steghide

Steghide is a portable and configurable steganography tool designed to embed bits of a data file into the least significant bits of another file, such as bmp, jpeg, wav, or au, without making the hidden data detectable. It features blowfish encryption, MD5 hashing of passphrases to generate encryption keys, and pseudo-random distribution of hidden bits in the cover file.

The tool is particularly useful in digital forensics investigations for both hiding and extracting data securely. It supports embedding data into cover files and extracting it later with the correct passphrase, ensuring the existence of hidden data cannot be proven without the key.

Steghide provides commands for embedding, extracting, and inspecting stego-files, making it a valuable utility for forensic analysis and secure data concealment.

Steghide hides data by embedding it into the least significant bits of cover files (bmp, jpeg, wav, au) using pseudo-random distribution to avoid detection. Passphrases are hashed with MD5 to derive blowfish encryption keys, securing the hidden data. Extraction requires the correct passphrase to reconstruct the original embedded file.