Desslock Posted March 7, 2002 Share Posted March 7, 2002 Im willing to bet me, and quite possibly a few others know about the hidden system files windows keeps on your hard drive. No, not talking about the ones you can see when you toggle "show hidden files"... these are much more hidden. Well, I've been able to recreate how windows makes these files hidden so well. There is a program in every Dos and windows shell called Attrib , short for attribute. It is used to set flags on various things, namely how Windows explorer identifies the file. Using this, and making the folder you wish to keep secret, you will probably deter 99% of the people looking for the data you are trying to hide. Only a VERY dedicated hacker could find the hidden information. First, I'll show you how to hide the files, then how to find them yourself (since you dont want to hide your entire windows directory and essentially fry your system.) Fire up a good ole Dos command prompt. Minimize, then make a folder in your C:\ drive. Name it something small, and rememberable. I used test throughout my testing. Once the folder is created, go into the folder and create a couple of text files (used as examples). Now, close the C:\ drive window. Go back to your Dos prompt. Type C: and hit enter. Your prompt should appear as C:\>_ Once thats done, type attrib +s +h X (where X is the name of the folder you created. Now, open up your c:\ drive window. You should now find that the folder is no where to be seen, even if you have show hidden files enabled. Now, go back to your prompt, and type CD X (where X is the name of the folder you created). Notice you can enter in the folder and type DIR and you'll see any files you created in it. What this does: When you set the attributes s and h, Windows marks the folder as super important and cloaks it from normal viewing. You cant even see it in dos unless you add a parameter to the dir command. That parameter would be /a. It will reveal the folder. Windows Find cant even see it. Simply put, you essentially block the folder from anyone outside of DOS. There is a loophole though. Notepad, or any other program for that matter, can enter the folder, but you need the folder name and you need to be in the right directory. To remove the attributes, simply type attrib -s -h X (you should know what X is by now! ) and the folder will seemingly appear from another dimension. Tricky huh? The original article can be found at http://www.F***microsoft.com (I think you know what the censored word is). The article is written by a guy named TheRiddler. Props to him for writing this extremely informative article. I dont believe information on hiding files so well can be found in that article, so I take credit if not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimTheEnchanter Posted March 7, 2002 Share Posted March 7, 2002 Wrong Forum? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B0MBER II Posted March 7, 2002 Share Posted March 7, 2002 the censor word of the day is Ford Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desslock Posted March 7, 2002 Author Share Posted March 7, 2002 Doh. yup. =\ Reposted in Swamp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogue15 Posted March 7, 2002 Share Posted March 7, 2002 whoa, that sounds cool. I MIGHT test it on my old windows 95 486 computer. hehe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desslock Posted March 7, 2002 Author Share Posted March 7, 2002 heh, well I hold no responsibility if you hose your important system Just to note: This article appears in two more places. on Icrontic.com (hardware/software/coolass site) and the Neocron boards (a cyberpunk MMORPG). Both of those were posted by me, and are different from this one, but both explain the same concept. Yea, Im anal about people stealing my work sue me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vagabond Posted March 7, 2002 Share Posted March 7, 2002 Sorry, but this isn't anything new. The ATTRIB flags mean: a - archive h - hidden r - read-only s - system There is nothing clandestine nor covert about the ATTRIB command or it's flags. And to be specific, the ATTRIB command has been around since the early DOS days - at least DOS 5.0, and perhaps as early as DOS 3.3. The "s" flag does not stand for "super important", as was incorrectly stated. Again, it indicates that a particular file or folder is a system file or folder (part of the operating system, which makes sense. You will notice in the root directory - C:\ - that there are several operating system files that your system needs to boot up properly. Examples from Windows NT would be: NTDETECT.COM IO.SYS MSDOS.SYS ...and so on. If you screw around with these files, you're hosed. So, there is no conspiracy - there is no controversy - there is no need for alarm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedi Howell Posted March 7, 2002 Share Posted March 7, 2002 vaguely interesting...any better way to hide files? like, no-programs-can-see-it style? jh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desslock Posted March 7, 2002 Author Share Posted March 7, 2002 Vagabond, My definition of the s attribute was jokingly. Few people would have got it. Heh. Apologies. I also worded it like that so that people would get an understanding of what it does, instead of secret. Besides, if boot files are labeled with this command, arn't THEY super