

Corrupted Word Files for Sale - aminuit
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/06/corrupted_word.html

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lpgauth
I've never done that... Just rename an image to doc/docx and remove the top
part of the file (in your favorite text editor) that could help identify it's
an image. You're then ready to upload your file to Blackboard (which is
terrible) so that your Profs will actually assume Blackboard is at fault.

p.s. this works even with CS profs...

~~~
rbanffy
dd if=/dev/random count=3000 of=~/assignment.doc

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something
i think one of the biggest differences between school and work is the deadline
or due date and how it is perceived. most of the dates i have to hit now are
the ones i give myself. when did your prof ask you "when do you think you'll
be done with this class?"...

if i miss an estimate, i tell someone and we deal with it. the more i do that,
the less i'm wrong with the estimate in the first place. (given, that's not so
relevant in school as you have more than enough time, always;) i/we were
there- went to college, had sideways priorities and schedule pressure. this
kind of sh*t is for people that don't want to do the work in the first
place...

bottom line- you think a good teacher doesn't know when they're getting
snowed? you're wrong.

...and i say that as someone that, in school, didn't always want to do the
work and still didn't lie to people when i missed deadlines and screwed
myself.

i rant, but... as long as you care, even a little bit- TALK TO YOUR TEACHERS!
they'll cut you ten times the slack that a corrupted file gimmick will ever
win you.

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TrevorJ
As a person who deals with adult ADD, literally the biggest tool in my toolbox
is an impending deadline with dire repercussions if I fail to meet it. The
adrenalin clears my mind and allows me to concentrate. I'm glad I didn't know
about this trick, otherwise I might not have ever been able to get my papers
done!

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buugs
Cool I guess, would never work for me my professors have always had a failsafe
backup where online and hardcopy were turned in the same day. ESPECIALLY when
using blackboard.

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lionheart
Can't you just take any random non-Word file that's about the right size,
change the extension to .doc and you have a corrupted Word file?

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aminuit
I posted it because of the interesting, if unethical, business idea. The
technical bits are probably unsophisticated.

~~~
run4yourlives
How is it unethical?

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charlesju
Because you're lying to your teacher to get more time on your paper?

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run4yourlives
The person running the business isn't doing that though, the client might be.

The client may also have a very legitimate excuse for using the service that
may fall into a grey area in terms of ethics.

Suggesting this is unethical is like saying handguns are unethical because
people commit murder with them.

~~~
charlesju
That would be true except the exert explicitly says that this product is
useful to avoid deadlines.

~~~
lionheart
I can kind of see his point though. For example, maybe the customer had a
medical emergency or a friend got into an accident and so they have a
legitimate reason for wanting to stretch their deadline.

Still, I think this site is in a very definite dark gray area and I wouldn't
run something like this.

~~~
gchpaco
As a former TA, I would have instantly granted extension requests that had a
real, legitimate excuse attached to them. The ones that irritated me were the
ones who thought they were entitled to an extension "because, y'know, there
was like a party on Friday night and I got so drunk I couldn't figure out
where I was until midway through Monday."

~~~
run4yourlives
> that had a real, legitimate excuse attached to them

So, in your opinion you believe that you as a TA have the right to know the
personal details of students' lives if they need extensions? What if the
matter is private?

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gchpaco
If you don't want to tell me anything about why you want an extension, you
have to accept the fact that the probability distribution over "I want an
extension" absent any information is heavily weighted toward "I went on a
bender and am too stupid to stay in school", and as such I was unlikely to say
yes. I don't want details details; but "I broke my leg, this, this and this is
going to be a week late, I'm sorry" as happened to a friend of mine is
perfectly good.

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Radix
Ha ha :) I find it interesting the site operator knows where he stands. On the
custom order page:

 _Please Note: I had deadlines with professors too, but I still got my sh[i]t
done on time - its called Red Bull. If you need an extension, just be honest
and ask your professor before you use a corrupted file._

<http://www.corrupted-files.com/Custom_Order.html>

[Did you know you cannot escape the asterisk?]

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aminuit
Purported interview with the anonymous developer:
<http://fourpointreport.com/blog/?p=978>

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run4yourlives
Unfortunately, a low barrier to entry:

<http://www.xnet.se/fd/>

Pretty funny though.

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varaon
I could see a hash tool being useful here - maybe even some sort of upload
applet that sends the hash too. If the uploaded hash matches the hash
generated on your machine, you have less plausible excuses.

Of course, you could just use Scribd's iPaper to preview the doc - puts the
owness on the student to verify.

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jrockway
I did this regularly in high school. It usually worked, although I failed a
class as a direct result of this technique... so not recommended in general.

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deutronium
"We also upload new files periodically." - I'm curious why the don't use their
file corrupting technology to generate different files for each user.

"We didn’t just change a .jpeg extension into a .doc." - I guess they're
mangling a doc file in someway to make it a little more believable, in case a
prof. gets out a hexeditor.

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soundsop
In unix, "strings corrupted_word_file.doc" should still provide almost all the
text.

~~~
DenisM
Office 2007 doc is a compressed XML file. strings wouldn't help much against
that.

~~~
pmorici
It's a zip format file, so it should still have correct headers to look
plausible.

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psyklic
You do not even need to corrupt them. I wanted to open documents saved on a
Windows 3.1 version of Word, and the modern Word software would not open them!
This is not a good sign for the future ...

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rbanffy
As Niklaus Wirth would say, "P. T. Barnum was correct"

