Tauri Dumper

Tauri Dumper is a Rust CLI and library for inspecting, extracting, and replace-patching embedded frontend assets in compiled Tauri applications.

It is designed for interoperability research, debugging, migration work, and authorized patching of applications you are allowed to inspect or modify.

Warning

Use this project only on software you own or have explicit permission to analyze. Tauri Dumper does not grant rights to modify or redistribute third party applications.

What This Tool Does

• Detects embedded Tauri frontend assets in PE, Mach-O, and ELF binaries.
• Decompresses Brotli-compressed assets and exports them to a directory.
• Lists assets as a readable directory tree.
• Writes a reproducible tauri-dumper.manifest.json with source metadata, asset offsets, compressed sizes, and hashes.
• Replaces existing embedded assets in a patched binary copy.
• Exposes the same primitives as a Rust library.

What This Tool Does Not Do

Tauri Dumper is not a decompiler and it cannot reconstruct a full Tauri project from extracted files.

A Tauri application is more than its frontend bundle. The executable also contains Rust backend code, Tauri command handlers, IPC contracts, permissions/capabilities, native integrations, window configuration, build metadata, and platform packaging details. Extracted assets are useful for inspection and patching, but they are not equivalent to the original source repository.

Practical distinction:

• Patching an existing application by replacing known embedded assets is supported.
• Building a new complete application from dumped assets alone is not supported.
• Adding new embedded asset entries or deleting existing entries is not supported.

Install

Install from crates.io:

cargo install tauri-dumper

Download prebuilt binaries from GitHub Releases:

https://github.com/Mas0nShi/tauri-dumper/releases

Build from source:

git clone https://github.com/Mas0nShi/tauri-dumper.git
cd tauri-dumper
cargo build --release

Quick Start

Inspect a binary:

tauri-dumper inspect ./App.exe

Verify that Tauri assets can be found:

tauri-dumper verify ./App.exe

List embedded assets:

tauri-dumper list ./App.exe

Example list output:

Assets: 198
├── _app
│   ├── env.js (23 B compressed, 19 B decompressed)
│   └── immutable
│       ├── assets
│       │   └── app.css (40 KiB compressed, 224 KiB decompressed)
│       └── chunks
│           └── app.js (18 KiB compressed, 69 KiB decompressed)
└── index.html (1.3 KiB compressed, 7.5 KiB decompressed)

Extract assets:

tauri-dumper extract ./App.exe -o ./assets

The default shortcut is equivalent to extract:

tauri-dumper ./App.exe -o ./assets

Patch an existing asset in a binary copy:

tauri-dumper repack ./App.exe --assets ./assets -o ./App.patched.exe

Always test the result in an isolated environment before replacing an application in place.

Commands

Command	Purpose
tauri-dumper list <binary>	Print embedded assets as a directory tree.
tauri-dumper inspect <binary>	Print binary metadata and aggregate asset statistics.
tauri-dumper verify <binary>	Fail fast if no valid embedded Tauri assets are found.
tauri-dumper extract <binary> -o <dir>	Decompress and export assets.
tauri-dumper repack <binary> --assets <dir> -o <patched-binary>	Replace existing assets in a patched binary copy.

Common read options:

--json
--quiet
--verbose

Extraction options:

--include <glob>
--exclude <glob>
--overwrite
--skip-existing
--dry-run

Repack options:

--strict
--skip-oversized
--dry-run
--allow-source-mismatch
--ad-hoc-sign

Use --json when integrating with scripts or CI:

tauri-dumper list ./App.exe --json
tauri-dumper repack ./App.exe --assets ./assets -o ./App.patched.exe --json

Replace-Only Repack

Tauri embeds frontend assets into the application binary as static data, pointers, and runtime lookup structures. A safe cross-platform repack flow can reuse existing offsets, but it cannot safely invent new asset table entries or remove existing ones without rebuilding format-specific binary structures.

For that reason, repack is intentionally replace-only.

Supported:

• Replace an asset path that already exists in the scanned binary.
• Replace an asset with smaller or equal-size Brotli-compressed bytes.
• Replace an asset with empty or minimal valid content if the target app can tolerate that content.
• Write a patched binary copy without expanding sections.

Unsupported:

• Add a new asset path.
• Delete an existing asset entry.
• Expand binary sections.
• Rewrite application asset maps, lookup tables, relocations, or fixups.
• Rebuild a complete Tauri project from dumped frontend files.

