Random idea -> Data to Images

[Benign]

Um, either I'm confused, or it actually is nothing new. Open up your FTP client, change file extension .exe to .png and upload it? Seems as simple as that.

[Elio]

SECUR - u are confused

[Flash]

SECUR - u are confused

Yes. Yes he is.

[FancyPants]

Um, either I'm confused, or it actually is nothing new. Open up your FTP client, change file extension .exe to .png and upload it? Seems as simple as that.

Not possible... will corrupt everything. That is like renaming an exe to txt to get the source code

[Dominator]

So what your trying to do is convert data into an image.
Kind of like how binary code work, but even better
Am i right?

[Hyperz]

Erm... Yes... But then erm...
Let's just say yes.

[SplitIce]

Ive actually seen it done before.

Something like this, off the top of my head would suffice.

    function file2image($filename,$image){
        $h = $w = floor(filesize($filename)/2);
        $h += ceil((filesize($filename)/2-$w)/$w);
        $gd = imagecreate($w,$h);
        $fp = fopen($filename,'rb');
        $wc = $hc =0;

        $color = array();
        for($i=0;$i<=255;$i++){
            $color[$i] = imagecolorallocate($gd,$i,$i,$i);
        }

        while(!feof($fp)){
            $r = fread($fp,1);
            imagesetpixel($gd,$wc,$hc,$color[ord($r)]);
            $wc++;
            if($wc>$w){
                $wc = 0;
                $hc++;
            }
        }
        imagepng($gd,$image,9,PNG_NO_FILTER);

        imagedestroy($gd);
    }

    function image2file($filename,$image){
        $fp = fopen($filename,'wb');
        $gd = imagecreatefrompng($image);
        list($w,$h) = getimagesize($image);
        for($ih=0;$ih<$h;$ih++){
            for($iw=0;$iw<$w;$iw++){
                $rgb = imagecolorat($gd,$iw,$ih);
                fwrite($fp,chr($rgb));
            }
        }
        imagedestroy($gd);
        fclose($fp);
    }

[SplitIce]

Ok heres a better script with an actual file format. Tell me what you think HyperZ, you can make a desktop extracter if you want

<?
    $im = new ImageContainer('file.txt','image');
    $im->CreateSplit(1024*50);//50kb split.
    /*
    Note: this is filesized splits not the output image size, the output size will depend on compression, if its text you can expect a output size of roughly 20% of the file
    else if its actually binary you can expect around 20% overhead.
    */

    $im2 = new ImageContainerExtract('image0.png');
    $im2->Extract_File('php://output');
    error_reporting(E_ALL);

    class ImageContainer {
        private $file = '';
        private $number_total = 0;
        private $out = '';

        function ImageContainer($file,$out){
            $this->file = $file;
            if(!file_exists($file)){
                throw new Exception('File does not exist');
            }
            $this->out = $out;
        }

        function CreateSplit($split){
            $fs = filesize($this->file);
            if($split>$fs){
                $split = $fs;
            }
            $this->number_total = ceil($fs/$split);//Total number of splits
            $fp = fopen($this->file,'rb');
            $i = 0;
            while($fs>0){
                $h = $w = floor(sqrt($split));
                $h += ceil((sqrt($split)-$w)/$w);
                $fs -= $h*$w;
                $this->file2image($i,$fp,$this->out.$i.'.png',$w,$h,$split);
                $i++;
            }
            fclose($fp);
        }

        function file2image($split_no,$fp,$image,$w,$h,$split){
            $header = '[I]'.dechex($split_no).'.'.dechex($this->number_total).'.'.base64_encode(basename($this->file)).'|';
            if(strlen($header)>$w*$h-$split){
                $h++;
            }

            $gd = imagecreate($w,$h);

            $color = array();
            for($i=0;$i<=255;$i++){
                $color[$i] = imagecolorallocate($gd,$i,$i,$i);
            }
            $wc = $hc =0;        

            for($hc=0;$hc<$h;$hc++){
                for($wc=0;$wc<$w;$wc++){
                    $r = '';
                    if($header) {
                        $r=$header{0};
                        $header = substr($header,1);
                    }else $r = fread($fp,1);
                    imagesetpixel($gd,$wc,$hc,$color[ord($r)]);
                }
            }
            imagepng($gd,$image,9,PNG_NO_FILTER);

            imagedestroy($gd);
        }
    }

    class ImageContainerExtract {
        private $file = '';
        private $efile = '';
        private $data = array();
        private $parts = 1;

        function ImageContainerExtract($file){
            $this->file = $file;
            $this->data[0] = $this->decode_image_raw($file);
            $part_number = $this->ReadHeader(0,true);
            if($part_number!==0){
                throw new Exception('Not first part.');
            }
            for($i=1;$i<$this->parts;$i++){
                $filen = str_replace('0.png',$i.'.png',$file);
                $this->data[$i] = $this->decode_image_raw($filen);
            }
        }

