IMAGE STEGANOGRAPHY APPLICATIONS FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION by Tayana Morkel Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science (Computer Science) in the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology University of Pretoria, Pretoria May 2012 © University of Pretoria Image Steganography Applications for Secure Communication by Tayana Morkel E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract To securely communicate information between parties or locations is not an easy task considering the possible attacks or unintentional changes that can occur during communication. Encryption is often used to protect secret information from unauthorised access. Encryption, however, is not inconspicuous and the observable exchange of encrypted information between two parties can provide a potential attacker with information on the sender and receiver(s). The presence of encrypted information can also entice a potential attacker to launch an attack on the secure communication. This dissertation investigates and discusses the use of image steganography, a technology for hiding information in other information, to facilitate secure communication. Secure communication is divided into three categories: self-communication, one-to-one communication and one-to-many communication, depending on the number of receivers. In this dissertation, applications that make use of image steganography are implemented for each of the secure communication categories. For self-communication, image steganography is used to hide one-time passwords (OTPs) in images that are stored on a mobile device. For one-to-one communication, a decryptor program that forms part of an encryption protocol is embedded in an image using image steganography and for one-to-many communication, a secret message is divided into pieces and different pieces are embedded in different images.