Want to Hide a Message? Steganography Is Your Secret Weapon

Want to Hide a Message? Steganography Is Your Secret Weapon

Last updated: July 08, 2025

What is Steganography?

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:

  1. Steghide
  2. Binwalk
  3. ExifTool
  4. QuickStego
  5. Zsteg

Embedding the Secret File

In your kali linux machine -> Open your terminal -> Install steghide

-> First Step is to make a File and write something in it, you want to hide in a picture

-> 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

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!

Want to Hide a Message? Steganography Is Your Secret Weapon

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:

Want to Hide a Message? Steganography Is Your Secret Weapon
Before Embedding the secret file

After Embedding the secret file:

Want to Hide a Message? Steganography Is Your Secret Weapon
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!

NOTE: If you did not enter the passphrase while embedding the secret file into the picture, then you can skip it when it asks!

Want to Hide a Message? Steganography Is Your Secret Weapon

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.

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