Steganography

1.INTRODUCTION
Steganography is the art and science of communicating in
a way which hides the existence of the communication , which is
the art of hiding information in ways that prevent the detection
of hidden messages . Steganography , derived from Greek ,
literally means " covered writing " . It includes a vast array of
secret communications methods that conceal the message's very
existence . These methods include invisile inks , microdots ,
character arrangement, digital signatures, covert channels , and
spread spectrum communications.

Steganography and !ryptography are cousins in the spy
craft family. " message in cipher text , for instance , might
arouse suspicion on the part of the recipient while an " invisile
" message created with Steganography methods will not. In
contrast to !ryptography ,where the " enemy " is allowed to
detect, intercept and modify messages without eing ale to violate
certain security premises guaranteed y a !ryptosystem ,the goal
of Steganography is to hide messages inside other " harmless "
messages in a way that does not allow any " enemy " to even
detect that there is a second secret message present.

#ow Steganography is gaining new popularity with the
current industry demands for digital watermarking and $ngerprinting
of audio and video. Steganography in images has truly come of
age with the invention of fast ,powerful computers. The most
popular techni%ue in image Steganography is &east Signi$cant
'it Insertion . (ore precisely , as )uhn puts it *

The goal of Steganography is to hide messages inside other
harmless messages in a way that does not allow any enemy
to detect that there is a second secret message present.


The advantage of Steganography is that it can e used to
secretly
transmit messages without the fact of the transmission eing
discovered .+ften, using encryption might identify the sender or
receiver as someody with some,thing to hide . -or example ,that
picture of your cat could conceal the plans for your company's
latest technical innovation. .owever ,Steganography has a numer of
disadvantages as well ./nlike encryption ,it generally re%uires a lot of
overhead to hide a relatively few its of information . .owever ,
there are ways around this . "lso, once a Steganographic system
is discovered , it is rendered useless. This prolem, too , can e
overcome if the hidden data depends on some sort of key for its
insertion and extraction.

The next chapter presents a detailed discription
aout the what the whole pro0ect is all aout and how it is
implemented.

REQUIREMENTS AND SPECIFICATIONS
+0ect oriented analysis is asically concerned with the
decomposition of a prolem into its component parts and estalishing
a logical model to descrie the system functions. 1e follow this
analysis as for the pro0ect.
Object Orente! Ana"y## $ OOA % approach consists of the
following steps *
1) /nderstanding the prolem *

This is the $rst step in the analysis process . The prolem
statement should e re$ned and rede$ned in terms of computer
system engineering that could suggest a computer ased solution .
The prolem statement should e stated , as far as possile , in a
single , grammatically correct sentence . The prolem statement
provides the asis for drawing the re%uirements speci$cation of oth
the user and the software .
Therefore the prolem statement is
This project attempts to make use of the
standard steganographic tool and some modifed version of standard
encryption algorithm to perform the task of data hiding for the
purpose of observing privacy .
Re&'re(ent# Spec)caton# *
+nce the prolem is clearly de$ned , the
next step is to understand what the proposed to do. 'ased on the
user re%uirements , the speci$cation for the software should e
drawn . The developer should state clearly
1hat outputs are re%uired 2
" set of screens displaying the output of data hiding
and retrieval of hidden data .
1hat inputs are necessary 2
3arious interactive inputs that take the user through the
di4erent stages encountered during the execution of
the application .
1hat processes are involved to produce these outputs 2

5ntering the text , choosing the picture , encoding , decoding
display .
+ARD,ARE SPECIFICATION

6rocessor * 6entium.
7"( * 89 ('.
.ard :isk * ; G'.
!ache * <=; )'.
(onitor * S3G" !olor (onitor.
)eyoard * =>= keys.
(ouse * ; uttons.

SOFT,ARE SPECIFICATION
+657"TI#G S?ST5(
" multimedia 6! running a windows @A , ;>>> or B6 operating
system .
TOO-S
(I!7+S+-T 3IS/"& !CC 8.> ,(S "!!5SS
I!ent)caton o. object# *
+0ects can often e identi$ed in terms of the real world o0ects
as well as the astract o0ects . Their applications can e est
analyDed y using the data Eow diagrams.
:esign is concerned with the mapping of o0ects in the
prolem space into o0ects in the solution space and creating
an overall structure and computational models for the system . This
stage normally uses the ottom , up approach to uild the structure
of the system and the top, down functional decomposition approach
to design the class memer functions that provides services .
The steganographic process asically involves encoding , decoding
and checking if encodale . These are the asic functions of the
class codec and the pic codec class . The encryption process is
handled y the crypt and o0ects .The remaining o0ects are the
various dialogs for display and interaction with the user .
The (an a(*
The user should e ale to conceal a text message in an image
$le without any visile alterations to the image as such. I.e. there
should not e any noticeale changes to the coloring or the position of
the various o0ects in the image.

S'b* a(#*
It is preferred that we use a windows ased front end.
The user should e ale to pick out the image $le he wants to
use in the hiding process.
The format of the image $les which can e used for the hiding
process should e ;9,it itmap.
/ser should e ale to enter the text message he wants to hide.
/ser should e ale to view the image efore and after the
hiding process is complete. It is preferale that a new image e
created and displayed with the old image which will allow the user
to compare the original image with the new one which will help him
to decide whether his choice of image $le was appropriate or
whether he needs a new one.
/ser should e ale to transfer the image freely without any
prolems. I.e. he should e ale to copy the new image $le. Send or
trade it with others without any special hardware re%uirements
other than the normal communication systems availale with a
computer.
There should e a encryption process to encrypt the text for
etter security.
The user must e ale to save the image in which the message is
hidden in any desired folder.
The user should e ale to select and view the picture from
which to decode.
1hen the decode is demanded the encryption key should e
demanded and when entered the decrypted text displayed.
.e should e ale to save the decrypted text message in a $le.
The picture inside picture option should have all the aove
%ualities like view oth, compare and decide whether to proceed,
and also have an option to save the new image where the user
chooses.
To retrieve the picture the user must e ale to view it, and then
retrieve and
save the picture