CuTEx analyzes images in the infrared bands and extracts sources from complex backgrounds, particularly star-forming regions that offer the challenges of crowding, having a highly spatially variable background, and having no-psf profiles such as protostars in their accreting phase. The code is composed of two main algorithms, the first an algorithm for source detection, and the second for flux extraction. The code is originally written in IDL language and it was exported in the license free GDL language. CuTEx could be used in other bands or in scientific cases different from the native case.

This software is also available as an on-line tool from the Multi-Mission Interactive Archive web pages dedicated to the Herschel Observatory.