Full & Pro versions

Malcat comes in three different editions, which you can download or buy from our website:

  • Malcat Lite is a free (as in free food) edition with some limitations

  • Malcat Full is the full version of the tool, affordable by hobbyists

  • Malcat Pro is targeted toward computer infosec professionals. It allows commercial use and comes with support

Note

If you are not sure if the software can run on your configuration, please test with the free lite edition first.

Features comparison

We have tried to make the lite version of Malcat relatively complete. It means there are no time limitation nor nag screen in the free version. Features-wise, it should be enough if you just want to analyse some programs/file formats from time to time.

On the other hand, if you do RE/malware analysis on a regular basis, the full and pro versions of Malcat offer additional features that you may find useful:

Feature

Malcat Lite

Malcat Full

Malcat Professional

hexadecimal / structure editor

file format parser (40+ formats)

file carving + extraction

Yara scanner + editor

strings and symbols

transform data in-place (50+ algos)

scripting support

disassemblers

x86/x64 only

decompilers

threat intelligence

anomaly scanner

headless scripting

support

best effort

commercial use

The full edition of Malcat is currently priced at 49€ on our website. The professional version is priced at 199€. Paid versions give you access to unlimited use of the software on Linux and Windows platforms (the software can be installed on up to five different machines), and access to product updates for one year. The licenses are named license.

Activate the software

If you have bought a full or professional copy of Malcat, first a big thank you for supporting the development of this software. You should have received a link to download the archive + a license key. You now need to activate your license. It needs to be done after every purchase or license renewal, so about once a year. To activate the license on a machine, you have two choices: online or offline activation.

A license can be activated on up to 5 different hardware, e.g. 1 computer using Linux, one laptop using Windows 10 and a virtual machine running Windows 11 would make 3 distinct activations. But don’t worry if you reach your activation limit, you can always contact us and we’ll find a way to make it work.

Note

It is totally safe to activate a software several times on the same machine: it won’t consume additional activation token!

Online activation

If your computer is connected to the internet, activating the software is pretty easy. Open the activation dialog using the menu: Help ‣ Activate/show license. Enter your license, click Activate and voilà, you’re good to go!

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Activate the software online

The activation performs a https request to https://license.malcat.fr so make sure your firewall is ok with that. If you have a system proxy defined, it should be used automatically. After activation, a message box will tell you how many activations you have left.

Offline activation

If your computer is not connected to the internet, there is an offline activation procedure available. You will need a second computer (aka the relay) connected to the internet. First, on your offline computer, you have to copy the computer’s installation ID. Open the About dialog via Help ‣ About and copy the Installation field: this is a unique identifier for your hardware. Make also note whether you are running the normal (aka full) of professional (aka commercial) version of Malcat, and have your license key ready.

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Copy installation id for offline activation

Now go to your second relay computer with an active internet connexion, and navigate to https://license.malcat.fr. Click on the Try it out button of the register method and enter all the 3 informations you have saved. When you are done, click on the Execute button:

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Run the activation

If everything went well, you should get a status code of 200. You can copy your activation code (the code field) and transfer it to your offline computer.

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Copy your activation code

Finally on your offline computer, run Malcat and open the license dialog using the menu: Help ‣ Activate/show license. Enter your activation code, click Activate and voilà, you’re good to go!

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Paste the activation code there

Note that you don’t need to redo this process before your next license renewal.

License management

Renew your license

Why and when to renew your license?

You can use the full and pro versions of Malcat for as long as you want, but you will get updates for one year only. After this period of time, you can continue to use the software skipping new updates, or renew your license at a 50% discount of the original purchase price.

You don’t have to renew the license every year though, you may chose to renew your license at the time of your choice (even long after the 1 year threshold) and you will always benefit of the low license renewal price (50%). Or if you are happy with the current set of features, you don’t have to renew at all. We don’t want to milk users every year. It’s up to us to convince you that Malcat’s improvements are worth it.

License renewal process

When you have bought your first copy of Malcat, you got per email a download link which includes a license renewal link (first item in the screenshot below). Clicking on this item will bring you to a license purchase web page where you will be able to buy new licenses to extend your update period.

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Your sendowl basket contains a license renewal link

Note that the license renewal item will only allow you to buy bare licenses and won’t give you access to the software. In order to download the zip archives containing the software, you’ll have to use the same download link that you got with your first purchase.

Once you have bought your new license, you need to activate it once like you did the first time (cf. Activate the software). If you installed Malcat on multiple machines, you need to reactivate every installations.

You can now install new versions of the software for one year, congratulations!

Manage registered computers

A website allowing you to manage your registered computers will be coming soon.