The Curious Case of the Hidden Bytes
The Curious Case of the Hidden Bytes
Embedded Files
all site content is being moved over to EJMEDIA.CA - please visit us there!
Detective Byte is on the case, but he needs your help! Somewhere within this seemingly ordinary image, a secret lies waiting to be found. Use your wits, tools, and maybe even a bit of "magic" to uncover the concealed message.
Can you crack the code?
HINT 01
HINT 01
Sometimes, an image is more than just what meets the eye. Could there be something tucked away inside the file itself?
HINT 02
HINT 02
If you’re feeling lost, try thinking about file structures. What happens when different files come together? Maybe an image isn’t just an image…
HINT 03
HINT 03
Look closely at the file using some basic forensics tools or a hex editor. What starts with ‘PK’ might be the key to unlocking this puzzle. Remember "magic bytes"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_file_signatures
SOLUTION
SOLUTION
To solve this challenge, open the image in a hex editor and search for the magic bytes 50 4B (the signature for a ZIP file). Once you find them, extract everything from the ZIP header to the end of the file. Rename the extracted portion to .zip, and unzip it to reveal the hidden contents! The online editor https://hexed.it works quite nicely for this for working with files and will even let you copy the .zip bytes and save them separately!
create it yourself
create it yourself
Create ZIP file(s) with the secret contents and save them into your folder (folder_name).
zip -r -9 hidden.zip folder_name
Concatenate the ZIP to a PNG, GIF or JPG image:
cat image.jpg hidden.zip > combined_image.jpg
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse