Hidden name in the Linux logo
This is what makes computing fun - you learn something new every day.
Today there was a post on LinuxQuestions.org by w1k0, who reported something strange with the Linux logo on his ThinkPad T60. The colors were all wrong (Tux had a green belly, blue background) and... to the left-side there was an inscription saying "Simon".
I suggested checking the vga-setting in lilo, but was intrigued by this mysterious inscription.
I am familiar with the history of the Linux logo created by Larry Ewing and the vectorized version by Simon Budig, so I thought of the possibility of a hidden text in the bitmap.
I opened the logo (the standard 224-color version is called logo_linux_clut224.ppm), which can normally be found in /usr/src/linux/drivers/video/logo/, in the gimp.
And I found nothing. So I already started thinking that someone was pulling a joke on w1k0 and had messed with his kernel. But that seemed weird... This someone would have to compile a new kernel, just to get a green-bellied penguin with the name Simon at boot-time.
Then I thought of steganography and how this inscription could be hidden. Since it showed up (with the wrong color) on w1k0's screen, it must be of a color almost equal to the background.
So I opened the logo in the gimp again, clicked on the color-selection tool and changed the 'limit'-setting to 0,0. Then I clicked on a random spot on the black background and Bingo!
There really is a hidden inscription in the Linux logo!
To make it visible, I painted the pixels red and enlarged the bitmap.
The result is here, but do check it out on your own file!
Tux with the "Simon" inscription painted in red
Today there was a post on LinuxQuestions.org by w1k0, who reported something strange with the Linux logo on his ThinkPad T60. The colors were all wrong (Tux had a green belly, blue background) and... to the left-side there was an inscription saying "Simon".
I suggested checking the vga-setting in lilo, but was intrigued by this mysterious inscription.
I am familiar with the history of the Linux logo created by Larry Ewing and the vectorized version by Simon Budig, so I thought of the possibility of a hidden text in the bitmap.
I opened the logo (the standard 224-color version is called logo_linux_clut224.ppm), which can normally be found in /usr/src/linux/drivers/video/logo/, in the gimp.
And I found nothing. So I already started thinking that someone was pulling a joke on w1k0 and had messed with his kernel. But that seemed weird... This someone would have to compile a new kernel, just to get a green-bellied penguin with the name Simon at boot-time.
Then I thought of steganography and how this inscription could be hidden. Since it showed up (with the wrong color) on w1k0's screen, it must be of a color almost equal to the background.
So I opened the logo in the gimp again, clicked on the color-selection tool and changed the 'limit'-setting to 0,0. Then I clicked on a random spot on the black background and Bingo!
There really is a hidden inscription in the Linux logo!
To make it visible, I painted the pixels red and enlarged the bitmap.
The result is here, but do check it out on your own file!
Labels: gimp, Linux, steganography, Tux
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