magika

# Magika Magika is a novel AI-powered file type detection tool that relies on the recent advance of deep learning to provide accurate detection. Under the hood, Magika employs a custom, highly optimized model that only weighs about a few MBs, and enables precise file identification within milliseconds, even when running on a single CPU. Magika has been trained and evaluated on a dataset of ~100M samples across 200+ content types (covering both binary and textual file formats), and it achieves an average ~99% accuracy on our test set. Here is an example of what Magika command line output looks like:

Magika is used at scale to help improve Google users' safety by routing Gmail, Drive, and Safe Browsing files to the proper security and content policy scanners, processing hundreds billions samples on a weekly basis. Magika has also been integrated with [VirusTotal](https://www.virustotal.com/) ([example](./assets/magika-vt.png)) and [abuse.ch](https://bazaar.abuse.ch/) ([example](./assets/magika-abusech.png)). For more context you can read our initial [announcement post on Google's OSS blog](https://opensource.googleblog.com/2024/02/magika-ai-powered-fast-and-efficient-file-type-identification.html), you can consult [Magika's website](https://securityresearch.google/magika/), and you can read more in our [research paper](https://securityresearch.google/magika/additional-resources/research-papers-and-citation/), published at the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) 2025. You can try Magika without installing anything by using our [web demo](https://securityresearch.google/magika/demo/magika-demo/), which runs locally in your browser! # Highlights - Available as a command line tool written in Rust, a Python API, and additional bindings for Rust, JavaScript/TypeScript (with an experimental npm package, which powers our [web demo](https://securityresearch.google/magika/demo/magika-demo/)), and GoLang (WIP). - Trained and evaluated on a dataset of ~100M files across [200+ content types](./assets/models/standard_v3_3/README.md). - On our test set, Magika achieves ~99% average precision and recall, outperforming existing approaches -- especially on textual content types. - After the model is loaded (which is a one-off overhead), the inference time is about 5ms per file, even when run on a single CPU. - You can invoke Magika with even thousands of files at the same time. You can also use `-r` for recursively scanning a directory. - Near-constant inference time, independently from the file size; Magika only uses a limited subset of the file's content. - Magika uses a per-content-type threshold system that determines whether to "trust" the prediction for the model, or whether to return a generic label, such as "Generic text document" or "Unknown binary data". - The tolerance to errors can be controlled via different prediction modes, such as `high-confidence`, `medium-confidence`, and `best-guess`. - The client and the bindings are already open source, and more is coming soon! # Table of Contents 1. [Getting Started](#getting-started) 1. [Installation](#installation) 1. [Quick Start](#quick-start) 1. [Documentation](#documentation) 1. [Security Vulnerabilities](#security-vulnerabilities) 1. [License](#license) 1. [Disclaimer](#disclaimer) # Getting Started ## Installation ### Command Line Tool Magika ships a CLI written in Rust, and can be installed in several ways. Via `magika` python package: ```shell pipx install magika ``` Via brew (macOS / Linux) ```shell brew install magika ``` Via installer script: ```shell curl -LsSf https://securityresearch.google/magika/install.sh | sh ``` or: ```shell powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -c "irm https://securityresearch.google/magika/install.ps1 | iex" ``` Via `magika-cli` Rust package: ```shell cargo install --locked magika-cli ``` ### Python package ```shell pip install magika ``` ### JavaScript package ```shell npm install magika ``` ## Quick Start Here you can find a number of quick examples just to get you started. To learn about Magika's inner workings, see the [Core Concepts](https://securityresearch.google/magika/core-concepts/) section of Magika's website. ### Command Line Tool Examples ```shell % cd tests_data/basic && magika -r * | head asm/code.asm: Assembly (code) batch/simple.bat: DOS batch file (code) c/code.c: C source (code) css/code.css: CSS source (code) csv/magika_test.csv: CSV document (code) dockerfile/Dockerfile: Dockerfile (code) docx/doc.docx: Microsoft Word 2007+ document (document) docx/magika_test.docx: Microsoft Word 2007+ document (document) eml/sample.eml: RFC 822 mail (text) empty/empty_file: Empty file (inode) ``` ``` … ``` ```shell % cat tests_data/basic/ini/doc.ini | magika - -: INI configuration file (text) ``` ``` … ``` For more examples and documentation about the CLI, see https://crates.io/crates/magika-cli. ### Python Examples ```python >>> from magika import Magika >>> m = Magika() >>> res = m.identify_bytes(b'function log(msg) {console.log(msg);}') >>> print(res.output.label) javascript ``` ```python >>> from magika import Magika >>> m = Magika() >>> res = m.identify_path('./tests_data/basic/ini/doc.ini') >>> print(res.output.label) ini ``` ```python >>> from magika import Magika >>> m = Magika() >>> with open('./tests_data/basic/ini/doc.ini', 'rb') as f: >>> res = m.identify_stream(f) >>> print(res.output.label) ini ``` For more examples and documentation about the Python module, see the [Python `Magika` module](https://securityresearch.google/magika/cli-and-bindings/python/) section. # Documentation Please consult [Magika's website](https://securityresearch.google/magika) for detailed documentation about: - Core Concepts - How Magika works - Models & content types - Prediction modes - Understanding the output - CLI & Bindings (Python module, JavaScript module, ...) - Contributing - FAQ - ... # Security Vulnerabilities Please contact us directly at [email protected]. # License Apache 2.0; see [`LICENSE`](LICENSE) for details. # Disclaimer This project is not an official Google project. It is not supported by Google and Google specifically disclaims all warranties as to its quality, merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose.