Find out real locations of flash videos

[senmeis]

Hello,I want to find out real locations of videos which are played by Adobe Flash Player. Through reading many articles I realize the only feasible way is to sniff the HTTP traffic and even this method can fail. Is this thought correct?Senmeis

 

[Borg]

The locations are usually buried pretty deep in Javascript. I use Firebug if I'm trying to find stuff like that.

 

[senmeis]

Thank you. Could you please give some further information on how to use Firebug (now DevTools) to analyze the traffic and to find out the real location?I just read an article telling that video files can be restored from local directory even though they are labeled as deleted by Adobe, but unfortunately this description is only valid for Linux.Senmeis

 

[Borg]

Once you install Firebug and restart, just right click on the item that you're interested in and select the "Inspect Element with Firebug" option at the bottom. It will guide you right to that spot where you can try to see what script it's referencing. From there, it's just a matter of finding the piece of code that's making the call.

 

[senmeis]

Following your advice I installed Firebug 2.0.19 and right clicked on the page, there is only an “Inspect Element”. Entering this I see seven toolbars from left to right: Inspector, Console, Debugger, Style Editor, Performance, Memory and Network. Is this the right one?Under “Inspector” there is only an object:<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" id="EventConsoleNG" name="EventConsoleNG" data="http://event.lvl3.on24.com/view/presentation/flash/EventConsoleNG.swf?version=03-03-2017 05:33 PM" align="middle" height="100%" width="100%"><param name="quality" value="high"><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"><param name="wmode" value="opaque"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="flashvars" value="imode=nextgeneration&amp;eventid=1345341&amp;sessionid=1&amp;username=&amp;partnerref=&amp;format=fhaudio&amp;mobile=false&amp;flashsupportedmobiledevice=false&amp;helpcenter=false&amp;key=20891E13A288010645440C64CC8DF5AD&amp;text_language_id=en&amp;playerwidth=1000&amp;playerheight=650&amp;overwritelobby=y&amp;eventuserid=165569651&amp;contenttype=A&amp;mediametricsessionid=132616806&amp;mediametricid=1940773&amp;usercd=165569651&amp;mode=launch&amp;eventserver=http://event.on24.com&amp;cacheinterval=4967856&amp;version=03-03-2017 05:33 PM"></object>Do I have to go to “Network” to analyze all the POST commands?Senmeis

 

[Borg]

Inspect Element is the native Firefox debugger. I haven't used that so I can't be of much help with that. You should see a second option if you've installed and enabled Firebug correctly. Do you see Firebug somewhere at the top of the browser?

 

[senmeis]

I can see the grey Firebug icon indicating it is deactivated. Whenever I click on it Developer Tools will be opened. I think Firebug is always deactivated because more powerful Deveoper Tools are installed.Senmeis

 

[Borg]

That just means that it isn't currently active. If installed correctly, you should have the option shown below.

 

[senmeis]

At last I managed to activate Firebug.Now I click on “Script” button while the flash video is running. A message is showing: No Javascript on this page.In „Net -> Media“ I found a GET command referring to the address: http://event.lvl3.on24.com/media/news/corporatevideo/events/13/45/34/1/rt/1/flashdemo/flashdemo/adi_recording_0125172_mpd/video/2/init.mp4. It looks fine but is not a real video.Am I in the right direction?Senmeis

 

[Borg]

Am I in the right direction?

Probably. It is difficult to track down Flash videos because they are usually pretty deeply embedded in scripts that are called by other scripts, etc. I've searched for flash videos before and they can be hard to find. You'll have to trace through the code until you find it.

A couple of things that will help in your search: When you are on the Script tab, the list of scripts that you can get to are in a dropdown list just below the Console tab. There is also search a search function available when you click somewhere in the script display and select Ctrl-F.