Open Firebird embedded database file

I had a data file of uknown type that I wanted to get the data out of.

The file utility was not helpful:

$ file WTANavigator.dat
WTANavigator.dat: data

strings on the other hand gave me something I can Google:

$ strings WTANavigator.dat
...
RDB$FIELD_NAME
RDB$FIELDS
RDB$FIELD_NAME
RDB$CHARACTER_SET_NAME
RDB$DATABASE
RDB$CHARACTER_SET_NAME
RDB$SECURITY_CLASS
RDB$DATABASE
RDB$SECURITY_CLASS
...

Looks like some kind of embedded database file.

A quick Google search revealed that it's most likely a Firebird SQL database.

How to open it?

One option is to use Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) since it looks like Firebird has an ODBC driver but I was too lazy to write code.

Database .NET

Database .NET is a database explorer that can open embedded Firebird files.

• Step 1. Download and extract the 32-bit Free and Plus edition of Database .NET
• Step 2. Download the Firebird embedded zip file from Firebird downloads
• Step 3. Extract the Firebird-2.5.6.27020-0_Win32_embed.zip file and place your data file in this directory
• Step 4. Download and install Firebird Superserver
• Step 5. Add write permissions to the C:\Program Files (x86)\Firebird directory to your user
• Step 6. Run Database.NET, connect to Firebird and choose Database file

Leave Login name and Password as they are, they do not affect the data file.

You can browse the database, run queries, etc.

It's also possible to export tables as TSV (tab separated values) files 100 times using the free edition.

Errors

Unable to complete network request to host "localhost".

Make sure the Firebird SuperServer is started and running.

cannot attach to password database

Give yourself write permissions to C:\Program Files (x86)\Firebird.