Provided by: steghide_0.5.1-9.1ubuntu1_amd64 bug

NAME

       steghide - a steganography program

SYNOPSIS

       steghide command [ arguments ]

DESCRIPTION

       Steghide  is  a steganography program that is able to hide data in various kinds of image-
       and audio-files. The color- respectivly sample-frequencies are not changed thus making the
       embedding resistant against first-order statistical tests.

       Features include the compression of the embedded data, encryption of the embedded data and
       automatic integrity checking using a checksum. The JPEG, BMP, WAV and AU file formats  are
       supported  for  use  as  cover file. There are no restrictions on the format of the secret
       data.

       Steghide uses a graph-theoretic approach  to  steganography.  You  do  not  need  to  know
       anything  about  graph  theory  to  use  steghide and you can safely skip the rest of this
       paragraph if you are not interested in the  technical  details.  The  embedding  algorithm
       roughly  works  as  follows: At first, the secret data is compressed and encrypted. Then a
       sequence of postions of pixels in the cover file  is  created  based  on  a  pseudo-random
       number  generator initialized with the passphrase (the secret data will be embedded in the
       pixels at these positions). Of these positions those  that  do  not  need  to  be  changed
       (because  they  already contain the correct value by chance) are sorted out. Then a graph-
       theoretic matching algorithm finds pairs of positions such that  exchanging  their  values
       has  the  effect  of embedding the corresponding part of the secret data. If the algorithm
       cannot find any more such pairs all exchanges are actually performed.  The pixels  at  the
       remaining  positions (the positions that are not part of such a pair) are also modified to
       contain the embedded data (but this is done by overwriting them, not  by  exchanging  them
       with  other  pixels).   The  fact that (most of) the embedding is done by exchanging pixel
       values implies that the first-order statistics (i.e. the number of times a color occurs in
       the  picture) is not changed. For audio files the algorithm is the same, except that audio
       samples are used instead of pixels.

       The default encryption algorithm is Rijndael with a key size of 128 bits (which is  AES  -
       the  advanced  encryption standard) in the cipher block chaining mode. If you do not trust
       this  combination  for  whatever  reason  feel  free  to  choose  another   algorithm/mode
       combination  (information  about  all  possible  algorithms  and modes is displayed by the
       encinfo command).  The checksum is calculated using the CRC32 algorithm.

COMMANDS

       In this section the commands for steghide are listed. The first argument  must  always  be
       one  of these commands. You can supply additional arguments to the embed, extract and info
       commands. The other commands to not take any arguments.

       embed, --embed
              Embed secret data in a cover file thereby creating a stego file.

       extract, --extract
              Extract secret data from a stego file.

       info, --info
              Display information about a cover or stego file.

       encinfo, --encinfo
              Display a list of encryption algorithms and modes that can be  used.  No  arguments
              required.

       version, --version
              Display short version information. No arguments required.

       license, --license
              Display steghide's license. No arguments required.

       help, --help
              Display a help screen. No arguments required.

EMBEDDING

       You  should  use  the  embed command if you want to embed secret data in a cover file. The
       following arguments can be used with the embed command:

       -ef, --embedfile filename
              Specify the file that will be embedded (the file that contains the secret message).
              Note that steghide embeds the original file name in the stego file. When extracting
              data (see below) the default behaviour is  to  save  the  embedded  file  into  the
              current  directory under its original name. If this argument is omitted or filename
              is -, steghide will read the secret data from standard input.

       -cf, --coverfile filename
              Specify the cover file that will be used to embed data. The cover file must  be  in
              one  of  the  following  formats:  AU,  BMP,  JPEG  or WAV. The file-format will be
              detected automatically based on header information (the extension is not relevant).
              If  this  argument  is  omitted or filename is -, steghide will read the cover file
              from standard input.

       -sf, --stegofile filename
              Specify the name for the stego file that will  be  created.  If  this  argument  is
              omitted  when  calling  steghide  with the embed command, then the modifications to
              embed the secret data will be made directly to the cover  file  without  saving  it
              under a new name.

       -e, --encryption algo [ mode ] | mode [ algo ]
              Specify  encryption  parameters. This option must be followed by one or two strings
              that identify an encryption algorithm and/or mode. You can get  the  names  of  all
              available  algorithms  and  supported  modes  with the encinfo command. The default
              encryption is rijndael-128 (AES) in the cbc mode.  If you do not want  to  use  any
              encryption, use -e none.

       -z, --compress level
              Specify  the  compression  level.  The compression level can be any number in 1...9
              where 1 means best speed and 9 means best compression.

