ABSTRACT: After the advancement in mobile phone industry now mobile phones are available with huge variety of sensors, utility software, entertainment application and services like video conferencing and video call. Mobile phones has become ubiquitous and a general purpose device. SMS is one of the mostly used services in mobile phones throughout the world. Using this service, individuals can write and send to each other short messages and also binary pictures. On the one hand, information security is a critical issue in this digitalized world. For establishing hidden communications, a variety methods have been proposed for covert communications, among which steganography is a relatively new concept. As in mobile phones one can send text messages and binary picture messages both. In this paper, a survey work of all type of Steganographic techniques performed through mobile phone&apos;s SMS services esp. text steganography and image steganography and its future scope will be discussed. Most of these techniques are implemented on J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition) platform

Ashish Kumar Dewangan

Bhupesh Kumar Pandey

Chandrakant Badgaiyan

CiteSeerX

                          International Journal of Advanced Computer and Mathematical Sciences               
                                  ISSN 2230-9624. Vol 3, Issue 4, 2012, pp 441-445                                                     
http://bipublication.com 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A SURVEY PAPER ON SMS BASED STEGANOGRAPHY 
 
Chandrakant Badgaiyan1, Ashish Kumar Dewangan 2, Bhupesh Kumar Pandey 3 
 
1M.Te.ch Scholar in Communication Engineering, C.S.I.T. Durg, C.S.V.T.U 
2,3 Assistant Professor, C.S.I.T. Durg (C.G.), India 
*Corresponding author: Email: chandrakant.elex@gmail.com,    Mob: +91-9926656599 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ABSTRACT:   
 
After the advancement in mobile phone industry now mobile phones are available with huge variety of sensors, 
utility software, entertainment application and services like video conferencing and video call. Mobile phones has 
become ubiquitous and a general purpose device.  SMS is one of the mostly used services in mobile phones 
throughout the world. Using this service, individuals can write and send to each other short messages nd also 
binary pictures. On the one hand, information security is a critical issue in this digitalized world. For establishing 
hidden communications, a variety methods have been proposed for covert communications, among which 
steganography is a relatively new concept. As in mobile phones one can send text messages and binary picture 
messages both. In this paper, a survey work of all type of Steganographic techniques performed through mobile 
phone’s SMS services esp. text steganography and image steganography and its future scope will be discussed. Most 
of these techniques are implemented on J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition) platform. 
 
Keywords: SMS (Short Message Service), IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity), J2ME (Java 2 Micro 
Edition), MMS (Multiple Part Message Service), PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant) 
 
 
 
[I] INTRODUCTION  
After the appearance of mobile phone in 1985, it 
has become a very important accessory in a way 
that one out of six men uses a mobile phone and 
many families have more than one mobile. 
Initially mobile phones were merely a device for 
talk with each other but due to its availability 
everywhere and every time, mobile phones’ 
features have increased and the mobile phone 
manufacturers have added extra features to their 
mobile phones.  
Because of the development in mobile phone 
field especially after the appearance of smart 
phone, the manufacturers of software using the 
new capabilities of mobile phones enjoyed a 
lucrative market. These software are written by 
languages which are specialized according to the 
specifications and limitations of the mobile 
phones. Some of the most famous mobile phone 
programming languages are C++ and J2ME (Java 
2 Micro Edition), which is a special version of 
Java language for small devices such as mobile 
phones and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant).  
A SURVEY PAPER ON SMS BASED STEGANOGRAPHY 
 
Chandrakant Badgaiyan, et al.                                                                                                         442 
 
The SMS (Short Message Service) is the transfer 
and exchange of short text messages between 
mobile phones. The SMS is defined based on 
GSM digital mobile phones. According to the 
GSM03.40 standard [1], the length of the 
exchanged message is 160 characters at most, 
which are saved in 140 bytes depending to how 
information is saved according to the standards. 
These messages may be a combination of digits 
and letters or be saved in non-text binary form. 
Using the same binary messages, one can also 
send pictures as well. These pictures are named 
SMS picture message. The picture messages, 
however, are two-color and have a low quality 
[2]. 
The SMS has such advantages as low costs, 
offline SMS sending, exchanging SMS 
simultaneously with establishing telephone 
contacts, etc. 
Steganography is a method of covert exchange of 
data, highlighted in recent years, chiefly aimed to 
hide data within a cover media so that other 
individuals fail to realize their existence [3]. The 
word steganography is a Greek word that means 
"hidden writing". While implementing this 
method, the main purpose is to hide data in a 
cover media so that other persons will not notice 
that such data is there. This is a major distinctio 
of this method with the other methods of hidden 
exchange of data because, for example, in the 
method of cryptography, individuals see the 
encoded data and notice that such data exists but 
they cannot comprehend it. However, in 
steganography, individuals will not notice at all 
that data exists in the sources [4]. Most 
steganography jobs have been performed on 
images, video clips, text, music and sound [5]. It 
has also been implemented on such varying 
systems as computers and mobile phones [6]. 
Nowadays, however, information security has 
improved considerably with the other mentioned 
methods. The steganography method, in addition 
to application in cover exchange of information, 
is also used in other fields such as copyright 
protection, preventing e-document forging, etc 
[7]. 
[II] LITURATURE SURVEY 
2.1. Methodology  
In this paper, a detailed analysis of SMS based 
Steganographic methods and their advantages 
will be discussed. A SMS can be in text format or 
it can be a binary images. Hence SMS based 
steganography techniques are basically example 
of text steganography and image steganography. 
Because SMS services are available on mobile 
phone, this type of steganography provides user 
mobility, all time connectivity for real time 
transfer of secret data and it does not grab any 
attention as it is new in field of all type of 
steganography. One more thing which is quite 
prominent about any mobile based steganography 
technique is as mobile has limited processing 
power and run time memory any bulky algorithm 
will not work on this or it will take more time to 
recover secret data and embed secret data. 
Following approach is used in almost all type of 
Steganographic technique using SMS on mobile 
phones and application development platform 
used is J2ME (Java Micro Edition). 
 
 
Fig: 1. Sender Side Approach    Receiver Side 
Approach 
A SURVEY PAPER ON SMS BASED STEGANOGRAPHY 
 
Chandrakant Badgaiyan, et al.                                                                                                         443 
 
2.2. Literature Survey 
When SMS is used for sending text messages it 
utilizes the various algorithm of text 
steganography. Text steganography is most 
difficult type of steganography because there is 
no redundant information in text file as compared 
to the image and audio files [16]. We can send 
binary images through SMS and use this image as 
cover data for hiding secret data using image 
steganography algorithm [11]. This method has 
advantage of hiding text data into SMS which is a 
new concept in steganography but has 
disadvantage of limited size of embedded data. 
One of application of this method is in text 
steganography using SMS where message is 
typed using abbreviation text steganography with 
the use of the invented language SMS-Texting 
[12].   
Further an enhanced method for SMS 
steganography using SMS-texting language, by 
removing the static nature of word-abbreviation 
list and introducing computationally light 
weighted XOR encryption. The dynamic 
arrangement of ‘word-abbreviation list’, if used 
alone, provides moderate level of security and 
makes it difficult for an adversary to instantly 
extract zeros’ or ones’ out of the SMS-text by 
knowing only the algorithm [15].  
SMS based steganography technique using binary 
images can be used to send important information 
like Mobile software Activation key code to the 
user directly and software extracting the 
activation code from the picture and compare it 
with code which is generated natively [13]. This 
method has advantage of extra security while 
transferring activation code using SMS to the 
respected user as code is hidden inside the SMS 
image.  
One more interesting way to send secret data 
using SMS was discovered in form of Sudoku 
game [14]. In this method, a Sudoku puzzle is 
send to the user then user solve this puzzle. After 
solving the puzzle, the numbers of specified row 
or column of the puzzle are computed. These 
numbers are given to decoder software and the 
decoder software will extract and display the 
coded data (maximum 18 bits) in accordance with 
order of numbers 1 through 9 and during a 
process conversely to coding stage. And a two-
digit number is considered as a key. The first 
number of the key displays row and the second 
number indicate a column of the puzzle in which 
the data has been hidden. Of course one of these 
two digits must be 0. Number 0 indicates the fact 
that no data has been hidden in that row or 
column. For example number 50 means that the 
data is hidden in the 5th row or number 07 
indicates the fact that the data has been hidden in 
the 7th column. 
Finally SMS base steganography is also used in 
improving mobile banking security for transfer of 
important information [17]. In this method, 
instead of direct sending of the information, it is 
hidden in a picture by the password and is put on 
a site. Then the address of the picture is sent to 
the user. After receiving the address of the picture 
through SMS, the user downloads the picture by a 
special program. After entering the password, the 
user can witness the information extracted from 
the picture if the password is entered correctly. 
 
