Steganography

Basic File Inspection and Metadata Analysis
Extracts printable strings of at least 10 characters, useful for spotting hidden text or clues
strings -n 10 <filename>
Useful for viewing the end of files where hidden data might be appended:
tail
Extracts metadata from files
exiftool <filename>
Extraction Tools
Extracts hidden data from files using steghide:
steghide extract -sf <file>
Crack Passphrases
stegseek [stegofile.jpg] [wordlist.txt]
File carving tool that can recover files based on headers, footers, and data structures.
foremost
LSB (Least Significant Bit)

The least significant bit is the very last bit from binary sequence, which has the smallest impact on the overall value. Changing this bit usually causes a very tiny change in the data that’s often imperceptible to the human eye or ear.

  • For example, in an 8-bit color value for a pixel, the least significant bit is the 8th bit

Tools like zsteg can automatically analyze PNG or BMP images for LSB steganography:
zsteg -a <filename>
Audio Steganography Analysis
Visualizes audio files to detect anomalies or hidden messages in the waveform or spectrogram:
sonic-visualizer

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