Meaning, types, and examples of steganography

Describe steganography.

Steganography is a long-standing custom. To avoid suspicion, people used to hide information in Morse code on spools of yarn or write their secret messages in invisible ink between visible lines. Information today is frequently digitized, including how it is hidden. As a result, old methods have been replaced by digital steganography, which is still widely used. Steganography is crucial in cybersecurity because it makes it possible to protect data more effectively.

What is the process of steganography?

Information is intended to be concealed through stenography to avoid suspicion. In order for data to pass through networks without being discovered by outside parties, modern steganography techniques concentrate on embedding data in harmless files.

Data hiding employs a variety of methods. Everything depends on where and what you want to hide. Anyone can hide data in media files using a variety of programs, many of which are free. For instance, security professionals, spies, hackers, and artists all use steganography because it enables them to identify illegal copying and add hidden watermarks to their works of art.

Some of the most widely used steganography methods are listed below.

principal methods of steganography

Numerous techniques have been created to conceal information, some of which include:

The most popular method for hiding data is least significant bit ( LSB ) steganography. In order to create a message when all of these bits are combined, it entails converting each least important piece of data into an obscure message that has been translated into binary code. Because it is simple to change binary pixel values without visibly altering the image, it works well with image files. Audio and video files can both be processed using the same technique. Although information may be contained in data that is concealed in the files ‘ least important areas, this has no impact on how viewers or listeners perceive the media.
• substitution of words and letters. You’re probably familiar with this steganography technique; you may have used it when you were younger to communicate with friends in secret. It involves substituting letters or words. By substituting some letters for others, the hidden text can be found using this method.
• steganography of networks. Information can be concealed in network steganography in the protocol that the network uses to communicate rather than the file or message itself. For instance, the TCP/IP headers, which typically contain the data required for a data packet to reach its destination, can be used to embed data.

How is steganography used by hackers?

Steganography is another technique used by hackers to conceal malicious code in files that appear to be innocent. The code may operate independently or, in more complex attacks, may secretly start the user’s download of common malware from an internet source.

Images, videos, audio files, or work-related documents like Word or Excel files with macro support can all contain the information required to download and execute malicious files.

Which five types of steganography are there?

The media used to perform each of the five main steganography techniques varies. There are different steganographic methods for each. You are only constrained by your imagination and constantly evolving technology, which allow for countless ways to conceal messages.

steganography of images

steganography of images is a way of hiding data in an image so that the image remains almost the same, but secret data can be extracted from it. A person can achieve this effect in various ways. One is to change the image’s pixel values using the least significant bit technique.

Each pixel’s color is described by values that represent the ratios of red, green, and blue in the red-green-blue (RGB ) system, which is frequently used to represent colors in electronic systems. For instance, bright yellow is the color that is represented by the binary symbols 11111111, 00000000, etc. You could insert a message into the image’s pixel color values by changing these numbers.

For instance, if you changed the last digit of each number in a specific way, the message would be extracted by someone who is familiar with the search terms. The color changes would n’t be visible to the human eye at the same time, and nobody would be able to tell that the image was secret.

Programs that can be downloaded, like OpenStego, which enable data to be hidden in” cover” files, make it possible to hide and receive secret messages in image files.

steganography of audio

steganography of audio is more difficult than image steganography but still possible. Digital audio uses binary code, just like images and other files, so it’s possible to modify it in a way that allows a message to be hidden.

The fundamental idea is still the same as in image steganography: in order to embed a message, the message is hidden by changing the audio values of the files, but these changes are so minute that it is impossible to hear them.

Backmasking, which conceals a message in an audio file so that it can be understood when played backwards, is one of the more entertaining examples of audio steganography. This technique is occasionally employed by musicians to interact with their audience and create a mysterious atmosphere for their songs.

Echo hiding, which encrypts data using silence intervals or brief, inaudible echo signals after “host” signals, is another method for hiding messages in audio files.

steganography of videos

steganography of videos is similar to image steganography but allows much more data to be hidden. Videos are essentially frames that are displayed in rapid succession. Each frame is a separate image that can hide a message through various image steganography methods. These images can then be recombined to create a video containing a separate message in each frame.

steganography of text

steganography of text is one of the oldest methods of steganography – when people invented writing, they also invented hiding information in their written messages. steganography of text techniques can range from simple and manually decipherable to more complex.

Letter substitution is one illustration of text steganography. The secret message can be revealed when some letters are swapped out for new ones. This approach does have a disadvantage, though: A” cover” message written in place of letters may appear scrambled and strange, strongly implying that something is hidden beneath.

Through letter size, spacing, or other difficult-to-notice characteristics, messages can be concealed in the text so that only the reader is aware of their presence.

steganography of networks

steganography of networks hides data using popular communication protocols instead of the files and messages themselves. For example, the TCP/IP header contains information that allows data packets to reach their destination, but it can be slightly modified to contain hidden data.

steganography of networks holds promise for network security and cybersecurity experts but can also potentially be exploited by malicious actors.

Steganography in cyberattacks examples

In cybersecurity, steganography is crucial. Although it enables more robust data protection measures, criminals also use it. Security professionals must therefore continue using their techniques.

Here are a few notable steganography-based cyberattacks:

Sansec, an e-commerce security company, claimed to have discovered skimming malware on several checkout pages in a report published in 2020. Such malware, which in this instance was concealed in SVG-formatted visual elements, is intended to scan credit cards and extract other user data from websites. Scanners were unable to identify the elements as malicious because they appeared to be in perfect condition.
• Cybersecurity company Proofpoint published a report in 2022 outlining fresh malicious activity that had an impact on government, real estate, and construction companies in France. Steganography was used by the attacker to conceal a malicious script that pretended to be GDPR-related information inside an image in an Word document. A backdoor was downloaded as a result of the script, and it later appeared on the victim’s device.
• RedEyes, a North Korean cyber espionage hacking group, used phishing and steganography to spread malware that targeted the popular Internet Explorer browser’s vulnerabilities, according to several cybersecurity news organizations ‘ readers in 2023. A malicious attachment in a phishing email served as the catalyst for the attack chain, which when downloaded, resulted in the download of an encrypted JPEG file.

Steganography and cryptography are different from one another.

Because they are both related to preventing information from being accessed by third parties, the terms steganography and cryptography have a somewhat similar sound. The main distinctions are as follows:

In cybersecurity, steganography and cryptography are frequently used together to provide more robust security measures.