484 research outputs found
Hidden and Uncontrolled - On the Emergence of Network Steganographic Threats
Network steganography is the art of hiding secret information within innocent
network transmissions. Recent findings indicate that novel malware is
increasingly using network steganography. Similarly, other malicious activities
can profit from network steganography, such as data leakage or the exchange of
pedophile data. This paper provides an introduction to network steganography
and highlights its potential application for harmful purposes. We discuss the
issues related to countering network steganography in practice and provide an
outlook on further research directions and problems.Comment: 11 page
The Automation of the Extraction of Evidence masked by Steganographic Techniques in WAV and MP3 Audio Files
Antiforensics techniques and particularly steganography and cryptography have
become increasingly pressing issues that affect the current digital forensics
practice, both techniques are widely researched and developed as considered in
the heart of the modern digital era but remain double edged swords standing
between the privacy conscious and the criminally malicious, dependent on the
severity of the methods deployed. This paper advances the automation of hidden
evidence extraction in the context of audio files enabling the correlation
between unprocessed evidence artefacts and extreme Steganographic and
Cryptographic techniques using the Least Significant Bits extraction method
(LSB). The research generates an in-depth review of current digital forensic
toolkit and systems and formally address their capabilities in handling
steganography-related cases, we opted for experimental research methodology in
the form of quantitative analysis of the efficiency of detecting and extraction
of hidden artefacts in WAV and MP3 audio files by comparing standard industry
software. This work establishes an environment for the practical implementation
and testing of the proposed approach and the new toolkit for extracting
evidence hidden by Cryptographic and Steganographic techniques during forensics
investigations. The proposed multi-approach automation demonstrated a huge
positive impact in terms of efficiency and accuracy and notably on large audio
files (MP3 and WAV) which the forensics analysis is time-consuming and requires
significant computational resources and memory. However, the proposed
automation may occasionally produce false positives (detecting steganography
where none exists) or false negatives (failing to detect steganography that is
present) but overall achieve a balance between detecting hidden data accurately
along with minimising the false alarms.Comment: Wires Forensics Sciences Under Revie
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Steganography-based secret and reliable communications: Improving steganographic capacity and imperceptibility
This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Unlike encryption, steganography hides the very existence of secret information rather than hiding its meaning only. Image based steganography is the most common system used since digital images are widely used over the Internet and Web. However, the capacity is mostly limited and restricted by the size of cover images. In addition, there is a tradeoff between both steganographic capacity and stego image quality. Therefore, increasing steganographic capacity and enhancing stego image quality are still challenges, and this is exactly our research main aim. Related to this, we also investigate hiding secret information in communication protocols, namely Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) message, rather than in conventional digital files.
To get a high steganographic capacity, two novel steganography methods were proposed. The first method was based on using 16x16 non-overlapping blocks and quantisation table for Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) compression instead of 8x8. Then, the quality of JPEG stego images was enhanced by using optimised quantisation tables instead of the default tables. The second method, the hybrid method, was based on using optimised quantisation tables and two hiding techniques: JSteg along with our first proposed method. To increase the
steganographic capacity, the impact of hiding data within image chrominance was
investigated and explained. Since peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) is extensively
used as a quality measure of stego images, the reliability of PSNR for stego images was also evaluated in the work described in this thesis. Finally, to eliminate any detectable traces that traditional steganography may leave in stego files, a novel and undetectable steganography method based on SOAP messages was proposed.
All methods proposed have been empirically validated as to indicate their utility
and value. The results revealed that our methods and suggestions improved the main aspects of image steganography. Nevertheless, PSNR was found not to be a
reliable quality evaluation measure to be used with stego image. On the other hand, information hiding in SOAP messages represented a distinctive way for undetectable and secret communication.The Ministry of Higher Education in Syria
and the University of Alepp
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