Re: Steganography Software

On Apr 25, 8:14 pm, jmorton123 <jmorton...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
Steganography Software

In two to four weeks I will complete steganography software that will
embedd encrypted data into 24-bit bitmap images.

It will determine the image data length of the bitmap.
It will determine the length of the message to embed.
It will XOR each bit of the message with the LSB of  randomly selected
unique bitmap bytes until the entire message has been embedded into
the bitmap.

Of course you must not use this technique on vector graphic images.
You should use this technique only on RAW digital camera images
converted to bitmap images and these images should be of natural
scenes with a great deal of color variability.
You cannot tell the encrypted data image from the original image by
just looking at it.
You cannot tell the encrypted data image from an examination of the
LSB byte information because on average only half of the bits will be
flipped and you won't know which bytes to examine because they will
be chosen at random.
As SOP you should encrypt the message before you embed it into the
bitmap image.
I am determining what percentage maximum of the bitmap image should
contain the embedded encrypted message for added security.

JM

I respect your enthusiasm for steganography, I enjoy the field a great
deal myself. With out meaning to offend, it sounds like you're
probably an amateur in the field, is that correct? There already
exists a large number of applications for hiding information in image
files of all kinds, using much stronger algorithms than the one you
describe; algorithms that are more robust and more transparent. I
strongly encourage you to pursue your interest in the field, and
continue exploring different techniques. However, I'd humbly caution
you against releasing software for this purpose without having a
strong background in the field. If you want to release it as a "toy"
application for others to play with and become introduced to the
field, I see no problem with that. But I think it would be rather
reckless and irresponsible to release this as serious security
software without the proper background and expertise.

If I've underestimated your expertise, I apologize. The algorithm as
you've described it sounds largely trivial and naive, but if I've
missed subtleties that make it stronger than it sounds, that's my
fault. Modifying LSBs of natural images is of course a familiar
technique and there has been a significant amount of steganalysis of
the problem. For instance, a technique developed by Dumitrescu, Wu,
and Memon [1] can estimate the length of a message embedded into the
LSBs of a natural image, regardless of how exactly it is embedded.

I hope I haven't offended you, it sounds like you've got a great basic
understanding of steganography. I only hope you'll make sure you have
the proper knowledge and understanding before applying it in real
world situations.

Best regards,
-Brian


[1] Sorina Dumitrescu, Xiaolin Wu, and Nasir Memon, “On Steganalysis
of Random LSB Embedding in Continuous-Tone Images,” in IEEE
Internation Conference on Image Processing, June 2002, vol. 3, pp.
641–
644.
.