SERVICE #04 • FORENSIC CAMOUFLAGE

Polyglot Media Camouflage

When transmitting encrypted files through restrictive corporate firewalls, forensic inspection points, or cloud storage providers that ban encrypted archives, having a .zev extension can arouse suspicion. Polyglot Media Camouflage merges the encrypted vault with genuine media files (such as .jpg or .png). Standard image viewers render the cover photo perfectly, while ZevSafe automatically detects the hidden cryptographic container.

🟢 Simple User Guide

Disguising Your Vault as a Photo

STEP 01

Select or Generate Cover Media

Under the Camouflage options in the Lock Vault tab, drop any real JPEG or PNG photograph (e.g. landscape, wallpaper). Alternatively, click "Generate Cover Photo" to synthesize an authentic abstract cover image client-side.

STEP 02

Download Disguised Image File

Lock the vault as usual. The output file is saved as vacation_photo.jpg instead of vault.zev. Double-clicking it opens the image in Windows Photos, macOS Preview, or Android Gallery with zero errors.

STEP 03

Unlock Naturally

Drop the .jpg directly onto ZevSafe's Unlock tab. ZevSafe automatically detects the embedded vault, asks for your passphrase, and opens your private files instantly.

✨
No Loss of Quality: Your cover image is 100% compliant and intact. No lossy image re-encoding or fragile LSB (least significant bit) pixel degradation is used!
🔵 Technical Specification

Bicontextual Container Format

Media container formats are defined by strict file structure specifications that instruct image decoders where the bitstream ends:

Format Termination Marker Decoder Behavior Upon Marker
JPEG / JFIF 0xFF 0xD9 (EOI - End of Image) Halts parser immediately. Any subsequent bytes appended to the file are ignored as non-standard metadata.
PNG IEND chunk: 49 45 4E 44 AE 42 60 82 Marks the end of the PNG datastream. Standard viewers close the image pipeline without scanning further.
MP4 / ISO BMFF End of moov or mdat atom Demuxer reads explicit atom sizes; unindexed trailing bytes are bypassed.
Binary Layout of Polyglot Vault
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Authentic Media Header & Bitstream (Bytes 0 .. K)                        |
| e.g. Valid JPEG (FF D8 ... FF D9) or PNG (89 50 4E 47 ... IEND)        |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ZERO-BYTE TERMINATION BOUNDARY (Offset K)                               |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Authentic ZV3 Container Header (Bytes K .. K + 57)                      |
| [ 'ZV3\0' (4B) | VERSION: 0x03 | FLAGS | CHUNK_SIZE | SALT | IV | OFFSET ]|
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| STREAM AEAD 4 MB Ciphertext Chunks + Tail Manifest Trailer              |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Sliding-Window Offset Detector

When any file is dropped into ZevSafe, findPolyglotVaultOffset() inspects the first 64 MB using a zero-allocation sliding byte scanner:

JavaScript Detector Algorithm
// js/stream-unpacker.js: Zero-allocation sliding-window detector
function findPolyglotVaultOffset(buffer) {
    const bytes = new Uint8Array(buffer);
    // 1. Fast check: is this a standard standalone vault?
    if (bytes[0] === 0x5A && bytes[1] === 0x56 && bytes[2] === 0x33 && bytes[3] === 0x00) {
        return 0; // Standard offset
    }

    // 2. Scan for 'ZV3\0' magic signature within first 64 MB
    const maxScan = Math.min(bytes.length - 57, 64 * 1024 * 1024);
    for (let i = 0; i < maxScan; i++) {
        if (bytes[i] === 0x5A && bytes[i+1] === 0x56 && bytes[i+2] === 0x33 && bytes[i+3] === 0x00) {
            // Verify version byte at offset + 4
            if (bytes[i+4] === 0x03) {
                return i; // Found authentic polyglot container offset!
            }
        }
    }
    return -1; // No vault signature detected
}

In-Memory Cover Generator

If the user does not have a photo ready, ZevSafe generates a 100% standard 1920×1080 gradient cover canvas rendered in-memory and converted to a valid JPEG/PNG blob via canvas.toBlob(). Zero external network assets or stock image downloads are required.

Security Invariants

Invariant Guarantee Status
Cryptographic Integrity Polyglot packaging alters 0 bytes of the encrypted payload; AEAD tags remain 100% valid. VERIFIED
Standard Media Compatibility Renders in default operating system previewers without corrupt image dialogs. VERIFIED
Zero Cloud Reliance Sliding-window scanning and cover generation execute completely in local browser RAM. VERIFIED