Seminar on STEGANOGRAPHY

Submitted by: debi Prasad behera Regd no.:0801294052 Branch: it

Overview
Introduction
History Steganographic Techniques Advantages Applications Conclusion

Introduction
In Greek
Steganos = covered
Graphein = to write

Steganography is about hiding messages Historically, secret messages were often hidden (or

memorized)
Today, steganography is used primarily to protect

digital rights
watermarking copyright notices fingerprinting a serial ID

History of Steganography
The first recorded use of the term was in 1499 by Johannes Trithemius.

A treatise on cryptography and steganography disguised as a book on magic.

First recorded uses of steganography can be traced back to 440 BC . Runners were memorizing message

Sometimes killed after delivering the message

History
Persian King.

(cont)

Demaratus tells Athens of Persias attack plans

Writes the secret message on a tablet, and covers it with wax

Greek encouraged Aristagoras to revolt against the

Writes message on the shaved head of the messenger, and sends him after his hair grew

Chinese silk balls

Message is written on silk, turned into wax-covered ball that was swallowed by the messenger

Invisible ink-jet technology

Ink that is too small for human eye (Univ of Buffalo, 2000)

STEGANOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUE
1. PHYSICAL STEGANOGRAPHY
2. DIGITAL STEGANOGRAPHY

3. NETWORK STEGANOGRAPHY
4. PRINTED STEGANOGRAPHY 5. TEXT STEGANOGRAPHY 6. SUDOKU PUZZLE BY STEGANOGRAPHY

Physical Steganography
Invisible Ink
Certain organic fluids (milk, fruit juice) are transparent when

dried but the deposit can be charred and is then visible A mixture of alum and vinegar may be used to write on hardboiled eggs, so that can only be read once shell is broken

Microdots
Inkjet dots, smaller than human eye can see Microdots with barcode-like information

Easter eggs
Claims that Beatles embedded secret messages in their music

Digital Steganography
Concealing messages within the lowest bits of noisy images or sound files.
Concealing data within encrypted data or within random data. Concealed messages in tampered executable files, exploiting redundancy in the targeted instruction set. Pictures embedded in video material.

Changing the order of elements in a set.

EXAMPLE: Removing all but the two least significant bits of each colour component produces an almost completely black image. Making that image 85 times brighter produces the image below.

IMAGE OF A TREE

Image of a cat extracted from above image.

Network Steganography

Exchange steganograms in telecommunication networks .

Utilizes communication protocols' control elements and their basic intrinsic functionality. Modification of the properties of a single network protocol.

Relation between two or more different network protocols to enable secret communication.

Printed Steganography

The plain text, first encrypted by traditional means,

producing a cipher text. Then, an innocuous cover text is modified in some way so as to contain the cipher text, resulting in the stego text.

Text Steganography
Smaller memory occupation and simpler communication.

The method that could be used is data compression.

Achieve data compression is Huffman coding.

Smaller length code words to more frequently occurring source symbols.

Longer length code words to less frequently occurring source symbols.

Hiding a message within a text

An actual message from a German spy
read second letter in each word

Apparently, neutrals protest is thoroughly discounted and ignored. Isman hard hit. Blockade issue affect pretext for embargo on by products, ejecting suets and vegetable oils. Pershing Sails from NY June 1

Sudoku puzzle by Steganography

Art of concealing data in an image using Sudoku which is used like a key

to hide the data within an image. Many keys as there are possible solutions of a Sudoku puzzle..

Advantages
Messages do not attract attention to themselves.
Plainly visible encrypted messages. No matter how unbreakable.

Will arouse suspicion.

Steganography includes the concealment of information within computer files. In digital steganography, electronic communications may include steganographic coding inside of a transport layer.

Applications
1.
2. 3. 4. 5.

LEAST SIGNIFICANT BIT INSERTION

USAGE IN MODERN PRINTERS EXAMPLES FROM MODERN PRACTICE ALLEGED USE BY TERRORISTS ALLEGED USE BY INTELLIGENCE SERVICES

Modern Steganography
Hiding one message within another (container) Most containers are rich media
Images, audio, video can be tweaked without affecting human eye/ear

Copyright notices embedded in digital art

Serial number embedded to prevent replication

Digital cameras EXIF tags

Not secretive, but hidden from the eye Embed info such as camera type, date, shutter speed, focal length,..

Similarly, possible to embed messages in invisible parts of html pages

Steganalysis
Detection: is there a hidden message?
Develop signatures for known steganographic tools. When content is encrypted, the message should have a high entropy

. Promising results: high detection rates

Decoding: recover hidden message

No significant work in this area !

Prevention: destroy or remove a hidden message

Most steganographies not robust to image alterations Short messages (e.g. copyright) can be encoded redundantly and

survive an alternation

Usage In Modern Printers

Steganography is used in HP and Xerox brand colour laser

printers. Tiny yellow dots are added to each page. The dots are barely visible and contain encoded printer serial numbers, as well as date and time stamps.

Conclusion
Steganography is arguably weaker than cryptography because the information is revealed once the message is intercepted
On the other hand, an encrypted message that is not hidden may attract attention, and in some cases may itself incriminate the messenger

In any event, steganography can be used in conjunction with cryptography

ANY QUERIES??

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