       -Z, --dontcompress
              Do not compress the secret data before embedding it.

       -K, --nochecksum
              Do not embed a CRC32 checksum. You can use this if the secret data already contains
              some type of checksum or if you do not want to embed those extra 32 bits needed for
              the checksum.

       -N, --dontembedname
              Do not embed the file name of  the  secret  file.  If  this  option  is  used,  the
              extractor  needs to specify a filename to tell steghide where to write the embedded
              data.

EXTRACTING

       If you have received a file that contains a message that has been embedded with  steghide,
       use  the  extract  command  to  extract  it. The following arguments can be used with this
       command.

       -sf, --stegofile filename
              Specify the stego file (the file that contains embedded data). If this argument  is
              omitted or filename is -, steghide will read a stego file from standard input.

       -xf, --extractfile filename
              Create  a  file  with  the name filename and write the data that is embedded in the
              stego file to it. This option overrides the filename that is embedded int the stego
              file.  If  this argument is omitted, the embedded data will be saved to the current
              directory under its original name.

GETTING INFORMATION ABOUT A COVER/STEGO FILE

       You can use the info command to get some information about a  cover  or  stego  file  (for
       example  the capacity). You might want to use this if you have received a file and you are
       not sure if it contains an embedded message or if you consider using  a  certain  file  as
       cover file and want to find out its capacity.

       The command line steghide info <filename> will print information about <filename> and then
       ask you if you would like to get information about data that is embedded in that file.  If
       you  answer  with yes you have to supply the passphrase that was used to embed the data in
       that file.

       You can also supply the -p, --passphrase argument (see below) to the  info  command  which
       has the effect that steghide will automatically try to get information about the data that
       has been embedded using the given passphrase.

COMMON OPTIONS

       The following options can be used with all commands (where it makes sense).

       -p, --passphrase
              Use the string following this  argument  as  the  passphrase.  If  your  passphrase
              contains whitespace, you have to enclose it in quotes, for example: -p "a very long
              passphrase".

       -v, --verbose
              Display detailed information about  the  status  of  the  embedding  or  extracting
              process.

       -q, --quiet
              Supress information messages.

       -f, --force
              Always overwrite existing files.

FILE NAME OPTIONS

       All  file  name  arguments  (-cf,  -ef,  -sf, -xf) also accept - as a filename which makes
       steghide use standard input or standard  output  (whichever  makes  sense).  Omitting  the
       corresponding file name argument will have the same effect as using - with two exceptions:
       If -sf is omitted for the embed command, then the modifications will be done  directly  in
       the  cover  file.  If  -xf is omitted for extraction, then the embedded data will be saved
       under the file name that is embedded in the stego file.  So when you want to be sure  that
       standard input/output is used, use - as filename.

EXAMPLES

       The basic usage is as follows:

         $ steghide embed -cf picture.jpg -ef secret.txt
         Enter passphrase:
         Re-Enter passphrase:
         embedding "secret.txt" in "picture.jpg"... done

       This command will embed the file secret.txt in the cover file picture.jpg.

       After  you have embedded your secret data as shown above you can send the file picture.jpg
       to the person who should receive the secret message. The receiver has to use  steghide  in
       the following way:

         $ steghide extract -sf picture.jpg
         Enter passphrase:
         wrote extracted data to "secret.txt".

       If  the  supplied passphrase is correct, the contents of the original file secret.txt will
       be extracted from the stego file picture.jpg and saved in the current directory.

       If you have received a file  that  contains  embedded  data  and  you  want  to  get  some
       information about it before extracting it, use the info command:

         $ steghide info received_file.wav
         "received_file.wav":
           format: wave audio, PCM encoding
           capacity: 3.5 KB
         Try to get information about embedded data ? (y/n) y
         Enter passphrase:
           embedded file "secret.txt":
             size: 1.6 KB
             encrypted: rijndael-128, cbc
             compressed: yes

       After  printing  some general information about the stego file (format, capacity) you will
       be asked if steghide should try to get information about the embedded data. If you  answer
       with  yes  you have to supply a passphrase. Steghide will then try to extract the embedded
       data with that passphrase and - if it succeeds - print some information about it.

RETURN VALUE

       Steghide returns 0 on success and 1 if a failure occured and it had  to  terminate  before
       completion of the requested operation. Warnings do not have an effect on the return value.

AUTHOR

       Stefan Hetzl <shetzl@chello.at>

                                           13 Oct 2003                                steghide(1)