# simsong/bulk_extractor

This is the development tree. Production downloads are at:

Repository: https://github.com/simsong/bulk_extractor
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/bulk_extractor
Homepage: https://github.com/simsong/bulk_extractor/releases
Language: C++
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Last push: 2026-08-18T02:21:24+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 87/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:39:23.370411+00:00)
- activity 98, release rhythm 66, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5265, "days_push": 16, "days_rel": 15, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1415, forks 219 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:39.737614+00:00)

## What it is
bulk_extractor is a high-performance digital forensics tool that rapidly scans disk images, files, and directories to extract structured information like email addresses, credit card numbers, JPEGs, and JSON snippets without parsing file systems. It recursively probes and decompresses data to find encoded artifacts that traditional carving tools miss, outputting results as easily searchable text files and histograms.

## Use cases
- extract email addresses and credit card numbers from disk images
- carve JPEGs and BASE64-encoded files from forensic evidence
- scan unallocated disk space for structured data without file system parsing
- generate histograms of search terms and email addresses for investigations
- recursively decompress and scan compressed data streams in evidence files

## When to choose
- you need fast, file-system-agnostic extraction of features from disk images or arbitrary data
- you want to find encoded or compressed artifacts that standard carving tools miss
- you need text-file outputs and histograms suitable for investigative workflows

## When to avoid
- you need a GUI-driven forensic suite with case management
- you require native support on unsupported platforms like Debian 10
- you want a tool that parses file system structures rather than raw content

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: parser, search-engine, data-science
- domain: security, files
- platform: cli
- tags: digital-forensics, data-carving, disk-images, feature-extraction, law-enforcement, forensics, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- simsong/bulk_extractor (main) score 87

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:39.737614+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:38:10.245160+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/simsong/bulk_extractor (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:39.737614+00:00, sha 6d040f9ddb3e)
  - homepage: https://github.com/simsong/bulk_extractor/releases (fetched 2026-08-29T11:50:55.287132+00:00, sha 847db6709eb6)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.