Go back one page
--------------------------------------------------------------
Permission granted by author for anyone to distribute this
writing free of charge (including translation into any
language)...under condition that no profit is made therefrom,
and that it remain intact and complete, including title and
credit to the original author.
Ezekiel J. Krahlin
http://www.gay-bible.org
--------------------------------------------------------------
HOW TO HACK A FLASH ANIMATION
a parable for the 21st century
(and a lesson in queer hacktivism a.k.a. "Quacktivism")
© 2004 by Ezekiel J. Krahlin
(Jehovah's Queer Witness
Premise: Why would a Quacktivist ever require a copy of
any animation on the Internet? Because it may contain
hidden code, or be witness-recorded evidence of an
urgent nature, or convey nuances in the enemy's
propaganda tactics...which will then be sent to our
Specialists in Social Engineering. Remember (Mighty
Mouse Virus says):
"Not all important online messages are conveyed through text."
Enjoy this message to my friend, author of "John's
Animations" at:
http://animatedparadise.0catch.com/
He feels that the coding of Macromedia's Flash Animation is a
secure way to protect your animations from online copying, and
illegal redistribution therefrom. I told him if you were a
hacker, you'd figure it out...and sho' nuff I did. May this
lesson be understood by those with the wisdom to understand.
Live long and hack!
--begin my msg. to John:
From: Ezekiel Krahlin
To: phillyjohn@hooya.com
Received: 05/08/04 10:30 PM
Subject: horse.html
Attachments: horse1.gif (8KB) horse2.gif (10KB) horse3.gif (9KB)
horse-anim.gif (25KB)
http://animatedparadise.0catch.com/mechanixflash/horse.html
Stunning "dream time" sequence in part of the horse's day.
Truly a magnificent little masterpiece of light and shadow.
The horse, drawn with much affection and bold lines/colors
dances on your screen for sheer joy. Best thing to do, in the
entire world...can you name even ONE thing more fun?
I could meditate on that one animation for HOURS! Wonderful,
positive energy from the Spirit of Pegasus.
So this hacker's gonna figure out how to crack your
presumptuous Macromedia copy-protection...and DOWNLOAD your
anims. to my hard drive....
Well, whaddya know, even Opera browser's "Save as w/images"
was tricked into NOT including the horse's flash animation.
However, I KNOW a good hacker can EASILY swipe your animation
in at least TWO different ways:
1) Have a video program record whatever shows up next on the
screen, for 60 seconds. Then you'd run your animation...it
gets perfectly recorded...just need to crop it out of the rest
of the screen, and do that for each frame. Of course, you'd
also remove the useless start and end frames...this almost
goes w/o saying.
2) Use a high-quality (not cheap) web cam to record the
animation...just point it around, to look AT the computer, not
FROM it, as is usually the case. The animation can then be
saved, and distributed throughout cyberspace.
But, a low-income hacker with limited resources, can achieve
the same as (1) above...a brute method of swiping your
animation would be thus: Just run a screen-capture utility,
and each snapshot, you try to capture a new frame of the
animation. (I prefer to use the richly featured and flexible
freeware image viewer/editor, Irfanview, to capture animation
frames, as well as perform a whole slew of other graphic
manipulations.)
This might take a bunch of hits-and-misses, but I'll bet a
little patience and careful file naming, will give us a
restored copy of your original. Now I could do that right now,
but let it suffice I send you THREE different frames from that
animation, just to PROVE my point:
horse1.gif 8 kb
horse2.gif 10 kb
horse3.gif 9 kb
And let me attach LASTLY, the animation I created from them,
to show you that hackers ALWAYS find a way around ANYTHING.
May I present:
horse-anim.gif 25kb
And I did ALL THAT off your animated horse, while on the
Internet, and between typing these lines to you. IOW: LESS
THAN 10 MINUTES!!!
--end of my msg. to John
Whoa! Someone posted to me an easier solution, using
browser underdog Netscape (7.0 or higher).
----------
1) Select "View Page_Info" from menu at top.
