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 (50+ 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		☑	☑
Kesakode access		40 queries / month	80 queries / month
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.

Paid versions FAQ 

What kind of license is offered?

Currently only named license are offered. If you want to integrate Malcat in your tool (for instance via headless scripting, see Legal restrictions when using the python module), please Contact us.

Why is the price low in comparison to XXX?

We have deliberately kept the price down in comparison to other similar software. First, because Malcat is currently in beta phase. It means that while the software is finished and polished, it has not been tested extensively by its user base and documentation is kind of sparse.

Second, we find it way more motivating to have a big user base that a big bank account (not that any of these is likely to happen anyway). Malcat is a side project done mainly by passion. Money is just there to afford more time working on the software.

What does it mean to buy a license?

Paid versions give you access to unlimited use of the software on Linux and Windows platforms, and access to product updates for one year. Licenses are user-locked and allow installation on up to 5 different machines.

After your purchase, you’ll receive an email with a download link and a license key. You may download the software an unlimited amount of times during your 1 year period. You’ll get notified of updates on the same email address. Once your updates period ends, you’ll still be able to use the software, but you won’t be able to install new updates.

How long can I use/update the software? Do I need to renew every year?

If you purchase a license, you may run the software for an unlimited period of time. You only get updates for one year though. After this period of one year, you may still run the software, but won’t be able to get new updates until you renew your license.

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%). We don’t want to milk users every year. It’s up to us to convince you that Malcat’s improvements are worth it.

What do you mean by “commercial use”?

Commercial use means use in your daily (paid) job or in any activity that directly or indirectly generates revenues. Here are two examples that may be helpful:

Non-commercial usage: You are a network administrator at a commercial organization with discretionary budget and have been practicing CTF on your own time using work resources (approved by work). Your usage qualifies for non-commercial use as you are using Malcat purely for educational, non-commercial purposes.
Commercial usage: You are a network administrator at a non-profit or government organization who regularly engages in malware analysis as a part of your job. You plan to use Malcat to analyze malware during paid work-hours. Your use is commercial.

We also apply a “de minimis” standard. If your use (running ads on Youtube videos, for example) makes you less money than 5 times the cost of a pro license, we’re happy to have you continue to use a personal license. Once you start making above this amount, we ask that you then upgrade. If you have a doubt, Contact us for more information.

Can I purchase via a purchase order or get an invoice?

Purchase orders and invoices are supported for purchases of 5 or more copies of the Pro license. Contact us for more information.

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 (belonging to you), 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!

../_images/activate.png — 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 sure your license key ready.

../_images/activate2.png — 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 informations you have saved. When you are done, click on the Execute button:

../_images/activate3.png — 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.

../_images/activate4.png — 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!

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.

../_images/renew.png — 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.