The Power Of Rename
Make Your File Inaccessible by Other People :-
I was just messing with windows files and discoverd some really worth
mentioning things the simple tool or inbuilt program called ren short
for Rename is so powerfil, Hey now let me try to show some cool tricks to
make your files inaccessible by other and i am sure nobody will be able to read
your personal letters and other stuff like your password lists of different
email accounts :) without using Encryption.
let me start now, each and everybody of your knows what a ".txt "
file is and what ".exe" stands for .txt is the extenstion for
text files, created and edited in notedpad. and .exe files and
excuteables files which infact are sequences of program execution and also
.com files are also same thing as exe but they are command files. mostly
based on DOS. and exe is mostly for Windows, the GUI stuff.
Ok now let me start off, First of all open your My Computer and then go to
view and then folder options and click on it and a windows opens now click on
the second Tab View. there you can see in the Advanced Settings the Third Square
Check Box. It says Hide File extentions for known file types now uncheck
it as it is checked by default. this will show us the extention of all the files
which makes it easier for us. we will discuss it later how.
Now Open Notepad and type some stuff in it about yourself, your school, or
anything that you like worth writing and then click on file save and it prompts
you for a file name, and thats it now you need to play some trick here type the
name of the file as "1.exe" it should be 1.txt but here we dont want
others to access our files so you just type it as .exe and in the tab below the
file name says save File Type as Text Document and scroll down and select the
all files option and now just click on Save. ok now take for example you saved
your files on C:\>1.exe now open My computer and click on C: and try to grab
that file and double click it and wow look at the eroor message it gives you.
C:\1.exe is not a valid win32 Application
This is because it is considered by windows as an executable file, but we
know it cannot be executed as it contains our data which is not some program
execution instruction, and so whom so ever clicks on it will get an error
message and probably ignore it and that what is your biggest assest. you can
also put your important files on desktop of your School Computer and everybody
else will just ignore it as it has no meaning for it. It is you and only you who
knows what is behind the scenes, and now even your teacher will not know what it
is :) and now if you want to edit that file or open that file you wont be able
to do it by just clicking on it. what you have to do is fire up notepad and
click on File => open and then scroll the tab below the filename and make it to
all files and then C:\>1.exe and now you can view the contents of the
file. you can also do that by just renaming the file to 1.txt from
1.exe and double click it to view the contents and then make the changes and
then save it and then again rename it to 1.exe and now once again your file is
secure.
You can use this trick on many other differnet things like protecting your
.Doc files with passwords and then Changing the extention to .exe
or .com and its more secure, i know word password doesnt count but still
you can use it as a safety measure as all users are not elite. and just think of
some important password you have to send to your friend or maybe some imporant
documents and what if someone is sniffing all the traffic on your network, now
what can you do ? well i know you might say i will encrypt my files and then
send them, ya you can do it but what if you are on a public computer and you
dont have any encryption tool. ok i am sure now you can use this trick as this
will trick anybody. and other most important thing is it is not limited to text
and doc. files it can be used with anyother extentions .xls, .db, or anything
else, you can fool other from running your programs by just changing the .exe
into .txt and nobody would ever know that what they just clicked and got
an error message is a Client of a Trojan behind the Scenes. now there are some
places full of restrictions where you are allowed to download on specific
extention of files like .txt .doc or .zip but no .exe or .com
files allowed. Here you can use this trick from your house upload the files
while renaming it to .txt and download the .txt and then rename
and nothing will look suspicious.
YEA but a Warning better off i tell you Dont change an executable
files extention with other executable extention as the file might get executed
and you might get caught. for example. you have a file name trojan.exe
and you changed it to trojan.com and this will not help. it will spoil
your effort as both are executables there is not use of doing so, it will get
executed so intead change the extention to somthing different like .dba
or .mp3 and let me tell you it works file with me. to get a better
security you need to put some extra effort but its the greatest help i can see.
to hide my files. And there are a lots of uses of this trick and now i want you
to explore as now i am really tired of typing, and for any Comments or
Sujjestions drop me an email.
Uses :-
1) Securing Files.
2) Alternative to Encryption (Not really but still can be called)
3) Fool Others.
4) Eleminates sniffing.
5) Prevents Other people From using your Tools.
- Anish Shaikh.