Steghide with a video file?

[redxine]

If a video is capable of being a jpeg/tif/png sequence, is it possible to hide files in individual frames of a video and then wrap it all back into the original file? This would open up some doors for new possibilities. You can only extract the hidden information if you know exactly what frame it's on, and given 30 frames per second, and 60 seconds of video, that's 1800 frames to hide in.

I think I'll try to get an example worked out, I'm just not sure if extraction programs would include the extra information in a frame dump. I'm thinking of using cinelerra [on linux] to export a single frame, steg. it, delete the exported frame and replace with the modified one for encryption; and use VLC/mplayer/whatever to export the single frame, or use cinelerra again.

On a side note, I've long since found yet another good use for those old CRT monitors:

[digip]

Interestign idea, but it will no longer be an image once it gets put back into the video. Although, AVI files are containers, you can use virtual dub to export all frams as jpegs, then steghide a file in one of the images, and use virtual dub to recreate a video from an image sequence, then see if you can reverse it and extract the file. Not sure if it would work, but worth a try.

[redxine]

That should work, and it'll make it a whole lot harder to detect, as videos are not as easy to check.

If i'm right about how steghide works it magic, then as long as it's still formated as a 720x480 image, it should work.

According to wikipedia, digital steganography mostly uses the "Concealing messages within the lowest bits of noisy images or sound files." method or by deleting the last few bits of colour information, so that data should carry through.

[digip]

Just tried it, does not work, as Virtual dub removes any non picture info from the images when it saves it in the avi.

There is a program that lets you do similar to steghide jpeg hides directly with videos though.

http://compression.ru/video/stego_video/index_en.html

Its from Russia, so use at yoru own risk. I haven't tried it yet.

[stingwray]

If a video is capable of being a jpeg/tif/png sequence, is it possible to hide files in individual frames of a video and then wrap it all back into the original file? This would open up some doors for new possibilities. You can only extract the hidden information if you know exactly what frame it's on, and given 30 frames per second, and 60 seconds of video, that's 1800 frames to hide in.

I think I'll try to get an example worked out, I'm just not sure if extraction programs would include the extra information in a frame dump. I'm thinking of using cinelerra [on linux] to export a single frame, steg. it, delete the exported frame and replace with the modified one for encryption; and use VLC/mplayer/whatever to export the single frame, or use cinelerra again.

On a side note, I've long since found yet another good use for those old CRT monitors:

I don't know of any video codecs which are jpeg/etc sequence. Videos have their own file formats which are designed to be optimal for videos, not stills.

The biggest difference is that most video codecs don't represent each frame as an individual picture, they use keyframes and then update frames which map changes to the keyframe.

This is going to severely limit the amount of data you could hide in a video (but obviously still more than a single picture).

You other problem is that codecs and file formats for media work in very complex ways, which are often designed to remove information which cannot be seen by the human looking at it, this is the area where you would store your information. You will have to study the video codec you want to use very carefully to come up with a placement algorithm for the information, this is non trivial.

That should work, and it'll make it a whole lot harder to detect, as videos are not as easy to check.

If i'm right about how steghide works it magic, then as long as it's still formated as a 720x480 image, it should work.

According to wikipedia, digital steganography mostly uses the "Concealing messages within the lowest bits of noisy images or sound files." method or by deleting the last few bits of colour information, so that data should carry through.

Its not going to be any harder to detect, StegAnalysis systems often are designed to process large amounts of information, this is because people don't hide information in every picture already, they just aren't in a video format.

Steganography really isn't a simple as that exert from Wikipedia implies and as I previously mentioned, it depends a lot on the file format.

I really suggest you get a copy of Disappearing Cryptography, it is a really good book and will answer nearly all your questions about current steganography.

By no means is the project impossible, but given the amount of knowledge you seem to have (no offense), its likely to take you a long time. It has little practical application, but would be a nice PoC.

Any more questions, just ask.

[supereater14]

actually, the jpeg 2000 video format uses jpeg stills for each frame of video, so you could, presumably, pull a frame out (as a jpeg), steghide something in it and put it back in the video.

*listens as 5,000 people cringe upon reading "jpeg 2000"*

edit: should be mjpeg, not jpeg 2000, sorry

Edited March 3, 2011 by supereater14

[Infiltrator]

Very interesting concept will do some testings on my own and will let you know if I come up with something.