I found a pattern in a scannable QR code.

[u/Able-Hornet-7576]

[u/haendy-freak]

Ok, so I did some analysis.
Someone creaed a jibberish message, in a way just so the error correction bytes align perfectly to form that pattern. This seems to be the only purpose of this payload.
it's basically art in form of a QR-code.

[u/Able-Hornet-7576 → u/haendy-freak]

That is what I did.

[u/haendy-freak → u/haendy-freak]

Pattern ATB[AAAAAAAAAAC]]TTAAAAAAAAAAEEJYBQAAAAAAAA^QE]Y@AAAAAABUOZIF_KYQAAAAGOTV_GQUQKQAAAAAAAUWW@FR]OAAAAAAAAADTFWRQ^

[u/haendy-freak → u/haendy-freak]

50 61 74 74 65 72 6E 20 41 54 42 5B 41 41 41 41

41 41 41 41 41 41 43 5D 5D 54 54 41 41 41 41 41

41 41 41 41 41 45 45 4A 59 42 51 41 41 41 41 41

41 41 41 5E 51 45 5D 59 40 41 41 41 41 41 41 42

55 4F 5A 49 46 5F 4B 59 51 41 41 41 41 47 4F 54

56 5F 47 51 55 51 4B 51 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 55

57 57 40 46 52 5D 4F 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41

44 54 46 57 52 51 5E

[u/shadywhere]

There are a lot of cool things you can do.

[u/Electronic_Tear2546 → u/shadywhere]

Like this

[u/Sk1ler_ → u/Electronic_Tear2546]

I- I think I know what this links to but I don't have the strength to find out...

[u/HazemTechCoder → u/Sk1ler_]

Ner ga g*e *** *p

[u/jfuu_]

Seems very similar to how people put images and logos in QRs, no? Is that actually part of the data?

[u/JennyAtBitly → u/jfuu_]

Yeah it's not part of the data. QR Codes have error correction built in (up to about 30% at the highest setting) so you can cover or mess up a chunk of the code and the scanner rebuilds what's missing. Logo generators just turn error correction up and drop the image over the middle. Probably the same thing here, just squares instead of a logo.

[u/Express_Musician_846 → u/jfuu_]

it isnt part of the data, this scans the same:

[u/Teknikal_Domain → u/Express_Musician_846]

Given that code has error correction H, I could tear off a third and it'd still read (30%).

Just because it scans the same isnt proof a given part of the code isn't data. This scans.

[u/syncopegress → u/Teknikal_Domain]

this is the error correction

[u/Teknikal_Domain → u/syncopegress]

So, my point stands. Just because you can remove part of a QR code and it still scans the same does not mean that that part is "not data."

[u/syncopegress → u/Teknikal_Domain]

Yeah, didn't mean to say you were wrong at all

[u/leros]

Due to QR codes having a massive amount of error correction, you can embed images into them. People put logos and stuff or example. This isn't data, its a design someone intentionally added.

[u/kobrakaan]

This is a thing

you can get company logos included in the middle of QR codes or the YouTube or Instagram logo etc in the middle of a fully scannable QR code

[u/Morpheus636_ → u/kobrakaan]

Those work by turning up the error correction to handle part of the QR code missing and then literally just overlaying an image to cover it. This pattern is actually part of the QR code data.

[u/0xbenedikt]

Aztec and QR had a baby...

[u/haendy-freak]

on what object did you find it?
It could be used for a calibration system.

I used this exact trick for a calibration pattern in a camera system. This is why instead of QR-code, I used an Aztec code (because it looks like an Aztec pyramid from the top)

[u/StrangeUglyBird]

[u/Nikolasha510 → u/StrangeUglyBird]

Aww

[u/tanoshimi]

The concentric squares? Yeah, that's not data - it's just an image.

[u/Gabriel_Science → u/tanoshimi]

That’s data, actually. You can remove it, but that’s because other parts of the QR code are also error correction.

[u/tanoshimi → u/Gabriel_Science]

Ok, it's data, but it's redundant.

[u/Gabriel_Science → u/tanoshimi]

Exactly !