Size Rule

Replacement content is Brotli-compressed before it is written back. Tauri Dumper tries multiple Brotli quality levels and selects the smallest compressed output it can produce.

A replacement is accepted only if:

new_compressed_size <= original_compressed_size

If the replacement is larger, repack fails by default:

tauri-dumper repack ./App.exe --assets ./assets -o ./App.patched.exe

Skip oversized replacements instead:

tauri-dumper repack ./App.exe --assets ./assets -o ./App.patched.exe --skip-oversized

Additions And Missing Files

Files in the asset directory that do not match an existing embedded asset path are reported as unsupported additions. They are ignored by default:

tauri-dumper repack ./App.exe --assets ./assets -o ./App.patched.exe

Make unsupported additions an error:

tauri-dumper repack ./App.exe --assets ./assets -o ./App.patched.exe --strict

Missing replacement files mean "leave the original asset unchanged".

Manifest Validation

extract writes tauri-dumper.manifest.json by default. During repack, if that manifest is present, Tauri Dumper checks that the source binary hash still matches the binary being patched.

Override this check only when you know the asset directory is compatible with the target binary:

tauri-dumper repack ./App.exe --assets ./assets -o ./App.patched.exe --allow-source-mismatch

macOS Signing

Patching a Mach-O binary changes its contents and normally invalidates the existing code signature. Sign the patched binary before launching:

codesign --force --deep --sign - ./App.patched

On macOS, --ad-hoc-sign can run the ad-hoc signing command after a successful repack:

tauri-dumper repack ./App --assets ./assets -o ./App.patched --ad-hoc-sign

Compatibility

Prebuilt Tauri Dumper binaries are published for:

Host OS	Host architecture
macOS	x86_64, aarch64
Windows	x86_64, aarch64
Linux	x86_64, aarch64

Target application formats:

Target application	Binary format	Status
Windows Tauri desktop app	PE, 64-bit	Supported and covered by real fixtures.
macOS Tauri desktop app	Mach-O, 64-bit	Supported and covered by real fixtures.
Linux Tauri desktop app	ELF, 64-bit	Supported and covered by real x86_64 fixtures.
Android Tauri app library	ELF shared object, aarch64	Supported and covered by real fixtures.
32-bit binaries	PE/Mach-O/ELF	Not supported.

Parsing is implemented through object::File::parse with format-specific pointer resolution for PE, Mach-O, and ELF.

Manifest

extract writes a manifest next to exported assets:

assets/
├── index.html
├── _app/
└── tauri-dumper.manifest.json

The manifest records:

• source binary path, SHA-256, size, format, and architecture;
• asset names;
• header offsets and data offsets;
• original compressed sizes;
• decompressed sizes;
• compressed asset SHA-256 hashes.

This file is intended for auditability and for repack safety checks.

Library API

use tauri_dumper::{AssetScanner, BinaryImage, ExportOptions, Repacker};

fn main() -> tauri_dumper::Result<()> {
    let image = BinaryImage::open("App.exe")?;
    let table = AssetScanner::scan(&image)?;
    table.export(&ExportOptions::new("assets"))?;

    let image = BinaryImage::open("App.exe")?;
    let table = AssetScanner::scan(&image)?;
    Repacker::new(image, table)
        .replace_from_dir("assets")
        .write("App.patched.exe")?;

    Ok(())
}

The library uses typed errors via tauri_dumper::Error and tauri_dumper::Result.

Development

Install the Rust stable toolchain, then run:

cargo fmt --all -- --check
cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings
cargo test --workspace --all-targets

Real-world regression fixtures are configured in tests/fixtures/fixtures.toml. Download them with:

./scripts/download-fixtures.sh

Run release-mode smoke tests:

cargo test --release -- --nocapture

Validate the crates.io package locally:

cargo package --allow-dirty

Release Process

The GitHub release workflow is tag based:

git tag -a vX.Y.Z -m "Release vX.Y.Z"
git push origin vX.Y.Z

The release workflow builds and uploads platform artifacts for macOS, Windows, and Linux on x86_64 and aarch64.

Publish the crate after the release tag has been validated:

cargo publish --dry-run
cargo publish

Security And Responsible Use

Tauri Dumper is intended for legitimate analysis and authorized modification. It does not bypass licensing, DRM, server-side authorization, or application security controls. When patching software, keep backups of the original binary and verify behavior in a controlled environment before distribution or use.

License

MIT