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INTRODUCTION
STEGANOGRAPHY :

STEGANOGRAPHY

GREEK

COMES

FROM THE

WORD, IT MEANS COVERED

OR SECRET WRITING.

S T E G A N - O - G RA P H Y
COVERED

WRITING

What is
Steganography?
Defn:
the art and science of hiding information by
embedding it in some other data.
Cryptography - render message unintelligible
Steganography - conceal the existence of the
message

Steganography
Some
400 B.C. - writings of Herodotus
History
1499 - Steganographia, Trithemius- steganography and magic
1665 - Steganographica, Gaspari Schotti
1870 - The Pigeon Post into Paris
2001 - A Beautiful Mind

Steganography
Low-tech Methods of
Message hidden
Steganography
Message hidden as

Message written in invisible ink

ID Fetched into

Steganography
Basics

The word steganography comes from the Greek

steganos , meaning covered or secret, and graphy ,
meaning writing or drawing. Therefore,
steganography literally means covered writing.
Steganography simply takes one piece of
information and hides it within another

Computer files (images, sounds recordings, even

disks) contain unused or insignificant areas of data
Steganography takes advantage of these areas,
replacing them with information (encrypted mail,
for instance).
The files can then be exchanged without anyone
knowing what really lies inside of them
An image of the space shuttle landing might
contain a private letter to a friend.
Rumor has it that terrorists used steganography to
transmit messages to one another.

Steganography
Early Examples

In his history of the Persian

Wars, Herodotus tells of a
messenger who shaved his
head and allowed a secret
message to be tattooed on his
scalp. He waited until his hair
grew back. Then he journeyed
to where the recipient awaited
him and shaved his head
again. The message was
revealed. It was historys first
use of steganography.

Steganography
Principles

Computer Steganography is based on two

principles.

The first one is that the files containing digitized

images or sound can be altered to a certain
extend without loosing their functionality.
The other principle deals with the human
inability to distinguish minor changes in image
color or sound quality, which is especially easy
to make use of in objects that contain
redundant information, be it 16-bit sound, 8-bit
or even better 24-bit image. The value of the
least significant bit of the pixel color wont
result in any perceivable change of that color.

Steganography
Process

The data to be concealed is compressed and hidden

within another file.
The first step is to find a file which will be used to hide
the message (also called a carrier or a container.)
The next step is to embed the message one wants to
hide within the carrier using a steganographic
technique.
Two different techniques commonly used for
embedding are:

Replace the least significant bit of each byte in the [carrier] with
a single bit for the hidden message.
Select certain bytes in which to embed the message using a
random number generator; resampling the bytes to pixel
mapping to preserve color scheme, in the case of an image...;
hiding information in the coefficients of the discrete cosine,
fractal or wavelet transform of an image; and applying mimic
functions that adapt bit pattern to a given statistical distribution."

Steganography
Software

EZStego (Stego Online, Stego Shareware, Romana

Machado)

Java based software program which supports only GIF and

PICT formats;

Gif-It-Up v1.0 (Lee Nelson)

A stego program for Windows 95 that hides data in GIF files

Hide and Seek (Colin Maroney)

can hide any data into GIF images;

JPEG-JSTEG (Derek Upham)

can hide data inside a JPEG file

MP3Stego (Fabien A.P. Petitcolas, Computer

Laboratory, University of Cambridge)

can hide data inside MP3 sound files;

Steganos (Demcom, Frankfurt, Germany)

encrypts files and then hides them within BMP, DIB, VOC,
WAV, ASCII and HTML files.

Steganography
info

info

-file
embed

extract

The cover provides a host for transporting the hidden info.

Steganography
Three Types of Steganography
1) Covert Channel
conceal message so only sender and recipient know

Watermarking
concealed message contains its source ID

2) ___________ Watermarking
designed for concealed message to survive

3) (Semi-)___________ Watermarking
designed so concealment is corrupted whenever
stego-file is modified.

