Prey on Windows not able to show correct webcam photo and 'env.exe' error

[Pablo Agirre]

Recently installed Prey 0.5.2 on Windows 7 x64.    HP Pavillion DV6

1.- Webcam image is always the same as posted photo.

2.- I get Windows error messages Application error (0xc0000018) from 'env.exe'

        Running "env.exe" by myself also gives error, but other programas as uptime.exe, uname.exe, etc....  work ok 

Thanks, hope this may help improve program.

[Drew Reece]

Can you check & post the logfile? It should be in the same place as Prey is installed on Windows.

Drew

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[Pablo Ag.]

OK, so.

1.- Webcam Image allways the same. "HP MediaSmart WebCam" Logo.
2.- Now, NO windows error running env.exe. ?!?!? But if I run
env.exe directly yes.

Log seems OK. As Follows.

=======================================
### PREY 0.5.2 spreads its wings!
### WindowsNT DV6 1 6 x86

-- Looking for connection...
-- Got network connection!
-- Checking URL...

>> Reading configuration...

-- Frequency in sync (20).

>> Reading module configuration...

-- Got instructions for network module.
-- Got instructions for session module.
-- Got instructions for webcam module.
-- Got instructions for geo module.

>> Verifying status...

-- Got status code 404!
-- HOLY GUACAMOLE!!
-- Running active report modules...

>> Running network module!

-- Getting public IP address...
++ Adding trace for network: public_ip
-- Getting private LAN IP address...
++ Adding trace for network: internal_ip
-- Getting gateway IP address...
++ Adding trace for network: gateway_ip
-- Getting MAC address, routing and Wifi info...
++ Adding trace for network: mac_address

>> Running session module!

-- Getting current logged in user name...
++ Adding trace for session: logged_user
-- Getting computer uptime and a list of running programs...
++ Adding trace for session: uptime
-- Grabbing screenshot of the running desktop...
++ Adding file for session: screenshot -> C:\Windows\Temp/p13086/prey-
screenshot.jpg

>> Running webcam module!

-- Taking a picture of the impostor...
++ Adding file for webcam: picture -> C:\Windows\Temp/p13086/prey-
picture.jpg

>> Running geo module!

-- Trying to get list of nearby Wifi access points...
-- Got it! Now lets try to get a location fix...
++ Adding trace for geo: lat
++ Adding trace for geo: lng
++ Adding trace for geo: accuracy

>> Sending report!

-- Packing all gathered traces...
-- Posting data via http...
-- Report successfully saved.
-- 246739 bytes uploaded in 5,663 seconds, at 43570,000 bytes/sec.
-- Dropping all traces!
-- Removed C:\Windows\Temp/p13086/prey-screenshot.jpg
-- Removed C:\Windows\Temp/p13086/prey-picture.jpg

-- Done! Happy hunting! :)
-- Cleaning up!
=======================================

[Tomás Pollak]

Hi Pablo,

The webcam module doesn't seem to play well with some HP cameras in
Windows. This is a well known bug and we hope to deliver a solution in
the near future. Hang on for a while! :)

Tomás

[Tim]

Going on 4 months later and I've just run into this same problem on the same type of system.  Any word on whether this will be fixed any time soon?  Are there any known workarounds?   

[Drew Reece]

There is a lot of threads on this & it may be that Silverlight could be a solution…

http://groups.google.com/group/prey-security/browse_thread/thread/e07d5a00685d50e6/7ee4790df5b316b0?hl=en_US%3Fhl%3Den&lnk=gst&q=new+webcam+#7ee4790df5b316b0

Sorry it doesn't work, there doesn't seem like there is any easy answer to it.

People are thinking & working on it though.

It is open source, ideas & patches are encouraged.

Drew

On 21 May 2011, at 08:04, Tim wrote:

Going on 4 months later and I've just run into this same problem on the same type of system.  Any word on whether this will be fixed any time soon?  Are there any known workarounds?   

[Tim]

For people looking for solutions on HP systems with mediasmart webcam software...

If I run the MediaSmart webcam software* then snapshot.exe** works.  There are two problems with this solution.  1) the webcam app is visible 2) the webcam status light is on. I've written a small program to hide the webcam app windows***.  You could accomplish the same thing with 3rd party software.  Google window hiding or email me and I'll send you the source code.  It appears that the status light cannot be turned off.  I'm going to try dabbing a bit of black paint over it.  If that looks too obvious I will open the case and cover the light from the inside or de-solder it. The downside to this approach is that you lose your webcam status light which does server a useful purpose. 

* C:\Program Files (x86)\Hewlett-Packard\Media\Webcam\HPMediaSmartWebcam.exe on my system
** prey's snapshot utility on Windows
*** Window titles = "HP MediaSmart Webcam" and "CyberLink"

WebRep

Overall rating

 

[Drew Reece]

I think the camera light is a hardware feature that is not software controllable. I think it is intended to alert users in case of snooping. 