        function ReadHeader($index,$strip=true){
            $mark = substr($this->data[$index],0,3);
            switch($mark){
                case '[I]':
                    $endof = strpos($this->data[$index],'|');
                    $header = substr($this->data[$index],0,$endof);
                    if($strip){
                        $this->data[$index] = substr($this->data[$index],$endof+1);
                    }
                    list($part_number,$this->parts,$this->efile) = explode('.',$header);
                    $part_number = hexdec($part_number);
                    $this->parts = hexdec($this->parts);
                    $this->efile = base64_decode($this->efile);
                    return $part_number;
                    break;
            }
        }

        function decode_image_raw($image){
            $ret = '';
            $gd = imagecreatefrompng($image);
            list($w,$h) = getimagesize($image);
            for($ih=0;$ih<$h;$ih++){
                for($iw=0;$iw<$w;$iw++){
                    $rgb = imagecolorat($gd,$iw,$ih);
                    $ret .= chr($rgb);
                }
            }
            imagedestroy($gd);
            return $ret;
        }

        function Extract_File(){
            $fp = fopen($this->efile,'wb');
            foreach($this->data as $d){
                fwrite($fp,$d);
            }
            fclose($fp);
        }
    }
?>

FYI HyperZ to reduce all overheads ensure you use PNG8 hence only 256 combinations for colours which works nicely with the 255 different ascii characters. Also width should be equal to height (or height+1 if it isnt round) for a single file (no splits) to reduce filesize.

Anyway would be nice to hear your insight on my format, Im thinking about adding md5 and some other stuff (will add a different format specifier other than [I] to keep it backwards compatible)

[Hyperz]

Lol at the idea using php for this. It's gonna be way to slow, especially for public use. I suggest you encode and decode a 10mb file to a 1600? pixel png file. After that picture what it will be like with a divx or even a game.

PNG8 is also a bad idea. Increases the size A LOT and makes it very hard to create a file specification for versioning and multi part files. Props for the snippets m8 but using php for this kind of stuff is like trying to beat a Formula 1 with a bike. What would be a nice idead is like Erretic said, a script that spreads images to multiple filehosts.

The spec, if you want it as reference:

// DaToPic - Data To Picture Transcoder
// =============================================

#light

open System
open System.Drawing
open System.Drawing.Imaging
open System.IO
open System.Text
open System.Threading
open System.Threading.Tasks
open System.Windows.Forms

// =============================================
// =============================================

let MaxFileNameSize = 0xff // 255
let FileVersion = 0x01uy // 1
let DefaultExt = ".png"
let mutable DefaultImgRes = new Point(1600, 1600)
let HandShake = [| 0xffuy; 0x04uy; 0x09uy; 0x56uy |] // Unsigned byte array -> 255; 4; 9; 86

[<System.Flags>]
type AlphaFlags =
    | ALL = 0xff // Read all
    | END = 0x00 // Read nothing
    | R   = 0x11 // Read red
    | RG  = 0x22 // Read red, green

// =============================================

(* Calculate the amount of bytes the can be stored in an image of the specified resolution *)
let CalcImgBytes x y mult =
    match (x > 0), (y > 0), (mult > 0) with
    | true, true, true -> (x * y) * mult
    | _ -> 0

(* Calculate the amount of images that will be needed to store the data *)
let CalcNumOfImgsRequired (dataBytes:int) (imgBytes:int) =
    let headerSize = 16 + MaxFileNameSize
    let amount = (float dataBytes) / (float imgBytes) |> ceil |> int

    if ((float (dataBytes + (amount * headerSize))) / (float imgBytes) |> ceil |> int > amount) then amount + 1
    else amount

(* Generates the header data that contains the needed info *)
let CreateHeader (part:byte) (totalParts:byte) (fileVersion:byte) (fileName:string) =
    if (fileName.Length > MaxFileNameSize) then
        let msg = "File name length must be " + string MaxFileNameSize + " or smaller and bigger than 0"
        let fn = "fileName"
        raise(new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(fn, fileName.Length, msg))
    else
        HandShake
        |> (fun bytes -> Array.append bytes HandShake )
        |> (fun bytes -> Array.append bytes HandShake )
        |> (fun bytes -> Array.append bytes [| (byte fileName.Length); part; totalParts; fileVersion |] )
        |> (fun bytes -> Array.append bytes (Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(fileName)) )
        |> Seq.ofArray

