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Online help tools & How do I read messages in image files?

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 3:54 pm
by Dry Ice
First of all here are some online tools we may need in the future (curtosy of Unfiction.com)

In the ILOVEBEES game there where alot of messages hidden in image files. It's been a while so can someone refresh my memory on how to find these messages?

Thanks.

Re: Online help tools & How do I read messages in image files?

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 4:01 pm
by iggy73
What I did last time was open up the image file (typically a jpg) in Notepad. The we pretty much parsed through the hex code until we saw the malformed characters staring back at us.

Keep in mind that the hexidecimal number system is Base 16 (vice binary as Base 2 and decimal as Base 10). As such, numbers 0-9 and letters A-F are used. So if you actually saw a word such as CO RT AN A you would know that shouldn't have been there, hence the message.

For those other coding types, my personal fave is running across the phrase: DE AD BE EF (dead beef) which is a perfectly legit Base-16 number. I'll let you convert it to decimal...

~Ig

Re: Online help tools & How do I read messages in image files?

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 4:10 pm
by iggy73
OK... so I ad to go and re-visit this because I started second guessing myself. The code wasn't in the hex-portion of the file but rather in the ASCII "garbage" that was on the right. See attached screenshot.

Oh the memories of parsing through thousands of lines of garbage to unearth those nuggets...

Re: Online help tools & How do I read messages in image files?

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 4:20 pm
by gunluva
Ducky?

Re: Online help tools & How do I read messages in image files?

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 4:27 pm
by iggy73
I saw that too... Ducky and Adobe... maybe keep it in the back pocket for now?

Re: Online help tools & How do I read messages in image files?

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 4:56 pm
by Crazyspawn
http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/ ... rhead.html

Apparently it is just a Adobe Photoshop easter egg.

Re: Online help tools & How do I read messages in image files?

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 5:00 pm
by iggy73
Thanks for the catch, Crazy. Looks like nothing useful came from the pic then...