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Hidden Photos available via USB (lemm.ee)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/apple_enthusiast

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Well this is interesting. I plugged my phone into my computer to pull some photos off of it and I just happen to start browsing it via Windows Explorer since the device shows up there. Imagine my surprise when I saw things that were in my Hidden folder show up clear as day. It seems that lock is only at an application level and just browsing the file system it’s there to see.

Does anyone else experience something similar? Is there a note I missed that it’s still be available via other means?

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

I reverse engineered the Apple Photos library file on my Mac as a side project and can confirm that hidden assets are not actually encrypted or otherwise protected. The respective assets are just not shown in the apps and can be accessed via Finder on macOS.

I didn't know they were visible when you connect your phone to your PC but I guess it makes sense.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

No need for reverse engineering - it has already been done: https://github.com/RhetTbull/osxphotos

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Thanks for sharing, actually this very project inspired me to do it myself. It is an incredible resource when it comes to certain aspects of the database format!

Imho it has some deeper architectural issues though which I wanted to avoid in my implementation. I'm also using an entirely different tech stack I wanted to train myself in.

My implementation is not as feature complete as osxphotos but I'm sure I will be able to contribute back to the project with the occasional bug fix.

[–] SendMePhotos -5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Heeey.... Reverse engineering the software is a clear violation of TOS/EULA