[III] RESULTS 
3.1. Advantage 
Some advantages of SMS based Steganographic 
methods are as follow: 
1. The cover media is in forms of SMS either text 
or binary image is very cost effective service 
hence wide range of people can use it. 
2. Since SMS is available on mobile phone which 
provides the facility of mobility to application. 
Hence these Steganographic techniques can be 
used anywhere and anytime. 
3. Each day millions of SMS messages are 
exchanged throughout the world. Therefore, it is 
hardly likely to identify SMS containing hidden 
information. 
4. These methods can also be used on other 
devices such as PDAs and Pocket PCs.  
A SURVEY PAPER ON SMS BASED STEGANOGRAPHY 
 
Chandrakant Badgaiyan, et al.                                                                                                         444 
 
5. The mobile phone is a public facility and most 
individuals have mobile phones. On the other 
hand, the SMS is a popular service. Therefore, 
SMS based steganography method covers many 
users. 
6. Because of not using sophisticated 
technologies, this method can be implemented on 
simple mobile phones as well and there is no 
need to use advanced mobile phones and costly 
PC. 
7. It does not require much processing and can 
be run on small devices and machines with 
limited resources. 
8. All mobile phones, even black and white 
models and old-fashioned ones are capable to 
send and receive SMS so this method covers a 
lot of users. 
 3.2. Limitations 
1. As all these techniques are implemented on 
mobile phones, it has a limited processing 
power. 
2. SMS services can carry a limited amount of 
data only in a single time hence cover file size 
is limited in all SMS based Steganography. 
3. In case of SMS texting method, as number of 
words increases, the time required to search and 
replace also increases. 
4. SMS services can carry only binary images, no 
color images are allowed in case of SMS hence 
algorithm used to embed secret data can be 
recovered with brute force easily. 
[IV] DISCUSSION 
From the result section of paper the pros and cons 
of the SMS based Steganography technique clear. 
As SMS services are available using mobile 
phones which main characteristic is mobility and 
connectivity hence this technique can be used at 
anywhere. Since this field of Steganography is 
newer as compared to all other method of 
Steganography, it catches very low attention.  
[V] CONCLUSION 
This paper presented a detailed survey work of 
comparatively new Steganographic method in 
SMS on mobile phones and its various 
applications in critical data communication like 
mobile software activation key transfer and for 
sending user name and password in banking. The 
SMS can be used as text messages or for sending 
binary images and creating a communication 
between two mobile phones. 
As mentioned under Section 3.1 and 3.2, these 
methods consume limited processing and 
memory which suits mobile phones. But because 
of small size cover data and low manipulation of 
cover data, secret data can be comparatively 
easily recovered. However, number of SMS sent 
in a day is so huge and common that it is difficult 
to keep a check. Using some other technique 
complexity of recovering data can be increased 
further.  
 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 
I would like to express my sincere thanks here for the valuable 
advices of Mr. Ashish Kumar Dewangan and Mr. Mangal Singh, my 
project guide and my project Coordinator respectively at C.S.I.T. 
Durg, in carrying out this survey work and for their kind support. 
 
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[1] European Telecommunications Standards 
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[2] Nokia, "Sending Content over SMS to Nokia 
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Chandrakant Badgaiyan, et al.                                                                                                         445 
 
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A SURVEY PAPER ON SMS BASED STEGANOGRAPHY

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A SURVEY PAPER ON SMS BASED STEGANOGRAPHY

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