Hacker 10 – Security Hacker

Tag: hide text in pictures

  • Hide text and photos inside sound files with CipherTune

    Hide text and photos inside sound files with CipherTune

    CipherTune is a tool for Mac and Windows to hide text and photos inside .midi sound files using the encryption algorithm Blowfish 256bit. There is no need to install this software, it runs in portable mode, the program is divided into tabs and everything is intuitive, only the drop down camouflage menu is different from anything you have seen before, when you choose to encrypt a file the methods you are given are made of music instruments like “Chorused Piano“, “Harpsichord” or “Electric Grand Piano“, you can adjust the Tempo and choose if the resulting sound file has to be in stereo or mono.

    By producing a container sound file the software saves you time by not having to look for an appropriate .midi song with the right size that can be used to hide information inside but it also limits the choice of cover stories you can have for owning that sound.

    Steganography and encryption CipherTune
    Steganography and encryption CipherTune

    The software includes an audio player to listen to the sound file after you click on “Make Encryption Tune” before saving it. I opened one of these .midi steganographic files with Notepad and everything appeared to be encrypted and non readable expect by the words “Text to CipherTune by Kenji Kojima“, this gives away that the file was created using a steganography tool that can embed hidden messages and photos inside, this is clearly not software that you should rely on for secure cover communications, to start with .midi files are not as common as .mp3 and they could attract some attention if there is no valid reason to have them, and then there is the embedded text telling observers what program was used to create the sound file.

    This is a very original program, let’s hope security can be improved a bit more by erasing those lines in the header sound file revealing that steganography is present.

    Visit CipherTune homepage

  • Steganography software OurSecret hides text inside photos

    Steganography software OurSecret hides text inside photos

    Unlike encryption, where it is evident that you are trying to hide something from others, steganography allows you to hide secret messages inside a photo (audio, video, etc), post that photo to Flickr, Imgsrc or any other online photoalbum and nobody looking at your activities will notice that you are sending secret data, the receiver will also be safe by visiting a harmless website instead of being seen downloading encrypted messages.

    OurSecret is a free steganography tool that can hide text or files inside other any other file, for the receiver to be able to read the message he will have to be using the same software, you can password protect your data to thwart accidental discovery. The carrier file can consist of an image, video, sound file or anything else, the file can be viewed as normal even after data has been hidden in them, after hiding data inside a file you will be offered a location to save it, you should get rid of the original file, an easy way to detect hidden data inside photos is by comparing the original file with the one holding a concealed a message, by destroying the original file you make it very hard to detect that something is hidden unless your opponent is specifically looking for steganography messages and has access to steganalysis tools.

    Steganography software OurSecrets
    Steganography software OurSecret

    Steganography tools take advantage of unused bits of data in a file to hide data inside them, data is made up of bytes, with 1 byte being made up of 8 bits, if the less significant bit of each byte is modified to hide something inside it, the original file will still work as usual, a file header is another good place to hide data, it normally contains file type information, the end of a file is normally predefined and can be used too, hidden data can be added in those places without significantly altering the original file. By not adding any extra bits to the file and only modifying those that already exist, the chances of discovering hidden data is made more difficult, there are steganography detection algorithms that can be successful finding hidden data but extracting that data is much more difficult, specially if it has been encrypted.

    Uncompressed files are the best ones to hide big files, for example, a bitmap .bmp image file will have more spare bits than a compressed .jpeg image, and a .wav sound file will be able to conceal more data than an already compressed .mp3 file.

    Visit OurSecret homepage