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Re: Pixel scraping flash to extract text

by fizbin (Chaplain)
on Oct 22, 2005 at 13:05 UTC ( [id://502203]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to Pixel scraping flash to extract text

I think that your best bet is to hope that the data that populates the flash ap. is being retrieved by the flash application separately.

That is, it is very likely that when the flash application starts, it makes a second connection back to the server to get the data. Otherwise, the people who wrote the app would have to constantly update their flash application when the data changes.

So here's what you do: go get a network sniffer like ethereal. Start capturing packets and have it monitor any connection from your desktop machine to the domain that hosts the flash app. Then start the flash app, and go through to where you're looking at the data. At this point, stop capturing packets and look at what you have, and see if you can figure out how the flash app is getting the data from the server.

If that doesn't tell you anything (for example, if the flash application connected back via https), then things start to get nastier. You might try taking the app apart using swftools (assuming that doing so doesn't violate some license agreement with the company that made the flash app); I'd start with SWFStrings to see if there are any urls mentioned in the app.

--
@/=map{[/./g]}qw/.h_nJ Xapou cets krht ele_ r_ra/; map{y/X_/\n /;print}map{pop@$_}@/for@/

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