Steganography - Hiding a secret message inside an innocent-looking message

[StefanX]

"Steganography" is the practice of embedding a secret message inside another, innocent-looking message -- thereby hiding the fact that communication is even taking place.

Why am I mentioning this now? Oh, I don't know... thought it could be interesting. While Georgie Boy and the NSA spend billions of dollars breaking the law and snooping into the emails and phone calls of every American citizen, we can rest assured that the Bad Guys can continue to communicate "under the radar" using the latest steganography software.



Below are some examples of steganography programs. Some of them are free. Try the demo on the first one listed below -- SPAM MIMIC -- it takes your super-secret message and converts it into an annoying (but innocent-looking) piece of spam!

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http://www.spammimic.com/

There are terrific tools (like PGP and GPG) for encrypting your mail. If somebody along the way looks at the mail they can't understand it. But they do know you are sending encrypted mail to your pal.

The answer: encode your message into something innocent-looking.

Your messages will be safe and nobody will know they're encrypted!

There's a demo on this site you can try out. Type in your secret message -- click ENCODE -- and your message will turn into innocent-looking spam! Click DECODE and the spam will turn back into your original message.

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http://www.invisiblesecrets.com/hide-files.html

"Hide files in five innocent looking files types: JPEG, PNG, BMP, HTML and WAV. To encrypt and hide files in a carrier file you can use the wizard which will guide you step-by-step through the process."

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http://www.steganos.com/?content=products_sss&command=features&feature=steganography

"Secret data is enbedded in BMPs or WAVs. You see and hear no difference."

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http://steghide.sourceforge.net/

Steghide: (open-source) "Steghide is a steganography program that is able to hide data in various kinds of image- and audio-files. The color- respectivly sample-frequencies are not changed thus making the embedding resistant against first-order statistical tests."

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If Georgie Boy couldn't detect the message "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside US" printed in bold capital letters on his August 6 Presidential Daily Brief, ya think he'll be able to spot the secret message embedded (using White Noise Storm) in one of these pictures of William Shakespeare?



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Some articles on Steganography:

http://plus.maths.org/issue21/features/singh/
"I could send you send you a JPEG, a picture of my trip to Australia on holiday, but hidden in that picture, hidden in the digital information, would be a message."

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,41658,00.html
The technique, known as steganography, is the practice of embedding secret messages in other messages -- in a way that prevents an observer from learning that anything unusual is taking place.

[Berry Cool]

1. This is hardly news.

I used to work for an institution that employed a steganography expert. I haven't worked for that institution for a year and a half.

Surely someone working for Georgie Boy is aware of this stuff too.

One of the biggest uses for steganography experts is in attempting to decode seemingly innocent images with hidden messages embedded in them.

[hwmnbn]

3. It's news to me......

Maybe it's not news to the CIA either but....

They were not aware of removing their cell-phone batteries when they did their rendition in Italy. Those cell-phone records tracked and identified all of them. They weren't aware of THAT. :rofl:

I just thought this program was cool. I have no immediate plans to use it however. Did you get that, agent Mike?

[StefanX]

4. Yes, there are steganalysis techniques

which attempt to figure out if an innocent picture or audio clip is actually harboring the secret message "Operation Quagmire Begins At Dawn."

Do you think that if the Georgie and the NSA intercept EVERY SINGLE MESSAGE SENT IN THE WORLD they'll be able to (1) figure out which ones actually contain secret messages and (2) decode those messages?

I doubt it. There's an ocean of stuff out there to look at -- and the problem gets harder if you have to try to decrypt every innocent-looking vacation picture, and every innocent-sounding audio-clip.

But, while the terrorists continue to communicate under the radar, I bet Bush and his minions are having a had a great time listening in on every phone call Cindy Sheehan or Joseph Wilson or John Kerry make!

[wakeme2008]

2. Tinfoil Hat time warning...

The only one I would trust is the one from sourceforge with SOURCE.

Do you really know who the other people are.... :tinfoilhat:

[StefanX]

5. Very good point!

I'm a Linux user myself.

[agincourt]

6. Real terrorists wouldn't heavily use land lines.

They would use this technology or even something as simple as runners. We would probably be shocked if we knew what the Bush administration was really phone-taping for.

[depakid]

7. Real terrorists wouldn't draw attention to themselves

They'd try to hide in plain sight.

The NSA can't accurately filter though the massive amount of communications in the US or abroad, even with their computing power. People familiar with information theory will know why.

They need all sorts of algorithms to sort out what to look for and where to look. My guess is that encrypted messages (like those using PGP or steganography programs) would be one of the first places they'd start.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

8. Lets make it a little more interesting. Suppose a site, had a jpeg

that was nothing more than a jpeg.... and that at 12:33 each day, that jpeg was replace by an encoded jpeg for FIVE minutes or less. A person who needs the message downloads the jpeg at 12:34 and at 12:38 the picture reverts back to the plain jane version. Imagine if they are "that" smart... if so there is no way the feds can keep up with this sort of thing... NO WAY.

[depakid]

12. You might be able to detect a pattern there

The key word is might.

The only way you'd be able to hone in with an algorithm is through plain, old fashioned "gumshoe" intelligence gathering. Same with telephone calls.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

13. Not if the jpeg "change time" changes by a predetermined "random"

amount each day.

[StefanX]

14. I think swapping the real and the doctored jpeg would be worse

If it's just one jpeg, it's less suspicious. Two alternating jpegs, even for just a brief time, would create a suspicious pattern ("grab all websites where the content changed")... and if you had the plain jpeg and the jpeg containing the message, then you could just subtract the two and be left with the (coded) messge.

I think the advantage of steganography is just flooding them with too many decoys and distractions, so there's too big of an ocean of information to sift through -- and everything basically says "Nothing interesting here... Keep moving!"

Remember, that technique gets used against US a lot. It seems pretty effective. Sometimes I think that we're being constantly flooded with distractions and decoys to throw us off from the real shit going down. This seems like a very powerful tactic. If so, everyone can use it.

[catnhatnh]

9. Thanks for the info....

....but I'll hide nothing.I'm too old and tired to be duplicious and if what I say is sedition, then let them try my treasonous old ass....Bite me George...

[AnnieBW]

10. Poor Man's Steg

And then there's "poor man's steganography", which is simply embedding messages in web pages by putting them in HTML source code, or in the same color as the web page background. See http://marvincandle.com/ and http://www.oceanic-air.com/ for good non-political examples. Those ABC webmasters for "LOST" have waaaay too much time on their hands.

[iamahaingttta]

11. I know people who do that kind of thing...

I will often say ass the ass and nobody knows what it means.
Don't ask me, cause I won't tell you!

[KamaAina]

15. Steganography was featured in the movie "Along Came a Spider"

with Morgan Freeman. Two KIDS were using it to pass notes back and forth in class, for crying out loud!

Find the coded message in this one:



Stare blankly at it for a few seconds, like it was a Magic Eye. It says, "Bush** is a soulless Nazi who wouldn't lift a finger to help his own people if they happened to be the wrong color."

[Wizard777]

16. Standing infront of the picture. It's in the right eye.

Then there is the Call Intercept between Mohammad Atta and an Al Qaida operative in the Middle East. "Stick stick dash cake with a stick down." Bad pilot? No! 11-9 or 9-11.

The Bible Code is also a form of steganography. That says the WMD's are in Lebanon. Look out Syria here we come!

[Liberal In Texas]

17. Cool. (spammimic message follows...)

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