Secure Computing: Sec-C

There is a picture attributed to Playboy Brazil that is circulating the Internet. (It made Digg and has been picked up all over the place.) The picture shows a model who has been digitally enhanced: her bellybutton was removed.

Since I am presenting at Black Hat on image analysis, I decided to see what I can find in this picture.

• Principal component analysis shows that her yellow bikini bottom and yellow shirt collar were "enhanced" (recolored; likely brightened). Similarly, the red on her shirt and wristband was enhanced. However, the yellow stripes on her shirt were not enhanced (or not significantly compared to the other yellow fabrics).
  
  
  
  
• The meta data says that an Adobe product edited the image at one time, however the quantization matrix is not consistent with Adobe products. This image was saved at a 95% quality level by a non-Adobe product. The Adobe meta header was likely retained by the last JPEG editing program. (Retaining old meta data is common. An Adobe product edited the image, then some other editor saved this final JPEG.)
  
  
• The error level analysis is inconsistent with images generated by Adobe products, and inconsistent with Gimp. Both tools perform mergers, so pixels rarely reach their minimum error level. I don't know what tools did the last edits, but I know what was not used.
  
  
• Light analysis (LA) -- not part of my Black Hat talk -- shows her bellybutton (see the swirl?). The bellybutton was removed using a pixel merger, not by using a smudge tool or pasting a section of skin over it. LA also shows a dot on her face, above the right cheek. A zit? (Likely removed with a small paintbrush or pencil tool.) There was also some kind of editing done to her hip. (The round circle -- could it be a tattoo or blemish was removed?)
  
  

However, there are some bigger problems with this picture that make me question the legitimacy of this image. For example:

• Even though it is spreading rapidly (every blog seems to be covering this image), none give her name or cite the source.
  
  
• A few blogs claim that the picture comes from Playboy Brazil, but I could not find the picture there. (Research is very hard work. I love my job.)
  
  
• The image itself shows no scanning artifacts, so it likely started digitally. (If it was scanned in from an actual Playboy magazine, there would be scanner artifacts.)
  
  
• Images found on the Playboy sites were edited using Adobe products. They retain the Adobe meta data as well as the Adobe quantization matrices and Adobe artifacts from error level analysis. This picture is inconsistent with images found at Playboy.com and Playbot.com.br (Brazil's Playboy magazine).
  
  
• The postings that refer to this picture make references to a Brazilian model:
  Can you believe that?! This brazilian model "lost" her belly button as the Playboy magazine editors were retouching her body curves. The mistake went unnoticed, and the magazine sold 605,000 copies that month... lots of readers got pissed off when they realized they were wasting money on fake pictures.
  However, the football (soccer) team's colors are not Brazil. Red with yellow stripes are the colors of Spain's team. In addition, the crest on her shirt is the Spanish coat of arms and it appears on Spain's football jerseys. Soccer fans are true fanatics. Why would any self-respecting Brazilian wear Spain's colors?
  
  
• The postings also claim that there were "605,000 copies" sold. I'm curious where this number came from. In particular, Playboy's circulation is measured in millions of issues per month. "605,000" seems very low. However, Brazil's Playboy circulation was only 359,000 in 2003. Assuming 605,000 is correct (and assuming the source is really Playboy Brazil), an increase of 246,000 copies per month in four years would be quite an achievement. (Many urban legends include fake numbers to imply credibility.)
  
  
• The bellybutton image appears to have the Playboy logo in the bottom corner. However, Playboy Brazil uses the Abril logo, not the bunny. And the Playboy bunny logo almost always has a white border. (Most images found on the U.S. Playboy.com site do not have the bunny logo at all.) This image is missing the border around the bunny. Thus, it does not appear to be authentic. In the Digg posting, the submitter wrote, "Can you believe that?! This brazilian model "lost" her belly button as the Playboy magazine editors were photoshopping her body curves. Say NO to photo retouching!!!" However, this picture does not appear to be from Playboy magazine.
  

What does this mean?

This might be the start of an urban legend that is propagating virally. The origin of the image was unlikely Playboy, the model is unlikely Brazilian, and the bellybutton was not the only modification. Then again, maybe I just could not find the source. If you happen to know the model's name and/or original source (URL) at Playboy, let me know! (Knowing her name makes it easier to track down the source of the image.)

I wrote to Playboy and asked for confirmation about the image, but have not yet received a reply. If I hear anything, I'll update this blog entry.

P.S. If you like this type of analysis, wait until you see my talk at Black Hat. I cover many other analysis methods and have much better examples than "some shopped girly photo".

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