(* Generates a 'usable' filename *)
let DoCorrectFileName (fileInfo:FileInfo) =
    if (fileInfo.Name.Length > MaxFileNameSize) then
        if (fileInfo.Name.Contains(".")) then
            fileInfo.Extension.ToCharArray()
            |> Array.append (fileInfo.Name.ToCharArray(0, MaxFileNameSize - (fileInfo.Extension.Length - 1)))
            |> string
        else
            fileInfo.Name.ToCharArray(0, MaxFileNameSize)
            |> string
    else
        fileInfo.Name

(* Creates ready to use data out of which we can generate our images *)
let CreateImages file targetDirectory =
    let fileInfo = new FileInfo(file)
    //let rawData = File.ReadAllBytes(file)
    let fileName = DoCorrectFileName fileInfo
    let numOfImgs = CalcNumOfImgsRequired (int fileInfo.Length)  (CalcImgBytes DefaultImgRes.X DefaultImgRes.Y 3)
    use bmp = new Bitmap(DefaultImgRes.X, DefaultImgRes.Y, PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb)
    use fs = fileInfo.OpenRead()
    
    let rec loop i savedFiles =
        if (i < numOfImgs) then
            printfn "Processing Image %i of %i" (i + 1) numOfImgs
            for y in [ 0 .. bmp.Height - 1 ] do
                for x in [ 0 .. bmp.Width - 1 ] do
                    match ((fs.Length - 1L) - fs.Position) with
                    | 0L -> bmp.SetPixel(x, y, Color.FromArgb(int AlphaFlags.END, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00))
                    | 1L -> bmp.SetPixel(x, y, Color.FromArgb(int AlphaFlags.R, fs.ReadByte(), 0x00, 0x00))
                    | 2L -> bmp.SetPixel(x, y, Color.FromArgb(int AlphaFlags.RG, fs.ReadByte(), fs.ReadByte(), 0x00))
                    | _ -> bmp.SetPixel(x, y, Color.FromArgb(int AlphaFlags.ALL, fs.ReadByte(), fs.ReadByte(), fs.ReadByte()))

            let savePath = (*targetDirectory + "\\" +*) DateTime.Now.Ticks.ToString("x") + DefaultExt
            bmp.Save(savePath)

            [ savePath ]
            |> (fun s -> List.append s savedFiles)
            |> loop (i + 1)
        else savedFiles
    
    loop 0 List.empty<string>
    |> Seq.ofList

(* Creates ready to use data out of which we can generate our images *)
let CreateImages2 file targetDirectory = 
    let fileInfo = new FileInfo(file)
    //let rawData = File.ReadAllBytes(file)
    let fileName = DoCorrectFileName fileInfo
    let numOfImgs = CalcNumOfImgsRequired (int fileInfo.Length)  (CalcImgBytes DefaultImgRes.X DefaultImgRes.Y 3)
    let ticks = DateTime.Now.Ticks.ToString("x")
    use fs = fileInfo.OpenRead()
    
    Parallel.For(0, numOfImgs - 1, (fun i ->
        use bmp = new Bitmap(DefaultImgRes.X, DefaultImgRes.Y, PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb)
        use g = Graphics.FromImage(bmp)

        //printfn "Processing Image %i of %i" (i + 1) numOfImgs

        for y in [ 0 .. DefaultImgRes.Y - 1 ] do
            for x in [ 0 .. DefaultImgRes.X - 1 ] do
                match ((fs.Length - 1L) - fs.Position) with
                | 0L -> g.DrawRectangle(new Pen(Color.FromArgb(int AlphaFlags.END, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00)), x, y, 1, 1)
                | 1L -> g.DrawRectangle(new Pen(Color.FromArgb(int AlphaFlags.R, fs.ReadByte(), 0x00, 0x00)), x, y, 1, 1)
                | 2L -> g.DrawRectangle(new Pen(Color.FromArgb(int AlphaFlags.RG, fs.ReadByte(), fs.ReadByte(), 0x00)), x, y, 1, 1)
                | _ -> g.DrawRectangle(new Pen(Color.FromArgb(int AlphaFlags.ALL, fs.ReadByte(), fs.ReadByte(), fs.ReadByte())), x, y, 1, 1)

        let part =
            match (i < 10), (i < 100) with
            | true, true -> "00" + i.ToString()
            | false, true -> "0" + i.ToString()
            | _, _ -> i.ToString()

        let savePath = (*targetDirectory + @"\" +*) part + "_" + ticks + DefaultExt
        ignore
        //bmp.Save(savePath)
    ))
    |> ignore
    
    ticks

No decoder in there yet, haven't continued on it, but you should be able to extract the file spec out of the code. It should go without saying the above code is more of a test than anything else, not optimized in any way.

[Storm]

So when do we get the pre-alpha KWWH test build?