183 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
183 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
HideSeek v5.0
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a steganography program for the pc
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Welcome to HideSeek v5.0. This is a radical update to hideseek v4.1
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which includes a lot of new features. First, there is an interface....no
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more command line. In fact, you can no longer run hideseek from the command
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line at all. Second, and more importantly, hideseek now works with a lot
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more display resolutions that 320X480. Hopefully, this will make it a lot
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more usefull.
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To begin, what is steganography? steganography is the hiding of data
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in other data. More on this later.
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To run hideseek, just type "hideseek" at the c> prompt and away
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you go. hideseek is a dos program. i don't know what will happen if you
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try to run it under windows--i never have.
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Once in hideseek, you are presented with the main screen. You may
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use the mouse (if you have one) to click in any double-bordered box or on
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any button, or just type a highlighted letter to select an option. The
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options are:
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Gif file: select the gif file to use for both hiding and
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seeking data. If you are hiding, you will
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eventually be asked for a name for the output
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gif file. GREYSCALE GIFS WORK BEST FOR HIDING
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Data file: select the data file. This file will either be
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hidden, if you choose to hide data, or will
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be the name of the output file if you are
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seeking data. Note that it must be empty
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if it is to be an output file.
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Key : input a key to lock data in the file. This key
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encrypts the header hideseek uses with the
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IDEA algorithm, although it does NOT encrypt
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the data at all. This function is usefull
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if you want to make it hard for people to
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get your data out....no key, no seek.
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to use NO KEY click the No Key radio button.
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this will clear the key for you. if this
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button is not selected you are using a key
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wether you see one or not!!! it will also
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say "(none)" in the key box if you are not
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using a key (or if your key is "(none)"---
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you know who you are).
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notice that the key box will blink after
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you hide data, to remind you of having used
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a key. you can get rid of this blinking by
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pressing No Key or entering a new key.
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No Key : clears the key and the key input box. this is a
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radio button and will automatically clear
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if you enter a key....if the button is not
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selected, you have a key. see above.
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Browse : takes you to a file browsing screen documented
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later.
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View : shows you the gif file you have selected.
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Read : shows you the data file you have selected.
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Quit : quits the program.
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Hide : hides the data file in the gif file. asks for a
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name for an output gif file.
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Seek : looks for data in the gif file and writes it to
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the data file....the data file must be empty.
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The browse screen has a bunch of functions for looking through your
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directories for files:
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The File box lets you enter a file path and name. You can use it to
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change disk and directory and select a file mask or select
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a file.
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the Directory box lets you look through your direcory tree. You may
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press ESCAPE to leave the box without making a choice.
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the drive box lets you change drives.
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the mask buttons let you select a file mask, which will affect what
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the directory display shows.
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the "load/view as" selector lets you decide to load or view a given
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file as a Gif or a Data file.
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the View button shows you the file you have selected. the button
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is sensitive to the load/view As button
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the Load button loads the file and returns you to the main screen
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the Quit button returns you to the main screen without loading any
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file.
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that's it! error messages should be pretty self-explanatory. One thing to
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watch out for: if it tells you it cannot display your gif file, it is because
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hideseek does not support your video card at the required resolution. It may
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suggest that you resize the gif (using a separate program) and try again.
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if there is data hidden in the file DO NOT RESIZE IT!!!! the data would be
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lost.
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HideSeek can be pretty slow for large gif and/or data files. Please be
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patient. I apologize for the slowness.
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HideSeek will make an output gif (if you are hiding) that matches the DISPLAY
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size, not the original GIF size. annoying, but that's life (more specifically
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that's the fastgraph graphics toolbox.) note that because of this the WHOLE
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display including the black area around your gif gets used in the hiding
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process and IS a part of the new gif....DO NOT RESIZE!!!!)
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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steganography works, in this case, by making subtle, reversible alterations
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in the gif file. Basically, it takes the low-order bit of each pixel and
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uses it to encode 1 bit of a character. Thus, 8 pixels can encode 1
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character. This creates noticeable "noise" in the picture UNLESS YOU USE
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A GREYSCALE GIF, in which case there is no noise, due to the way the
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greyscale palette works. Carefull analysis of a gif MIGHT be able to detect
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that there is hidden data, but it may not. depends on the gif.
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FOR HIDESEEK TO BE REALLY USEFULL, YOU _MUST_ USE GREYSCALE GIFS. color
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gifs are just too obvious.
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HideSeek tries to be more secure by using a pseudo-random number generator
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to "disperse" the data throughout the GIF....thus, not all pixels contain
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data. It is impossible to tell which pixels do contain data, thus rendering
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hidden data very secure. HideSeek needs to remember the file size and the
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seed for the PRNG in order to carry this out succesfully. Thus, it writes
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a header to the GIF file first thing. Since this is not being very sneaky,
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it encodes the header, using the IDEA algorithm, and a key you supply, or
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can supply, if you want to. This makes the data very hard to extract. there
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are literally billions of possible files in any given GIF, and millions of
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possible keys to try and guess. Actually, there are only 32,000 possible
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seeds to try and guess, making that the weak link in the chain. But, without
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the key you don't know the file length, and if someone were so sneaky and
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devious as to hide ENCRYPTED DATA, well, there's no telling whether what
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you pull out is just junk or a real secret file. I have included IDEA.EXE,
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a simple encryption program for use in doing just this. It is not the
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best possible program, but it is adequate. See the idea.doc file for more
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info.
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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test your program on secret.gif. secret.gif has a copy of idea.zip, a
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simple encryption program, hidden in it using no key. if you can get out
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a .zip file that unzips to an encryption program, all is well.
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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hideseek 5.0 is completely backwards compatible with HideSeek 3.5 and later.
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files hidden with these earlier version can be extracted with this version,
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but not, of course, vice versa.
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hideseek is freeware. have a nice day.
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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The IDEA(tm) conventional block cipher used by HIDESEEK and IDEA is
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covered by a patent in Europe, held by ETH and a Swiss company called
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Ascom-Tech AG. The patent number is PCT/CH91/00117. International
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patents are pending. IDEA(tm) is a trademark of Ascom-Tech AG. There
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is no license fee required for noncommercial use of IDEA.
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You may not extract the IDEA cipher from HIDESEEK or IDEA.EXE and put it
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in another commercial product without a license. Commercial users of
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IDEA may obtain licensing details from Dieter Profos, Ascom Tech AG,
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Solothurn Lab, Postfach 151, 4502 Solothurn, Switzerland, Tel +41 65
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242885, Fax +41 65 235761.
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The GIF format is copyrighted by compuserve.
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HIDESEEK and IDEA are freeware and i am an amateur. they are tested as
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well as i have been able to test them, are as safe as i can make them,
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and i am confident that they are robust. NEVERTHELESS, you may only use
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them at your own risk. i cannot and will not be responsible for lost
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data.
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=============================================================================
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============================================================================
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the October BBS (212-529-3297) has agreed to be a distribution point for
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HideSeek. Look for upgrades there as well as other cool stuff.
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on the internet, HideSeek is distributed by anonymous ftp at ftp.netcom.com
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in /pub/qwerty/Steganography
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============================================================================
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i am shaggy@phantom.com if you want or need to contact me.
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-----remember: when cryptography is illegal, only 9*7^Py.> *8D7awQs <20><>9Ikj;
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