hextool

Simple command line tool for converting strings to hex and hex to string. Written in Rust!

This is my personal tool intended to be used for CTFs. I am aware that tools like hex and unhex already exist. However, I want to strengthen my Rust skills, therefore, I decided to make my own implementation and eventually distribute it to crates.io.

Installation

For now the only way to install hextool command line tool is through cargo

cargo install hextool

Usage

Commandline tool to convert hex to string and string to hex

Usage: hextool <COMMAND>

Commands:
  hex    Change input to hex
  unhex  Change input from hex
  help   Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Options:
  -h, --help     Print help
  -V, --version  Print version

hextool as lib

hextool could also be used as a library for your rust projects. You can do so by adding it to your cargo.toml

[dependencies]
hextool = { version = "version", default-features = false }

Usage

With hextool you can use Hex and UnHex to convert strings from and to hex strings.

Convert trait

Both Hex and UnHex implements this trait. This trait has a function called convert and it has the following parameters. It's important to know these parameters because it changes how the output.

fn convert(input: &str, numeric: bool, split: bool) -> String

• input - The input to convert
• numeric - If set to true, the input will be considered as a numeric value.
  • If the input value turns out to be a non-numeric value, the implementation will return a string containing a matching error message.
• split - If set to true, the output will be split in bytes.
  • For Hex this will separate the converted input to bytes.
    • aa -> 61 61
  • For UnHex this will separate the converted hex to a single ascii.
    • 6161 -> a a

Converting string to hex

use hextool::{Hex, Convert};

// Convert a string to hex
let hex = Hex::convert("hello", false, false);
println!("hello in hex: {}", hex); 
// #=> "hello in hex: 68656c6c6f"

// You can also split the output in bytes
let hex = Hex::convert("hello", false, true);
println!("hello in hex: {}", hex); 
// #=> "hello in hex: 68 65 6c 6c 6f"

// Convert a string with numeric flag. This will take the numerical value of the string.
// If the string is not a number, it will return an error.
let hex = Hex::convert("255", true, false);
println!("255 in hex: {}", hex); 
// #=> "255 in hex: {ff}"

Converting hex to string

use hextool::{UnHex, Convert};

// Convert a hex string to a string
let unhex = UnHex::convert("68656c6c6f", false, false);
println!("68656c6c6f in string: {}", unhex); 
// #=> "68656c6c6f in string: hello"

// Convert a hex string to a string with numeric flag. This will take the numerical value of the string.
let unhex = UnHex::convert("cafebabe", true, false);
println!("cafebabe in string: {}", unhex); 
// #=> "cafebabe in string: 3405691582"

// If numeric is set to false, only valid strings [0-9a-f] is accepted. If the string is not valid,
// it will return the string with the invalid string highlighted to red.
let unhex = UnHex::convert("aga", true, false);
println!("{}", unhex); 
// #=> "The highlighted chars can't be converted:\nag\u{1b}[31ma\u{1b}[0m."