Steganography

Steganography: The Art of Hiding Messages
What is Steganography?
Steganography is like a secret agent for your messages. It’s the art of hiding a secret message within another, seemingly innocent message, so that no one even knows there’s a secret to find!

How It Works:
1. Plaintext: This is your original secret message. For example, let’s say you want to send the message: “Meet me at the park at 3 PM.”

2. Ciphertext: Before hiding it, you might encrypt this message to make it look like gibberish. After encryption, it could look something like: “XyZ123!@#”.

3. Covertext: This is the larger, harmless-looking data that will contain your secret message. For instance, you could use a cute picture of a puppy as your covertext.

4. Stegotext: This is the final product—the puppy picture with your encrypted message hidden inside it.

Example:
Imagine you take that puppy picture and use a steganography tool to embed your encrypted message into the image. When you send this stegotext (the puppy picture with the hidden message) to your friend, they’ll just see an adorable puppy. If someone else tries to snoop, they’ll think, “Aww, just a cute dog!” But your friend knows there’s a secret message waiting to be revealed!

Digital Watermarking: The Ownership Badge
What is Digital Watermarking?

Digital watermarking is like putting a special stamp on your digital creations to show they belong to you. It’s a way to embed information (like your name or copyright) into an image or video without making it obvious.
How It Works:

- Embedding Information: You can embed a watermark in an image that might say, “© Your Name.” This watermark is usually invisible to the naked eye but can be detected with special software.

- Purpose: Digital watermarks help prove ownership, protect against copyright infringement, and verify the authenticity of digital content.

Example:
Let’s say you create a stunning photograph of a sunset. You want to make sure everyone knows it’s yours, so you use digital watermarking to embed your name in the corner of the image. When someone views the photo, they might not see your name right away, but if they use software to check for watermarks, it will pop up, saying, “© Your Name.” This way, if someone tries to use your photo without permission, you have proof that it’s yours!

Summary
- Steganography is all about hiding messages within other messages, like tucking a secret note inside a birthday card. It keeps your communication private and sneaky!

- Digital Watermarking is about claiming ownership of your digital creations, like putting a stamp on your artwork. It helps protect your rights and ensures that your work is recognized.

Both techniques are clever ways to keep your secrets safe and your creations protected! So whether you’re sending a hidden message or showcasing your artistic flair, you’ve got the tools to do it with style! 🎉

Using OpenStego

Using OpenStego is pretty straightforward. There are two modes of operation - data hiding and watermarking.

Data Hiding

In this mode, you can either hide the data (file) inside an image or extract the data from the image.

Hide data

Extract data

Watermarking (beta)

In this mode, you can watermark / verify images with your signature. First you need to generate signature file, and then it can be used to watermark images or verify the same later.
Generate Signature

Embed watermark

Verify Watermark