STEGNOGARAPHY

ABSTRACT-

Steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one apart from the intended recipient knows of the existence of the message. The word "Steganography" is of Greek origin and means "covered, or hidden writing".An encrypted file may still hide information using Steganography, so even if the encrypted file is deciphered, the hidden message is not seen. Steganography used in electronic communication include steganographic coding inside of a transport layer, such as an MP3 file, or a protocol, such as UDP. The advantage of steganography over cryptography alone is that messages do not attract attention to themselves, to messengers, or to recipients. A steganographic message is often first encrypted by some traditional means, and then a hiddentext is modified in some way to contain the encrypted message (ciphertext), resulting in stegotext. Modules:

1. Embedding a message 2. Embedding a file 3. Retrieving message from a Master file 4. Retrieving embedded file from a Master file

Module Description: 1. Embedding a message: Click on 'Embed Message' button or choose File > Embed Message from the menu. Select the Master file which will be used for embedding data into. Select the Output file which will contain the embedded message. This file will be an a copy of master file and will containing the embedded message. In the 'Embedding message' dialog box, Key in the message in the message box or paste a text already present on the clipboard. Choose the options to be used while embedding message. These options include Compression and Encryption. If you specify compression to be used, you can specify the compression level to be used between 0 to 9. If you specify encryption to be used, you'll have to specify a password which is a minimum of 8 characters in length. You can change the Master file or Output file by clicking on 'Change' button next to each item. Finally when you're ready to go, click on 'Go' button.

2. Embedding a file Click on 'Embed File' button or choose File > Embed File from the menu. Select the Master file which will be used for embedding data into.

Select the Output file which will contain the embedded Data file. This file will be an a copy of master file and will containing the embedded Data file. Select the Data file which will be embedded into the master file. In the "Embed file" dialog box, choose the options to be used while embedding the data file. These options include Compression and Encryption. If you specify compression to be used, you can specify the compression level to be used between 0 to 9. If you specify encryption to be used, you'll have to specify a password which is a minimum of 8 characters in length. You can change the Master file, Output file or Data file by clicking on 'Change' button next to each item. Finally when you're ready to go, click on 'Go' button.

3. Retrieving message from a Master file Click on 'Retrieve Message' button or choose File > Retrieve Message from the menu. Select the Master file containing the embedded message. A dialog box will appear summarizing the properties of the Master file. it shows you whether the file contains an embedded message or a file, Steganograph version used to embed the message/file, whether compression and encryption have been used and the compression ratio if compression has been used. It also shows you the request you have made. Finally when you're ready to go, click on 'Go' button.

If the message is encrypted, you will be asked for the password. Key in the password and click on the OK button. The message will be retrieved and presented to you in a text application similar to Windows notepad.

4. Retrieving embedded file from a Master file Click on 'Retrieve File' button or choose File > Retrieve File from the menu. Select the Master file containing the embedded file. A dialog box will appear summarizing the properties of the Master file. it shows you whether the file contains an embedded message or a file, Steganograph version used to embed the message/file, whether compression and encryption have been used and the compression ratio if compression has been used. It also shows you the request you have made. Finally when you're ready to go, click on 'Go' button. If the file is encrypted, you will be asked for the password. Key in the password and click on the OK button. The file will be retrieved and stored in current working directory. If it is detected that you are using a Windows platform, you will have a choice to open the file directly from the application.

Hardware Requirements Hard disk RAM Processor Speed Processor :40GB :65MB or more :2.60GHz :Pentium IV Processor or more

Software Requirements Front End Tools Used : Java, Swing : netBeans 6.0

Operating System : WindowsXP