP-500G unit.

7F 45 4C 46   .ELF
n/a   Executable and Linking Format executable file (Linux/Unix)

80   .
OBJ   Relocatable object code

80 00   ..
ADX   ADX lossy compressed audio file

80 2A 5F D7   .*_.
CIN   Kodak Cineon image file

81 32 84 C1 85 05 D0 11
B2 90 00 AA 00 3C F6 76
  .2„Á….Ð.
²..ª.<öv
WAB   Outlook Express address book (Win95)

81 CD AB   .Í«
WPF   WordPerfect text file

86 DD 6x   †Ý{lower_case letter}
n/a   Possibly, maybe, might be a fragment of an Ethernet frame carrying
an IPv6 packet. See Hints About Looking for Network Packet Fragments.

89 50 4E 47 0D 0A 1A 0A   ‰PNG....
PNG   Portable Network Graphics file
Trailer: 49 45 4E 44 AE 42 60 82 (IEND®B`‚...)

8A 01 09 00 00 00 E1 08
00 00 99 19
  Š.....á.
..™.
AW   MS Answer Wizard file

91 33 48 46   ‘3HF
HAP   Hamarsoft HAP 3.x compressed archive

95 00 or   •.
95 01   •.
SKR   PGP secret keyring file

97 4A 42 32 0D 0A 1A 0A   —JB2....
JB2   JBIG2 image file
Trailer: 03 33 00 01 00 00 00 00 (.3......)

99  
GPG   GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) public keyring

99 01   ™.
PKR   PGP public keyring file

9C CB CB 8D 13 75 D2 11
91 58 00 C0 4F 79 56 A4
  œËË..UÒ.
‘X.ÀOyV¤
WAB   Outlook address file

[512 (0x200) byte offset]
A0 46 1D F0
  [512 (0x200) byte offset]
 F.ð
PPT   PowerPoint presentation subheader (MS Office)

A1 B2 C3 D4   ¡²ÃÔ
n/a   tcpdump (libpcap) capture file (Linux/Unix)

A1 B2 CD 34   ¡²Í4
n/a   Extended tcpdump (libpcap) capture file (Linux/Unix)

A3 DE B0   £Þ°
HED   HighEdit document

A9 0D 00 00 00 00 00 00   ©.......
DAT   Access Data FTK evidence file

AB 4B 54 58 20 31 31 BB
0D 0A 1A 0A
  «KTX 11»
....
KTX   Khronos texture file for OpenGL and OpenGL ES applications

AC 9E BD 8F 00 00   ¬.½...
QDF   Quicken data file

AC ED   ¬í
n/a   Java serialization data (see Object Serialization Stream Protocol)

AC ED 00 05 73 72 00 12
62 67 62 6C 69 74 7A 2E
  ¬í..sr..
bgblitz.
PDB   BGBlitz (professional Backgammon software) position database file

B0 4D 46 43   °MFC
PWL   Windows 95 password file

B1 68 DE 3A   ±hÞ:
DCX   Graphics Multipage PCX bitmap file

B4 6E 68 44   ´nhd
TIB   Acronis True Image file (early versions)

B5 A2 B0 B3 B3 B0 A5 B5   µ¢°³³°¥µ
CAL   Windows calendar file

B8 C9 0C 00   ¸É..
INS   InstallShield Script

BE 00 00 00 AB 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00
  ¾...«...
....
WRI   MS Write file

BE BA FE CA 0F 50 61 6C
6D 53 47 20 44 61 74 61
  ¾ºþÊ.Pal
mSG Data
DAT   Palm Desktop DateBook file

C3 AB CD AB   ëͫ
ACS   MS Agent Character file

C5 D0 D3 C6   ÅÐÓÆ
EPS   Adobe encapsulated PostScript file

C8 00 79 00   È.y.
LBK   Jeppesen FliteLog file

CA FE BA BE   Êþº¾
CLASS   Java bytecode file (also used by Apple iOS apps)

CC 52 33 FC E9 2C 18 48
AF E3 36 30 1A 39 40 06
  ÌR3üé,.H
¯ã60.9@.
NBU   Nokia phone backup file

CD 20 AA AA 02 00 00 00   Í ªª....
n/a   Norton Anti-Virus quarantined virus file

CE 24 B9 A2 20 00 00 00   Î$¹¢ ...
TIB   Acronis True Image file (current versions)