2) Click on "Media" tab at top. A list of graphic
files on that page will show up. A Macromedia
animation file ends with extension ".swf". Just
select that file.
3) Then click on "Save As" button at bottom. Save
to whatever folder you want. (Note: You cannot
do a "Save As" on more than one file at a time.)
----------
So, thank you Alan G. in Atlanta! Nonetheless, my
technique can be applied under any circumstance; so you ain't
necessarily stuck with having to depend on Netscape...though
it's a damn good reason for including Netscape browser in your
Quacktivist arsenal. (And if you [shudder] use AOL as your
provider, well then, you have Netscape browser by default.)
Tedium is often a part of hacking...so when a nice shortcut
tool comes along (in this case, using Netscape as an
"animation capture" tool), hackers are most appreciative.
Wow! Another winning tip just came in. Read on:
----------
From: Pony Tease
Subject: Re: Quacktivism: Hacking Flash Animation
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Date: 2004-05-09
Pony Tease wrote in message news:
> There are many tools fro reverse engineering Flash
> animations. One that jumps immediately to mind is FLASM.
> A Flash assembler that breaks the file down into it's root
> components.
>
> There are other tools out there.
----------
Excellent. I'm keeping all this new information, to add to my
original essay. Will give credit to all...only anonymously,
unless you specifically request otherwise.
But keep in mind I'm trying to inspire non-hackers to become
hackers...by giving them tools they can easily wrap their
brains around. FLASM is not for the newbie, nor barely the
intermediate.
So I've just begun my "Quacktivism 101" pieces, via Usenet
articles...then permanently housed on my website.
I am strongly dedicated to the belief that hacking is the most
important tool for today's activism. So the more followers
that can hack, the more empowered becomes our mission (in my
case, sexual-minority rights). So I'm attempting to teach
non-hackers how to hack...in as enjoyable a fashion as
possible.
A basic understanding of hacking will go a LONG WAY towards
winning our civil rights. Now, not everyone has the TIME and
DEDICATION to become a Brainiac over this...but there is MUCH
NEED for as many low-level hackers that can be recruited!
Think of low-level hackers as "grunts" or "garbage
collectors": without them, the war could never get won, and
peacetime would be a very stinky proposition (respectively,
mind you).
Why animation copying per se? 'Cause sometimes an image may
convey information that is concealed from all but a few,
powerful entities. Information which many of us believe should
be FREELY ACCESSIBLE to the masses...in order to run one's
life with intelligence, responsibility, and compassion.
For example: there's an advanced course in the human body, for
medcial doctors. Many illustrations--including animated
ones--help teach each chapter. Without the graphics, the
(online) book would be worthless. But what if such knowledge
could prove lifesaving in many ways, if made public?
Not to mention that images (including animations) can contain
embedded code, revealing enemy strategies, or direct commands
from one you trust.
So, a LOT of folks can be taught such basic hacking strategies
like animation capturing...while ONLY A FEW could be taught
the more sophisticated challenges of becoming an ace hacker.
This farming out of hacking's "busy work" will free up the
minds of our more talented, to focus their skills where they
can be MOST EFFECTIVE.
Plus, it's a group effort with great emotional rewards such as
"comradeship", "belonging", "appreciation", "sharing", and
"protection". Many folks who WANT to do something now, but
can't hack...CAN do something, RIGHT NOW, as an apprentice
hacker. And be part of this most noble Allied Resistance
v.2.0.0.
As more tips come in, I'll continue to expand my original
essay, which you can always read in its most updated form at:
http://www.gay-bible.org/write/2_hack-anim.htm
--
Tops are from Venus,
Bottoms are from Mars.
http://www.gay-bible.org
Remember: A hacking (or online)
activist is a "hacktivist", and a
queer hacktivist is a "quacktivist".
Update (February 1, 2009): See Wikipedia article, "Steganography,"
regarding the transmission of secret messages within images and
other media. Then, check out this site on "Antisteganography".
--finis