Decode hex-encoded strings in AppArmor logs
Decode a hex string
aa-decode [hexstring]
Decode a log file
sudo aa-decode [logfile]
Decode logs from stdin
sudo aa-decode - < [logfile]
Pipe kernel logs through aa-decode
cat /var/log/kern.log | aa-decode
aa-decode [option] HEX_STRING
aa-decode decodes hexadecimal-encoded strings found in AppArmor log output. It processes audit logs from standard input and converts any hex-encoded AppArmor entries to human-readable format on standard output.
AppArmor encodes certain characters (like spaces and special characters) in hexadecimal format within log entries to prevent parsing issues. This utility converts those back to readable text.
--help
Displays usage information
The utility only decodes hexadecimal strings in the specific format used by AppArmor logs. Other hex-encoded data may not be decoded correctly.
Part of the AppArmor utilities package for managing application security profiles on Linux systems.