It's interesting that MediaSmart needs to be running, the opposite is usually the case, eg only one application can access the camera at a time.

I guess the HP driver doesn't load anything to provide access to other parts of the system without MediaSmart running. 

Do other apps like Skype need MediaSmart open too? I wonder if there is a better driver that doesn't insist on running an application to get the pictures. Kudos for the sleuthing, but it sounds a little fragile, since a user may not be logged in, or a thief may create their own clean account.

There was a suggestion that Silverlight could provide a better API for the webcam.

http://groups.google.com/group/prey-security/browse_thread/thread/e07d5a00685d50e6/27687007286918a8?lnk=gst&q=Silverlight#27687007286918a8

Are you geeky enough to figure it out :^)

Drew

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[Tim]

I've locked down my bios and created a dummy account.  This means that my solution will work since I can just force the HP webcam app to run and run my custom app which hides the webcam app.  The webcam status light is the final problem.  It is definitely a driver issue.  If the camera is on so is the light.  Blacking out the light should be easy enough. 

I probably am geeky enough to solve the problem.  Do you have a link to the sourcecode for snapshot.exe?  I just installed Yawcam webcam software on my laptop and it is able to use the webcam without the HP mediasmart app running.  So it is possible.  When using Yawcam I notice that there are two HP camera sources available.  1) "HP webcam"  2) "HP webcam splitter"  Selecting source  #1 it works.  Selecting source #2 I get the same HP image that snapshot.exe produces.  If I can get the source code for snapshot.exe maybe I can add an input option to select an alternate camera source.

Tim

[Drew Reece]

This was passed to my by Tomas

dropbox.bootlog.org/snapshot.zip

From a few minutes of google & forum post reading I think an alternative driver is the answer, since it seems like the camera doesn't exist unless you run MediaSmart. 

The other Windows-webcam-Prey issue is getting the snapshot.exe to take a time delayed image, to allow the hardware to setup exposure & focus, good luck :)  I may be able to help with the bash scripts if you need it.

Drew

[Tim]

Thanks Drew.  Are you and Tomas both Prey developers? 

I couldn't get snapshot.exe to compile using the latest devstudio.  Microsoft's project upgrade options leave a lot to be desired.  I was able to get a C# sample webcam app compiling and I can grab an image without the HP MediaSmart app running.  It looks like snapshot.exe is not selecting the correct camera source and there is no way to change it. I'm planning to turn the sample into a snapshot.exe clone which takes additional parameters for camera source and any other changes I make.  I'd be happy to share the program with the prey developers when it's done.

Tim
         

[Drew Reece]

I contribute a little to Prey, but Tomas is on the Prey Team. Prey is his repo on github.

It would be fantastic if you can allow Prey to call it with some argument that makes it work on HP computers with this MediaSmart issue. Prey could add code to do the check to see if the argument is needed, unless the .exe can detect it automatically?

The other big issue is with webcams is the exposure & focus adjustment being too slow, but they still provide the picture data to Prey but it is usually too dark to see anything. The Mac binary will take a time argument so that it will wait x seconds for the adjustment to settle. If you can add that feature Windows users should be elated :)

Good luck.

Drew

[jgodfrey]

Tim,

Any progress on this front?  I'm a new Prey user (with an HP laptop) and have similar troubles to those reported here in the forums.

I too grabbed the source for snapshot, but was unable to get it to compile in VS 2010 (though I didn't try too hard).  I thought I'd go down the path of making a C# replacement also (likely just for my own use), but then discovered this post. 

As an aside, I did have some marginal luck with replacing the snapshot.exe with a program called "Simple Webcam Capture", which I found on the net.  It allows for a "delay" to be specified prior to the snapshot.  I found that if I specified a 4-5 second delay I could get an image from my cam.  However, the command line parser of that program is horrible and it took lots of fiddling to get it to call appropriately from within the bash script that normally calls snapshot.exe.

Ultimately, I wasn't able to get 100% consistent results, though it was successful some of time.

Anyway, just curious if you've made any progress on a snapshot replacement, since you seem to be on the same path I was contemplating (though certainly well ahead of me).

Thanks,

Jeff Godfrey

[Taher Ghaemi]

Hey Tim, 

Any luck with the snapshot.exe clone? This would solve the problem I'm having as well.

Thanks

[aie1981]

Good day,

I had same issue with HP MediaSmart app. After delete it, webcam works as common webcam.

jgodfrey seems to get a small program that can take some pictures with delay, but I try other way of get it works.

I installed manycam (with some hosts additions to get off annoying updates), that enable a webcam splitter.
I selected HP webcam on it and I configured on all IM apps the manycam webcam.
Prey works perfectly as webcam is always on.

Manycam adds also a camera splitter but I know that there are also some freeware camera splitter drivers without
some of the annoying issues of manycam.

I thing that inserting a splitter camera driver that allow select the webcam through web control panel will solve that problem.

HP MediaSmart is always needed to work on any IM app, no way to use webcam directly without uninstall HP app.