 THE GOAL OF STEGANOGRAPHY IS TO

HIDE MESSAGES IN SUCH A
N O O N E A PA R T
RECIPIENT EVEN

W AY T H AT

FROM THE INTENDED

K N O W S T H AT A

M E S S A G E H A S B E E N S E N T.

T H I S C A N B E AC H I E V E BY C O N C E A L I N G
THE EXISTENCE OF

I N F O R M AT I O N

W I T H I N S E E M I N G LY H A R M L E S S C A R R I E R S
OR COVER

I T C A N B E U N D E R S TA N D B Y T H E

FOLLOWING FIGURE.

BLOCK DIAGRAM OF STEGANOGRAPHY

Steganography
Applications of Steganography
Covert exchange of information
Establish identity
Combat illegal copying

Steg____________
How would you?
Comparison of files for statistical differences
What files are available?

STEGANOGRAPHY UNDER
VARIOUS MEDIA

STEGANOGRAPHY

IN

TEXT

STEGANOGRAPHY

IN

IMAGES

STEGANOGRAPHY

IN

A U D I O

STEGANOGRAPHY IN IMAGES
IMAGE

COMPRESSION:

IMAGE

IMAGE

COMPRESSION

FILES.

LOSSLESS
S AV E

TWO

AND

OFFERS

KINDS

LOSSY

STORAGE

OF

SOLUTION

IMAGE

BUT

H AV E

LOSSY

F O R M AT

BOTH

DIFFERING

O N A N Y U N C O M P R E S S E D H I D D E N D ATA

LARGE

COMPRESSION

COMPRESSION.

S PAC E

TO

ARE

METHODS
EFFECTS

IN THEIMAGE.

J P E G ( J O I N T P H O T O G RA P H I C E X P E RT S G R O U P )

FILES,

OFFERS

HIGH

COMPRESSION,

BUT

M AY

N O T M A I N T A I N T H E O R I G I N A L I M A G E ' S I N T E G R I T Y. H E N C E
IT IS

CALLED LOSSY.

LOSSLESS

IMAGE

D ATA

COMPRESSION

E X A C T LY ,

IT

IS

M A I N TA I N S
THUS

MORE

THE

ORIGINAL

FAV O R E D

BY

S T E G A N O G RA P H I C T E C H N I Q U E S . E G : ( B M P ) , ( G I F ) F O R M AT S .

STEGANOGRAPHY IN IMAGES
IMAGE ENCODING TECHNIQUES

THE MOST COMMON APPROACHES TO

I N F O R M AT I O N H I D I N G I N I M A G E S :

LE A ST SIG N IF IC AN T BI T IN SE RT IO N :

M A S K I N G A N D F I LT E R I N G :

A L G O R I T H M S A N D T R A N S F O R M AT I O N S :

Steganography
Steganography in Images
Two types of compression:
lossless (gif)
lossy (jpeg)
Sometimes concealed message inserted as a comment.
Sometimes the accuracy of the image is sacrificed slightly.

Common Tools
StegoDOS
White Noise Storm
S-tools
outguess
steghide

STEGANOGRAPHY IN AUDIO
AUDIO ENVIRONMENTS

D I G I TA L R E P R E S E N TAT I O N

S A M P L E Q U A N T I Z AT I O N M E T H O D :

T E M P O R A L S A M P L I N G R AT E :

A N O T H E R D I G I TA L R E P R E S E N TA T I O N

STEGANOGRAPHY IN AUDIO
T R A N S M I SS I O N M E D I U M :
B E N D E R S T RA N S M I S S I O N E N V I R O N M E N T S
D I G I TA L

E N D -T O - E N D

E N V I R O N M E N T.
INCREASED/DECREASED

R E S A M P L I N G E N V I R O N M E N T.

ANA LOG

T R A N S M I SS I O N

AND

RESAMPLING.

' ' O V E R T H E A I R ' ' E N V I R O N M E N T.

