Thanks to the Linux Unplugged podcast, I came across Lenspect by VirusTotal — an open-source binary inspection tool for Linux.
🔗 GitHub Repository
🎧 How I Discovered It
While tuning into the Linux Unplugged podcast (Episode 638), amongst other things, what caught my attention was Lenspect.
Since I’m a Linux user and I follow Cyber Security as my profession, this tool instantly caught my interest.
🧠 What Is This Tool?
To put it simply, this is a binary inspection and visualization tool inspired by VirusTotal, designed for Linux machines.
It integrates with VirusTotal via an API key (optional) so you can combine local binary inspection with VirusTotal lookups and metadata.
Lenspect lets you visually inspect binary files like ELF and PE, showing headers, sections, and metadata in a graphical layout.
It’s perfect for reverse engineers, security researchers, or anyone who loves exploring what’s inside executables.
🧰 My Experience
The app not being available in Debian-based systems’ default app manager (apt) was a small inconvenience — but a valid one since it’s still in early development.
The need to manually build it with Flatpak was another minor bump, but thanks to the clear documentation and instructions in the GitHub repo, the process was smooth and pleasant.
According to my experience, the main difference compared to the traditional VirusTotal web interface is that this functions as an app and not a webpage.
⚙️ Why I Liked It
Unlike VirusTotal’s online interface, Lenspect runs fully offline and locally — giving you control, privacy, and a clean visual way to analyze binaries right from Linux. When combined with the VirusTotal API, it also provides enhanced lookup and metadata capabilities.
🏷️ Tags
#Linux #CyberSecurity #OpenSource #VirusTotal #Lenspect #LinuxUnplugged #InfoSec #ReverseEngineering #LinuxTools