CE CE CE CE   ÎÎÎÎ
JCEKS   Java Cryptography Extension keystore file

CE FA ED FE   Îúíþ
n/a   Apple OS X ABI Mach-O binary file (32-bit, where target system has reverse byte
ordering from host running compiler)

CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1 00   Ï.ࡱ.á.
DOC   Perfect Office document
[Note similarity to MS Office header, below]

CF AD 12 FE   Ï­.þ
DBX   Outlook Express e-mail folder

CF FA ED FE   Ïúíþ
n/a   Apple OS X ABI Mach-O binary file (64-bit, where target system has reverse byte
ordering from host running compiler)

D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1   ÐÏ.ࡱ.á
DOC, DOT, PPS, PPT, XLA, XLS, WIZ   An Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) Compound File (CF) (i.e., OLECF)
file format, known as Compound Binary File format by Microsoft, used by
Microsoft Office 97-2003 applications (Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Wizard). Part of
Microsoft's Structured Storage (MSS) architecture for Component Object Model (COM)-based
operating systems.
[See also Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word "subheaders" at byte offset 512 (0x200).]
  • There appear to several subheader formats and a dearth of documentation.
  • There have been reports that there are different subheaders for Windows and Mac
    versions of MS Office but I cannot confirm that.]
  • Password-protected DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX files also use this signature those files
    are saved as OLECF files.
  • [Note the similarity between D0 CF 11 E0 and the word "DOCFILE"!]
AC_   CaseWare Working Papers compressed client file
ADP   Access project file
APR   Lotus/IBM Approach 97 file
DB   MSWorks database file
MSC   Microsoft Common Console Document
MSG   Microsoft Outlook/Exchange Message
MSI   Microsoft Installer package
MSP   Windows Installer Patch
MTW   Minitab data file
MXD   ArcMap GIS project file
OPT   Developer Studio File Workspace Options file
PUB   MS Publisher file
QBM   QuickBooks Portable Company File
RVT   Revit Project file
SOU   Visual Studio Solution User Options file
SPO   SPSS output file
VSD   Visio file
WPS   MSWorks text document

D2 0A 00 00   Ò...
FTR   GN Nettest WinPharoah filter file

D4 2A   Ô*
ARL, AUT   AOL history (ARL) and typed URL (AUT) files

D4 C3 B2 A1   Ôò¡
n/a   WinDump (winpcap) capture file (Windows)

D7 CD C6 9A   ×ÍÆš
WMF   Windows graphics metafile

DB A5 2D 00   Û¥-.
DOC   Word 2.0 file

DC DC   ÜÜ
CPL   Corel color palette file

DC FE   Üþ
EFX   eFax file format

E3 10 00 01 00 00 00 00   ã.......
INFO   Amiga Icon file

E3 82 85 96   ã‚…–
PWL   Windows 98 password file

E4 52 5C 7B 8C D8 A7 4D
AE B1 53 78 D0 29 96 D3
  äR\{ŒØ§M
®±SxÐ)–Ó
ONE   Microsoft OneNote note

E8 or   è
E9 or   é
EB   ë
COM, SYS   Windows executable file

EB 3C 90 2A   ë<.*
IMG   GEM Raster file

EB 52 90 2D 46 56 45 2D
46 53 2D
  ëR.-FVE-
FS-
n/a   Header of boot sector in BitLocker protected volume (Vista)

EB 58 90 2D 46 56 45 2D
46 53 2D
  ëX.-FVE-
FS-
n/a   Header of boot sector in BitLocker protected volume (Windows 7)

[512 (0x200) byte offset]
EC A5 C1 00
  [512 (0x200) byte offset]
ì¥Á.
DOC   Word document subheader (MS Office)

ED AB EE DB   í«îÛ
RPM   RedHat Package Manager file

EF BB BF   
n/a   Byte-order mark (BOM) for 8-bit Unicode Transformation Format
(UTF-8) files.
(See the Unicode Home Page.)

EF BB BF 3C   <
WSF   Windows Script Component (UTF-8)

EF BB BF 3C 3F   <?
WSC   Windows Script Component (UTF-8)

EF BB BF 3C 3F 78 6D 6C
20 76 65 72 73 69 6F 6E
  <?xml
 version
YTT   YouTube Timed Text (subtitle) file

[At a cluster boundary]
F0 FF FF
  [At a cluster boundary]
ðÿÿ
n/a   FAT12 File Allocation Table

[At a cluster boundary]
F8 FF FF FF
  [At a cluster boundary]
øÿÿÿ
n/a   FAT16 File Allocation Table

[At a cluster boundary]
F8 FF FF 0F FF FF FF 0F
  [At a cluster boundary]
øÿÿ.ÿÿÿ.
n/a   FAT32 File Allocation Table

[At a cluster boundary]
F8 FF FF 0F FF FF FF FF
  [At a cluster boundary]
øÿÿ.ÿÿÿÿ
n/a   FAT32 File Allocation Table

F9 BE B4 D9   ù¾´Ù
DAT   Bitcoin-Qt blockchain block file

FD 37 7A 58 5A 00   ý7zXZ.
XZ   XZ archive file

[512 (0x200) byte offset]
FD FF FF FF 02
  [512 (0x200) byte offset]
ýÿÿÿ.
PUB   MS Publisher file subheader

[512 (0x200) byte offset]
FD FF FF FF 04
  [512 (0x200) byte offset]
ýÿÿÿ.
MSG   Microsoft Outlook/Exchange Message
QBM   QuickBooks Portable Company File
SUO   Visual Studio Solution User Options subheader (MS Office)

[512 (0x200) byte offset]
FD FF FF FF nn nn 00 00
  [512 (0x200) byte offset]
ýÿÿÿ....
PPT   PowerPoint presentation subheader (MS Office)

[512 (0x200) byte offset]
FD FF FF FF nn 00
  [512 (0x200) byte offset]
ýÿÿÿ..
or
[512 (0x200) byte offset]
FD FF FF FF nn 02
  [512 (0x200) byte offset]
ýÿÿÿ..
XLS   Excel spreadsheet subheader (MS Office)

[512 (0x200) byte offset]
FD FF FF FF 20 00 00 00
  [512 (0x200) byte offset]
ýÿÿÿ ...
OPT   Developer Studio File Workspace Options subheader (MS Office)
XLS   Excel spreadsheet subheader (MS Office)

[512 (0x200) byte offset]
FD FF FF FF xx xx xx xx
xx xx xx xx 04 00 00 00
  [512 (0x200) byte offset]
ýÿÿÿ....
........
DB   Thumbs.db subheader (MS Office)

FE ED FA CE   þíúÎ
n/a   Apple OS X ABI Mach-O binary file (32-bit)

FE ED FA CF   þíúÏ
n/a   Apple OS X ABI Mach-O binary file (64-bit)

FE ED FE ED   þíþí
JKS   JavaKeyStore file

FE EF   þï
GHO, GHS   Symantex Ghost image file

FE FF   þÿ
n/a   Byte-order mark (BOM) for 16-bit Unicode Transformation Format/
2-octet Universal Character Set (UTF-16/UCS-2), big-endian files.
(See the Unicode Home Page.)

FF   ÿ
SYS   Windows executable (SYS) file

FF 00 02 00 04 04 05 54
02 00
  ÿ......T
..
WKS   Works for Windows spreadsheet file

FF 0A 00   ÿ..
QRP   QuickReport Report file

FF 46 4F 4E 54   ÿFONT
CPI   Windows international code page

FF 4B 45 59 42 20 20 20   ÿKEYB
SYS   Keyboard driver file

FF 57 50 43   ÿWPC
WP, WPD, WPG, WPP, WP5, WP6   WordPerfect text and graphics file

FF D8   ÿØ
JPE, JPEG, JPG   Generic JPEG Image file
Trailer: FF D9 (ÿÙ)

NOTES on JPEG file headers: The proper JPEG header is the two-byte sequence, 0xFF-D8, aka Start of Image (SOI) marker.
JPEG files end with the two-byte sequence, 0xFF-D9, aka End of Image (EOI) marker.

Between the SOI and EOI, JPEG files are composed of segments. Segments start with a two-byte Segment Tag followed by a
two-byte Segment Length field and then a zero-terminated string identifier (i.e., a character string followed by a 0x00), as
shown below with the JFIF, Exif, and SPIFF segments.

