Need help in using a downloaded costume file

[Super Firebug]

I found a great-looking costume file on the forum, copied it, and put it into my screenshots folder. It didn't show up, in the game, as a saved costume. I put the "Costume_Globalname" stuff at the beginning, and the "CC_Comic_Page_Blue" at the end, but I didn't know what nine-digit number to add at the end. (The file didn't have a CO-screenshot name.) I right-clicked and checked the Properties, and added what was missing, based on comparisons with real screenshots. But I just can't get it to show up as a usable saved costume. What's the secret? Is it the missing number?Thanks for any help.

[Xev]

Wha?

Are we talking about .jpgs?

I don't see where costumes are saved locally except as screenshots. I've never looked before and just did a few searches.

[Aggelakis]

As long as the jpg is in your screenshot folder, and is an actual costume file and not just a screenshot, then you should be seeing it.

EDIT: Didn't see the note about the nine-digit number. You're screwed, that's part of the costume file verification. You'll need to download one with a full name.

[Xev]

CO saves costume files as jpg..?

[Thunder Glove]

Yes... sort of.  It's a jpg with embedded text information.  If you open the jpg file with a text editor, you can see the actual costume code, which is similar to (though different from and incompatible with) what's in a CoH .costume file.

[Xev]

That's a first for me. Using jpgs as data files.

Gl Super Firebug!

[dwturducken]

Hiding data in a jpeg file is as old as the Internet. I seem to recall viruses being delivered that way.

[Xev]

Odd I never heard of it. I was a bithead/tech back when people were first getting Internet. I worked in a busy software store when Windows 3.1 (Internet for the public) came out and did tech work on the side until I went into it full time and I squashed tonnnns of real (as in boot sector wipe out your PC, etc) viruses when I worked as a corporate tech and did some of that solo too.

Trivia:
In 5 years of working at Software, Etc, I saw as many women come into the store as you could count on 1... maybe 2 hands. And they were mostly dragged in by their husbands/bfs. I had exactly 1 lady gamer - who was also a great customer on the side. She'd buy the latest games from the shop and then have me build her the latest gaming macheen to run it. Or visa versa. She remained my best customer for like 2 years when I was flying solo until I went corporate.

Ahh mornings.. caffeine and the wee hours do bring out the stories, eh? Anyway, getting my pic viewer to run code from embedded text is a first for me. Dunno how I never ran into that. Seems like ~ every teenage boy on the Internet should have some kind of virus by now... *cough*

[Nyx Nought Nothing]

Hiding data in a jpeg file is as old as the Internet. I seem to recall viruses being delivered that way.

While i've heard rumors of viruses being imbedded in graphic and audio files for decades i've never seen a documented case of it working in the wild as an attack vector where the imbedded data would actually be executed. It could still be a useful way to hide data for other malware modules to access.

Did a quick bit of research, and there have been a few cases, but they are generally very application specific and not terribly common, mostly because those sorts of vulnerabilities are patched rather quickly and generally require the code to be tailored to a specific application.
Here's one thread on the topic: http://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/can-images-contain-malware.341477/

[Xev]

I'm really glad you made that post, Nyx. I already felt dumb & out of touch for never hearing of anyone using jpgs for data files. Then reading that image file viruses were old news.. I was like.. How could I have missed that...?