Hawkynt

BinHex 4.0 (Macintosh)

Binary-to-text encoding system used on classic Mac OS for sending binary files over email. Includes run-length encoding and CRC protection for Macintosh file forks. Educational implementation based on Yves Lempereur’s original BinHex 4.0 specification.

Properties

Property	Value
Category	Encoding Schemes
Sub-category	File Encoding
Security status	🎓 Educational Only
Complexity	Intermediate
Inventor	Yves Lempereur
Year	1985
Origin	🇫🇷 France
Source	algorithms/encoding/binhex.js

Security

Status: 🎓 Educational Only

No vulnerabilities are recorded for this implementation.

Documentation

• BinHex 4.0 Definition
• RFC 1741: MIME Content Type for BinHex
• Macintosh File System

References

• Classic Mac OS
• Apple File Exchange
• Binary Encoding History

Test vectors

2 vectors ship with this algorithm and run in the test suite. Byte values are hexadecimal.

Vector 1 — BinHex empty file test

Source: BinHex 4.0 specification

Field	Value
input	(empty)
expected	28546869732066696c65206d75737420 626520636f6e76657274656420776974 682042696e48657820342e30290a3a0a 3a

Vector 2 — Basic BinHex encoding test

Source: Educational example

Field	Value
input	48656c6c6f
expected	28546869732066696c65206d75737420 626520636f6e76657274656420776974 682042696e48657820342e30290a3a35 27395845276d210a3a

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