Linux kernel compressed files have some text strings

Like 'styles', 'breast', 'SEEMED', 'monaco', 'headed', 'AERIAL', 'NATHAN' and even 'for(;'.

You can check this yourself:

# wget https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v5.x/linux-5.2.10.tar.xz

# xxd -g 1 -seek 0x03A28040 -l 0x10 linux-5.2.10.tar.xz

03a28040: 6d 59 70 58 37 9c f2 da 73 74 79 6c 65 73 87 13  mYpX7...styles..

# wget https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/projects/cip/4.4/linux-cip-4.4.281-cip61.tar.xz

# xxd -g 1 -seek 0x01517E90 -l 0x10 linux-cip-4.4.281-cip61.tar.xz

01517e90: 62 72 65 61 73 74 a8 dc 18 bb c1 c9 53 5f 3f 8f  breast......S_?.

# wget https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.39.2.tar.bz2

# xxd -g 1 -seek 0x03519320 -l 0x30 linux-2.6.39.2.tar.bz2

03519320: 61 70 fd 07 43 c0 3a 72 38 e5 35 4d 2c 92 cc b4  ap..C.:r8.5M,...
03519330: 49 49 51 15 14 54 55 15 53 45 45 4d 45 44 d1 15  IIQ..TU.SEEMED..
03519340: 55 51 4d 51 35 05 50 41 54 45 54 87 fc 9f bb a7  UQMQ5.PATET.....

# wget https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.10.25.tar.gz

# xxd -g 1 -seek 0x023B1180 -l 0x10 linux-3.10.25.tar.gz

023b1180: 40 90 2c 6f b1 74 84 ec 00 6d 6f 6e 61 63 6f 9e  @.,o.t...monaco.

# wget https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.4.41.tar.bz2

# xxd -g 1 -seek 0x020E7C70 -l 0x20 linux-3.4.41.tar.bz2

020e7c70: cc 12 90 a4 4b 1a 43 18 36 8c 93 4d 99 68 65 61  ....K.C.6..M.hea
020e7c80: 64 65 64 84 5a 21 f1 c4 1e d5 fd ef 78 3a 53 82  ded.Z!......x:S.

# wget https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.4.3.tar.bz2

# xxd -g 1 -seek 0x03FD2590 -l 0x20 linux-3.4.3.tar.bz2

03fd2590: 0a 1a 66 69 34 a6 90 8a 8b 63 1b 49 46 91 41 45  ..fi4....c.IF.AE
03fd25a0: 52 49 41 4c a9 ac b2 52 01 9b 62 18 d2 5a 24 66  RIAL...R..b..Z$f

# wget https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.16.55.tar.gz

# xxd -g 1 -seek 0x028B25C0 -l 0x10 linux-3.16.55.tar.gz

028b25c0: b9 fd b4 d4 1d c3 6e 75 ac 4e 41 54 48 41 4e d8  ......nu.NATHAN.

# wget https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/next/patch-v3.4-rc4-next-20120423.bz2

# xxd -g 1 -seek 0x00225670 -l 0x10 patch-v3.4-rc4-next-20120423.bz2

00225670: 34 ef 66 6f 72 28 3b 80 40 23 47 82 95 f3 bb 80  4.for(;.@#G.....

Read more in Mathematics ⋂ programming, Ctrl-F: '8.1 Text strings right in the middle of compressed data'.

This time I had to sieve ~1.6TiB of compressed files from kernel.org.

(the post first published at 20251002.)


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