STEGANOGRAPHY IN AUDIO
M E T H O D S O F A U D I O D ATA
HIDING

L O W- B I T E N C O D I N G :

PHASE CODING :

E C H O D ATA H I D I N G :

Steganography
Digital
HTML message as
Steganography
cover?

computer program as cover?

network protocol headers
white space in text
unused space in
buffer
least significant bits of image
slight distortion in sound file
Easter
eggs

STEGANALYSIS

S T E G A N A LY S I S I S T H E A R T A N D S C I E N C E O F

DETECTING A
HIDING

L E AV E

S E C R E T C O M M U N I C AT I O N .
MESSAGE

D E T E C TA B L E

WILL

TRACES

MOST
IN

THE

L I K E LY
COVER

MEDIUM.
THE

CHANGES
THE

I N F O R M AT I O N
THE

COVER,

HIDING

S TAT I S T I C A L
WHICH

IS

PROCESS

P R O P E RT I E S

OF

S T E G A N A LY S T

A T T E M P T S T O D E T E C T.

THE

PROCESS

S TAT I S T I C A L

OF

AT T E M P T I N G

TRACES

S T A T I S T I C A L S T E G A N A LY S I S .

IS

TO

DETECT
CALLED

STEGANALYSIS
I M P O RTA N T A S P E C T S O F
S T E G A N A LY S I S

D E T E C T I N G H I D D E N I N F O R M AT I O N

DI S AB L I NG S T E G ANO GRAP HY

APPLICATIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L C O M M U N I C AT I O N A N D

S E C R E T D ATA S T O R I N G .

P R O T E C T I O N O F D ATA A LT E R AT I O N .

A C C E SS C O N T R O L S Y S T E M F O R

D I G I TA L C O N T E N T D I S T R I B U T I O N .

M E D I A D ATA B A S E S Y S T E M S .

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

A D VA N TA G E S

D I F F I C U LT T O D E T E C T A N D O N LY R E C E I V E R C A N D E T E C T.

I T C A N B E D O N E FA S T E R W I T H L A R G E N O. O F S O F T WA R E S .

P R O V I D E S B E TT E R S E C U R I T Y F O R S H A R I N G D ATA I N

L AN,MAN & WAN.

D I S A D VA N TA G E S :

T H E C O N F I D E N T I A L I T Y O F I N F O R M AT I O N I S M A I N TA I N E D

BY THE ALGORITHMS, AND IF

THE ALGORITHMS ARE

KNOWNTHEN THIS TECHNIQUE IS OF NO USE.

PA S S W O R D L E A K AG E M AY O C C U R A N D I T L E A D S T O T H E

UNAUTHORIZED

A C C E S S O F D ATA .

IF THIS TECHNIQUE IS GONE IN THE WRONG HANDS LIKE

H AC K E RS C A N BE V E RY

MUCH DANGEROUS FOR ALL.

CONCLUSION
THIS

SEMINAR

PROVIDES

S T E G A N A LY S I S

AND

CHARACTERISTICS

OF

AN

OV E RV I EW

INTRODUCED
STEGANOGRAPHIC

OF
SOME

SOFTWARE

T H AT P O I N T S I G N S O F I N F O R M AT I O N H I D I N G .

THE

EASE

IN

USE

STEGANOGRAPHY

AND

ABUNDANT

TOOLS

HAS

AVA I L A B I L I T Y

L AW

OF

ENFORCEMENT

C O N C E R N E D I N T RA F F I C K I N G O F I L L I C I T M AT E R I A L V I A
WEB

PAG E

IMAGES,

AUDIO,

AND

OTHER

T R A N S M I S S I O N S O V E R T H E I N T E R N E T.

W H E R E S TA N DA R D C RY P T O G RA P H Y A N D E N C RY P T I O N

IS OUTL AWED, STEGANOGRAPHY CAN BE USED.

F O R M E R LY ,

JUST

AN

INTEREST

OF

THE

M I L I TA RY ,

STEGANOGRAPHY IS NOW GAINING POPULARITY AMONG

THE MASSES.

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