Running Head: Digital Steganography 1

Digital Steganography

LaRon Walker

Master of Information Technology and Internet Security

June, 2010
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Abstract

Digital Steganography is a growing practice in hiding data within common file formats used in

everyday use. It can be applied to secure and protect private data, as well as to control file

access. Digital Steganography can also be used for malicious purposes as well. It can be used to

embed code within files that gather data, open ports, and install applications without the

knowledge of the recipient. Due to this, the need for ways to address Steganography are being

developed to fight against these growing threats.

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Digital Steganography

LaRon Walker

Master of Information Technology and Internet Security

June, 2010

Due to the growing popularity of using the Internet for communicating with others,

private and secure communication between parties has become a concern. Encryption is a

common practice used when addressing these types of concerns, but encryption alone does not

address the fact that data actually exists. If an outsider knows data actually exists but is

encrypted within a message, the potential for this data to be eventually decrypted by the offender

also exists. According to Artz (2001), the only way to ensure private communications is to not

communicate at all. Steganography can help hide the fact that data exists. For Steganography to

be effective, both parties within the data communication must agree on the method of

Steganography beforehand, or the recipient will not know what messages are hidden.

Steganography can be combined with encryption to help maximize privacy security between

sender and recipient. There are now applications available that can help hide data in various file

formats including videos, images and audio files.

Using Steganography, data can be hidden within audio files. The most common audio

file formats used for hiding data are MP3 and Wav. Data can be hidden in audio files

themselves, as well as the Meta tags of audio files. One Steganography strategy used to hide

data inside audio files is known as Watermarking. Watermarking techniques are commonly used
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in protecting the Digital Rights of audio files in the music industry. This is commonly referred

to as Digital Rights Management (DRM). Despite Watermarking as having valid usages, it can

also be used to hide data within audio files that can be used for other purposes such as

information gathering or installing malicious code. Because of the potential file size increase

that using the watermarking can have on an audio file, the usage of hiding data within image files

has become a more common practice.

Steganography can also be applied to image files to hide data. The most common image

file format for hiding data in pictures is Jpeg. Robust watermarking is a common practice for

hiding data within images. This method can be applied to today’s more commonly used video

formats as well. This is an ideal way for video broadcasting services such as iTunes or Netflix to

securely serve digital content and control access to it. Robust watermarking can also be used to

verify the integrity of video content, which is critical in ensuring the streaming media being

broadcast is not altered in any way during its transmission. According to the article Integrity

verification method for video content using robust watermarking (2009), since video formats are

regularly encoded and transcoded in multiple ways, there should be measures in place that can

detect regular modifications and unauthorized ones. Without this type of attack detection

component in place, offenders could potentially intercept streaming content and retransmit it

with embedded code to the intended recipient virtually unnoticed.

The growing methods for hiding data within different file formats has created great

concerns, and has created the need to develop new ways to detect hidden codes nested within

files. Based on the article Digital Steganography: Hiding Data within Data (2001), if a file has

room to be compressed, there is also room for data to be hidden within it, and has fueled the

evolution of Steganalysis, which is an official counter measure to Steganography. Steganalysis

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is a very difficult technique because messages that use Steganography are hidden by design.

Because Steganography relies on both parties agreeing on a private pre-determined method to be

effective, trying to decipher if a message even contains hidden data can be challenging. This has

fueled the development of new networking technologies which rewrite packets that help prevent

the transmissions of hidden data. During the rewriting of the data, this new technology filters the

data, helping to eliminate the chance of hidden data from being transmitted in packet headers.

According to the article Software will look for lurking messages (2005), Professor Charles

Boncelet initiated a project based on the theory of using fast computer algorithms to detect

unusual or unique features in images and videos, as well as train individuals in the area of

Steganalysis, to help counter malicious usage of Steganology.

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References

Artz, D. (2001). Digital Steganography: Hiding Data within Data. Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Retrieved June 27, 2010 from

http://www.cc.gatech.edu/classes/AY2003/cs6262_fall/digital_steganography.pdf

Yamada, T., Takahashi, Y., Fujii, Y., Ebisawa, R., Yoshiura, H., & Echizen, I. (2009). Integrity

verification method for video content using robust watermarking. International Journal of

Knowledge Based Intelligent Engineering Systems, 13(3/4), 141-153. doi:10.3233/KES-2009-

0181.

(2005). Software will look for lurking messages. Machine Design, 77(6), 24. Retrieved from

MasterFILE Premier database.