How to make files really hidden in a directory?

Question

I downloaded the program yesterday, this is for encryption and security. I won’t call him here unless someone asks me, but he has a function to make the files inside the specified folder completely invisible.

I have hidden files and folders - selected, as well as hidden protected operating system files. Unselected, but the files are completely invisible and do not appear in the search results. I copied the folder from VMware Workstation to my main machine and still the files are hidden! There are null files in the folder according to Windows.

How can this magical voodoo be possible? I want to emulate this using Delphi in my own encryption program. I did not find any way here and through Google, which offers how it is possible, but the actual program help file says that they are still in the folder, but they are not registered in most ordinary Windows software products that process files.

This is one of those questions when I cannot give any code to show what I tried, but rather open to suggestions that I can try, or maybe someone here knows exactly how it is is being done?

Answer 1

Since less information One possibility would be to use alternative streams on NTFS, which can be added to files and folders. You can simply try this by typing "notepad C: \ temp: hidden1.txt" into comandline, a new filestream will be created if you use yes. After saving, you can open it in the same way. This can also be done from delphi (load / save). Will only work when using NTFS. I do not know if this method is used in the described case, you can find ADS using the following code:

unit u_ListADS; // 20120928 by Thomas Wassermann // www.devworx.de interface uses Windows, Messages, SysUtils, Variants, Classes, StrUtils; Procedure GetADS(List: TStrings; const Path, WildCard: String; Recursiv: Boolean = false); function NtQueryInformationFile(FileHandle: Cardinal; IoStatusBlock: Pointer; FileInformation: Pointer; FileInformationLength: Cardinal; FileInformationClass: Cardinal): Cardinal; stdcall; external 'ntdll.dll'; implementation type _FILE_STREAM_INFORMATION = record NextEntryOffset: Cardinal; StreamNameLength: Cardinal; StreamSize: int64; StreamAllocationSize: int64; StreamName: array [0 .. MAX_PATH] of WideChar; end; PFILE_STREAM_INFORMATION = ^_FILE_STREAM_INFORMATION; function GetStreams(aFilename: String): TStringList; var FileHandle: Integer; FileName: array [0 .. MAX_PATH] of WideChar; StreamName: String; InfoBlock: _FILE_STREAM_INFORMATION; StatusBlock: record Status: Cardinal; Information: PDWORD; end; Procedure Analyze; begin CopyMemory(@FileName, @InfoBlock.StreamName, InfoBlock.StreamNameLength); StreamName := Copy(Filename, 1, PosEx(':', Filename, 2) - 1); if StreamName <> ':' then Result.Add(StreamName); end; begin Result := TStringList.Create; FileHandle := FileOpen(aFilename, GENERIC_READ); NtQueryInformationFile(FileHandle, @StatusBlock, @InfoBlock, SizeOf(InfoBlock), 22); FileClose(FileHandle); if InfoBlock.StreamNameLength <> 0 then Repeat if (InfoBlock.NextEntryOffset <> 0) then begin InfoBlock := PFILE_STREAM_INFORMATION(PByte(@InfoBlock) + InfoBlock.NextEntryOffset)^; Analyze; end; until InfoBlock.NextEntryOffset = 0 end; Procedure GetADS(List: TStrings; const Path, WildCard: String; Recursiv: Boolean = false); Var SR: SysUtils.TSearchRec; RES: Integer; SP: String; StreamList: TStringList; i: Integer; begin if length(Path) = 0 then exit; if length(WildCard) = 0 then exit; SP := IncludeTrailingBackSlash(Path) + WildCard; RES := FindFirst(IncludeTrailingBackSlash(Path) + '*.*', faDirectory, SR); While RES = 0 Do Begin If (SR.attr And faDirectory) <> 0 Then If SR.Name[1] <> '.' Then if Recursiv then GetADS(List, IncludeTrailingBackSlash(Path) + SR.Name, WildCard, Recursiv); RES := FindNext(SR); End; SysUtils.FindClose(SR); RES := FindFirst(SP, $27, SR); While RES = 0 Do Begin StreamList := GetStreams(IncludeTrailingBackSlash(Path) + SR.Name); for i := 0 to StreamList.Count - 1 do List.Add(IncludeTrailingBackSlash(Path) + SR.Name + StreamList[i]); StreamList.Free; RES := FindNext(SR); End; SysUtils.FindClose(SR); end; end. 

The call may be, for example,

  GetADS(Listbox1.Items,Directory.Text, WildCards.Text,rekursiv.checked);