Steganography is the art and science of embedding secret messages in a cover message in such a way that no one, apart from the sender and intended recipient, suspects the existence of the message
As the image depicts, both cover file(X) and secret message(M) are fed into steganographic encoder as input
Steganographic Encoder function, f(X,M,K) embeds the secret message into a cover file.
Resulting Stego Object looks very similar to your cover file, with no visible changes
This completes encoding.
To retrieve the secret message, Stego Object is fed into Steganographic Decoder.
So, Steganography is the practice of concealing a secret message behind a normal message.
It came from 2 Greek Word ⇒ steganos [covered] and graphia [writing]
Remember ⇒
Steganography and Cryptography ⇒ are two different concepts
Although both have same goal ⇒ Protecting message or information from the third parties
Cryptography changes the information to ciphertext which cannot be understood without a decryption key
On the other hand, steganography does not change the format of the information but it conceals the existence of the message.
Downside ⇒ The hidden message is easier to extract if the presence of secret is discovered
Steganography Techniques
Steganography can be divided into five types:
Text Steganography
hiding information inside the text files
Image Steganography
Hiding the data by taking the cover object as the image
Video Steganography
the secret message is embedded into an audio signal which alters the binary sequence of the corresponding audio file.
Audio Steganography
can hide kind of data into digital video format.
Network Steganography
embedding information within network control protocols used in data transmission such TCP, UDP, ICMP etc
Best Tools to Perform Steganography
Stegosuite is a free steganography tool which is written in Java. With Stegosuite you can easily hide confidential information in image files.
Steghide is an open source Steganography software that lets you hide a secret file in image or audio file.
Xiao Steganography is a free software that can be used to hide data in BMP images or in WAV files.
SSuite Picsel is another free portable application to hide text inside an image file but it takes a different approach when compared to other tools*.*
OpenPuff is a professional steganographic tool where you can store files in image, audio, video or flash files