Segment Tags of the form 0x-FF-Ex (where x = 0..F) are referred to as APP0-APP15, and contain application-specific information. The
most commonly seen APP segments at the beginning of a JPEG file are APP0 and APP1 although others are also seen. Some additional
tags are shown below:

FF D8 FF E0 xx xx 4A 46
49 46 00
  ÿØÿà..JF
IF.
JFIF, JPE, JPEG, JPG   JPEG/JFIF graphics file
Trailer: FF D9 (ÿÙ)

FF D8 FF E1 xx xx 45 78
69 66 00
  ÿØÿá..Ex
if.
JPG   Digital camera JPG using Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF)
Trailer: FF D9 (ÿÙ)
See "Using Extended File Information (EXIF) File Headers in Digital
Evidence Analysis"
(P. Alvarez, IJDE, 2(3), Winter 2004) and
ExifTool Tag Names


FF D8 FF E8 xx xx 53 50
49 46 46 00
  ÿØÿè..SP
IFF.
JPG   Still Picture Interchange File Format (SPIFF)
Trailer: FF D9 (ÿÙ)

FF Ex   ÿ.
FF Fx   ÿ.
MPEG, MPG, MP3   MPEG audio file frame synch pattern

FF F1   ÿñ
AAC   MPEG-4 Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) Low Complexity (LC) audio file

FF F9   ÿù
AAC   MPEG-2 Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) Low Complexity (LC) audio file

FF FE   ÿþ
REG   Windows Registry file
n/a   Byte-order mark (BOM) for 16-bit Unicode Transformation Format/
2-octet Universal Character Set (UTF-16/UCS-2), little-endian files.
(See the Unicode Home Page.)

FF FE 00 00   ÿþ..
n/a   Byte-order mark for 32-bit Unicode Transformation Format/
4-octet Universal Character Set (UTF-32/UCS-4), little-endian files.
(See the Unicode Home Page.)

FF FE 23 00 6C 00 69 00
6E 00 65 00 20 00 31 00
  ÿþ#.l.i.
n.e. .1.
MOF   Windows MSinfo file

FF FF FF FF   ÿÿÿÿ
SYS   DOS system driver


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The following individuals have given me updates or suggestions for this list over the years: Devon Ackerman, Nazim Aliyev, Justin Almanza, Marco Barbieri, Vladimir Benko, Arvin Bhatnagar, Jim Blackson, Keith Blackwell, Alex Boschma, Sam Brothers, David Burton, Alex Caithness, Erik Campeau, Björn Carlin, Tim Carver, Michael D Cavalier, Per Christensson, Oscar Choi, JMJ.Conseil, Jesse Cooper, Jesse Corwin, Mike Daniels, David DeBrota, Cornelis de Groot, Jeffrey Duggan, Tony Duncan, Jon Eldridge, Ehsan Elhampour, Jean-Pierre Fiset, Peter Almer Frederiksen, Tim Gardner, Chris Griffith, Linda Grody, Andis Grosšteins, Paulo Guzmán, Rich Hanes, George Harpur, Brian High, Eric Huber, Alexander Hübert, John Hughes, Allan Jensen, Broadus Jones, Matthew Kelly, Axel Kesseler, Nick Khor, Shane King, Art Kocsis, Thiemo Kreuz, Bill Kuhns, Evgenii Kustov, Andreas Kyrmegalos, Glenn Larsson, Jeremy Lloyd, Anand Mani, Kevin Mansell, Nevena Marković, Davyd McColl, Par Osterberg Medina, Michal, Sergey Miklin, David Millard, Bruce Modick, Lee Nelson, Mart Oskamp, Dan P., Jorge Paulhiac, Carlo Politi, Seth Polley, Hedley Quintana, Anthony Rabon, Stanley Rainey, Cory Redfern, Bruce Robertson, Ben Roeder, Thomas Rösner, Gerd, Röthig, Gaurav Sehgal, Andy Seitz, Anli Shundi, Erik Siers, Philip Smith, Mike Sutton, Matthias Sweertvaegher, Tobiasz Światlowski, Frank Thornton, Erik van de Burgwal, Øyvind Walding, Jason Wallace, Daniel Walton, Franklin Webber, Bernd Wechner, Douglas White, Mike Wilkinson, Gavin Williams, Sean Wolfinger, David Wright, Yuna, and Shaul Zevin. I thank them and apologize if I have missed anyone.

I would like to give particular thanks to Danny Mares of Mares and Company, author of the MaresWare Suite (primarily for the "subheaders" for many of the file types here), and the people at X-Ways Forensics for their permission to incorporate their lists of file signatures.

Finally, Dr. Nicole Beebe from The University of Texas at San Antonio posted samples of more than 32 file types at the Digital Corpora, which I used for verification and additional signatures. These files were used to develop the Sceadan File Type Classifier. The file samples can be downloaded from the Digital Corpora website.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

All information on this page © 2002-, Gary C. Kessler. Permission to use the material here is extended to any of this page's visitors, as long as appropriate attribution is provided and the information is not altered in any way without express written permission of the author.