Steghide — A beginners tutorial

Welcome.

Steghide is a steganography tool. The main purpose of this tool is to hide confidential data in an image or audio file. In this tutorial, I will explain the tools and usage in a beginner-friendly way.

Topics discussed :
1. Image Steganography
2. More options
2.1 Information retrieve
2.2 Compression mode
2.3 Encryption Algorithms
3. Audio Steganography

Below showing, my cover file — index.jpeg and my.txt is the secret data file

Text file to hide inside image / audio

Image and secret text file

Image Steganography

Basic of image steganography :

• Steghide supports JPEG, BMP, WAV and AU file formats. File formats like PNG are not supported with this tool. But BMP, GIF and JPG are also supported.
• Embed mode is used to hide data inside file
• -ef = The file I want to hide inside another file
• -cf = Cover file, the image file I will use to hide inside
• A password is required to embed the file. This will add extra security to the file we want to protect.

Hiding data inside an image

Picture after embedding

• Extract mode is used to retrieve the secret file from the image
• -sf = specify the file with secret message
• You will need the password that was used while embedding file

Extract and read secret data

More options

Information retrieve :

• Before extracting data from any image / audio file, we can check for the information
• If the file is password protected, we will need that password to view the information about embedded file
• Info module is used to do this.

Information retrieve

Compression mode :

• Compression is used to save memory space, but a small mistake can corrupt the entire file
• steghide has 9 level (1 to 9) for compression
• lowest level (1) = fast compression
• highest level (9) = best compression
• -z is used to specify the level

Compression mode

Encryption Algorithms :

• We can use encryption with steganography to hide data more secretly
• To list all compatible encryption algorithm: steghide --encinfo
• -e is used to specify the algorithm name to be used

Using algorithm

Audio Steganography

• AU and WAV audio formats are supported by steghide
• Command and process is same as image steganography

Embedding secret file with audio file

• Info mode also works with audio file to show information.

Extraction from audio file

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