important for the *cough* well-being of your computer? Yes this HAS been around for a while.. the thing is, how many people know about it? Im not trying to stir up conspiracy, but I do think this is something that I should be able to delete without going through a year of computer science. Most people did not ever touch DOS 5.0. I didn't, and will only be using the command prompt from now on, because its outdated, and people who were around when DOS was ever so popular, and there are probably a lot more out there who simply dont know what their operating system does without their knowledge. I learned this information, and built on it. The attribute command was something I picked up in the article, and I have been using PCs since 75mhz was new. This has been around, but uncommon knowledge for my generation I guess Yes, the S attribute stands for system, but why does a folder that caches websites and IDs for those website and image URLs have that attribute? Futhermore, why are these caches not cleared when I instruct IE to do so? Websites load slower when I clear the cache, so they are not being drawn from as a source of convience. When I delete these files, Windows2000 boots fine. They are obviously not boot files, so why the need for the +s +h combination? (which, is needed to block Windows Explorer from seeing the file with the attributes on it). Also, I'd like to clarify the date which this was found.. Heh turns out I was way off.. V1.0 of the article was written June 11, 2000, which is still a long time since Win95, but appropriate none-the-less. The most up to date version of the article is may 16th, 2001. which V2.0 was finished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jyt-Pon Dai'el Posted March 7, 2002 Share Posted March 7, 2002 Can you do this in Win XP? I'm assuming not because there's no DOS. I'd like to hide my "skin collection" from my nosey housemates. Thanks in advance for the lesson in debauchery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desslock Posted March 7, 2002 Author Share Posted March 7, 2002 In reply to Jyt-Pon Dai'el Yes. Start menu -> Run -> Type Command and hit enter. Run from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jyt-Pon Dai'el Posted March 7, 2002 Share Posted March 7, 2002 Originally posted by Desslock In reply to Jyt-Pon Dai'el Yes. Start menu -> Run -> Type Command and hit enter. Run from there. OK, that's what I normally would have done with WIN 9x, but I thought I remembered there not being a Run option in the XP start menu. I'm probably wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digl Posted March 7, 2002 Share Posted March 7, 2002 there is and you can do it even quicker with Win key + R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desslock Posted March 7, 2002 Author Share Posted March 7, 2002 heh... WinXp is a definate change over 9x or 2K. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acdcfanbill Posted March 7, 2002 Share Posted March 7, 2002 actually 2K and XP are pretty similar, you can set your GUI to look pretty much, exactly like 2K if you want too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desslock Posted March 8, 2002 Author Share Posted March 8, 2002 Originally posted by acdcfanbill actually 2K and XP are pretty similar, you can set your GUI to look pretty much, exactly like 2K if you want too... I guess thats true.. but the default skin of WinXp is definately different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowen Posted March 8, 2002 Share Posted March 8, 2002 Originally posted by Jyt-Pon Dai'el Can you do this in Win XP? I'm assuming not because there's no DOS. I'd like to hide my "skin collection" from my nosey housemates. Thanks in advance for the lesson in debauchery. Sure, there are a few ways to get to DOS as others have stated, through the Start Menu and the RUN field via Start Menu. DOS is different in WinXP and Win2000 as it is an emulation of DOS where in the Win9x series.... Windows was the emulation and Windows needed DOS to run. It's reversed now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broode Posted March 8, 2002 Share Posted March 8, 2002 See, thats what I liked about the win9x series, if anything messed up, you always had dos there to guide you. I remember once, one of my sister's freinds renamed "Windows" to "hello". Needless to say, windows didnt run very well, in fact, you could say it didn't run. But there was dos, and I fixed that up in no time. dos = good backup. And don't anyone comment on boot disks either, i didn't know that then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Millions o' Monkeys Posted March 8, 2002 Share Posted March 8, 2002 i also believe that trick has been widely explored by many people but no harm done to tell the people who havnt done it...thanks for going into the trouble of typing all that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ihatetheblind Posted March 8, 2002 Share Posted March 8, 2002 You can also hide files in your recycle bin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Millions o' Monkeys Posted March 8, 2002 Share Posted March 8, 2002 lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Binary Posted March 9, 2002 Share Posted March 9, 2002 It doesn't take a "hacker" to find system + hidden files/folders... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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