Want to Hide a Message? Steganography Is Your Secret Weapon
Last updated: July 08, 2025
What is Steganography?
Steganography is a process of hiding some information in an image, video, or audio.
The word comes from Greek: steganos (covered) and graphein (writing), which means “Covered writing.”
Think of it this way: It can be a Picture of yourself, at first sight it does not seem different, but tucked inside its pixels there could be a message saying, “Meet me at the airport.” Steganography does not change how the file looks, it’s about making it invisible.
In short, steganography is not about security, it’s about stealth!
The Tools You’ll Need to Get Started!
You don’t need any high-tech skills to do it; it can be done using some online tools or through Kali Linux!
Some Tools are:
- Steghide
- Binwalk
- ExifTool
- QuickStego
- Zsteg
Embedding the Secret File
In your kali linux machine -> Open your terminal -> Install steghide
sudo apt install steghide
-> First Step is to make a File and write something in it, you want to hide in a picture
nano secret
-> Second Step is that you should have a picture in your Kali Linux machine
-> Third Step is to embed the secret file into that picture using the steghide tool
steghide embed -cf <picture-name> -ef <txt-file>
NOTE: Steghide will ask you for the passphrase, if you wish you can enter so it can be protected if someone tries to extract the secret file, if you do not want to enter any passphrase then simply skip it!
Congratulations! Your stegno image is ready now!
But wait, how would you know that the secret file is now embedded in the picture?
Analyzing!
Let’s analyze the picture without embedding and with embedding the secret file!
I will use the Exif tool for this purpose
Before Embedding the secret file:
After Embedding the secret file:
As you can see, the increase in the file size shows that the secret file is now embedded!
Extracting the Secret File
Let’s Extract the secret file from the stegno image!
steghide extract -sf <picture-name>
NOTE: If you did not enter the passphrase while embedding the secret file into the picture, then you can skip it when it asks!
NOTE: As you used the steghide tool for embedding the secret file, so for extracting it you have to use the same tool! It will not extract the file if you used a different tool. Because different tool uses different methods to hide the file.