Network Security and Cryptography Lecture 3 & 4

Uday Prakash Pethakamsetty

uday3prakash@gmail.com

Steganography
an alternative to encryption hides existence of message
using only a subset of letters/words in a longer message marked in some way using invisible ink hiding in LSB in graphic image or sound file

Eg: Character marking

Invisible ink Pin punctures Typewriter correction ribbon

Cryptography renders message unintelligible! Steganography conceals the message!! i.e., to escape detection from any third party.
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Developments in Steganography carriers

steganography is a science and visual cryptography is a technique to implement it

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Steganography
Ancient steganographic techniques:
Wax writing tables Writing on stomachs of rabbits Tattooed on the scalp of slaves Invisible ink,.

Modern steganographic techniques

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Watermarking Type writer correction Spam-based Digital Image based Digital Audio signals Changing document, image or any file properties Null Cipher
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Steganography
The steganography process generally involves placing a hidden message in some transport medium, called the carrier. The secret message is embedded in the carrier to form the steganography medium. The use of a steganography key may be employed for encryption of the hidden message and/or for randomization in the steganography scheme.

Steganography medium = hidden message + carrier + steganography key

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Steganography- Framework

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Cover Media
Many options in modern communication systems:
Text, TCP/IP headers,

Perhaps most attractive are the multimedia objects:

Image Audio Video

Generally, Image based steganography is more popular.

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Steganography
If system depends on secrecy of algorithm and there is no key involved-PURE STEGANOGRAPHY
Not desirable. Kerchoffs principle. (one should always assume that the analyst knows the encryption/decryption algorithm. The resistance of the cipher to attack must be based only on the secrecy of the key. So, Key must be secured and KEY-DOMAIN must be large.)

Secret Key based Steganography Public/Private Key based Steganography

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Steganography classification
TS uses scientific methods to hide a message. Ex: Invisible ink. LS hides the message in the carrier in some non-obvious ways and is further categorized as semagrams or open codes. Semagrams hide information by the use of symbols or signs. Open codes hide a message in a legitimate carrier message in ways that are not obvious to an unsuspecting observer. Jargon code uses language that is understood by a group of people but is meaningless to others. Covered ciphers hide a message openly in the carrier medium so that it can be recovered by anyone who knows the secret for how it was concealed. grille cipher employs a template that is used to cover the carrier message. null cipher hides the message according to some prearranged set of rules

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Examples
Example 1 (Null Cipher): Presidents Embargo ruling should have immediate notice grave situation affecting international law. Statement foreshadows ruin of many neutrals. Yellow journals unifying national excitement immensely. Apparently neutrals protest is thoroughly discounted and ignored. Isman hard hit. Blockade issue affects pretext for embargo on byproducts. Ejecting suets and vegetable oils. The German Embassy in Washington DC, sent these messages in telegrams to their headquarters in Berlin during World War I (kahn 1996). Reading the first character of every word in the first message or the second character of every word in the second word in the second message will yield the following hidden text. PERSHING SAILS FROM N.Y. JUNE 1 Example 2: Susan eats truffles. Under pressure, that helps everything before owning major Bullwinkle. Reading the first letters in each word results in the following hidden text. SET UP THE BOOM

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LSB Embedding

Least significant bits of picture frames

2048x3072 pixels with 24-bits RGB info Able to hide 2.3M message

In ascending order of no. of bits embedded, the image becomes more and more meaning-less.

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LSB Embedding-Steganalysis
Neighborhood histogram of a cover image(top) and stego image with 40 KB message embedded (bottom).

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Steganography
Drawbacks
high overhead to hide relatively few info bits Virtually useless if system is known

Improvement
Using some random sequence of the last bit for storing the data Challenge: produce such random sequence such that the attacker cannot figure out the sequence!

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Steganalysis
Steganography-only attack: The steganography medium is the only item available for analysis. Known-carrier attack: The carrier and steganography media are both available for analysis. Known-message attack: The hidden message is known. Chosen-steganography attack: The steganography medium and algorithm are both known. Chosen-message attack: A known message and steganography algorithm are used to create steganography media for future analysis and comparison. Known-steganography attack: The carrier and steganography medium, as well as the steganography algorithm, are known.
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Steganalysis
Analyst( WENDY) can be passive:
Examines all messages between Alice and Bob. Does not change any message For Alice and Bob to communicate, Stego-object should be indistinguishable from cover-object.

Analyst can be active:

Deliberately modifies messages by a little to thwart any hidden communication. Robust media watermarks provide a potential way for steganography in presence of active Wendy(analyst).
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Visual Cryptography
Secret-sharing method that encrypts a secret image into several shares but requires neither computer nor calculations to decrypt the secret image. Secret image is reconstructed visually, simply by overlaying all the encrypted shares. Invented by Moni Naor & Adi Shamir

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Cryptography vs Visual cryptography

Plain Text Plain Text (in the form of image)

Encryption Encryption (creating the shares) Cipher Text Channel (FAX,Email)

Decryption

Plaintext

Decryption (Human Visual system)

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Secret Sharing
Divide data N into p shares N can be constructed from any k shares out of the p shares. Complete knowledge of k-1 shares cant reveal any information about data N Written(k,p): k of p shares is necessary to reveal secret data.

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Secret sharing-Example
5 thieves share a bank account
They dont trust one another They assume there will be no collusion between more than 2 of them.

The thieves split up the password for the account in such a way that:
Any 3 or more thieves working together can have access to account, but NOT < 3
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VC-Basic logic
This is the basic logic for the sub-pixellization in visual cryptography.

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VC-How it works?
Every single pixel is split into sub-pixels Human vision still perceives them as one pixel. Example(2,2) this 2 out of 2 method uses 2 foils, 1 pixel with 4 sub-pixels. This overlay results in black, so the original pixel was also black.

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Computer representation of pixels

Visual cryptography scheme represented in computer using nm basis matrices.

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Visual Cryptography
For a set of p participants, a secret image N is encoded into p shadow images called shares. Each participant gets one share. K out of p participants are needed to combine shares and see secret image.

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Visual Cryptography
ADVANTAGES 1. Simple to implement 2. Encryption dont require any NP-Hard problem dependency. 3. Decryption algorithm not required. So, even a layman can decrypt using his visual sense. 4. Cipher text can be sent through FAX or e-mail 5. Infinite computation power cant predict the message.
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VC-Example(2,2)
Ex: Implementation of a (2,2) VTS

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VC-Example(2,3)
Ex: Implementation of a (2,3) VTS

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VC-How it works?
Information is stored in an m n matrix N N[I,j]=1 means sub-pixel j in foil i is black N[I,j]=0 means sub-pixel j in foil i is white The overlay of the foils corresponds with the OR combinations of the m vectors in the matrix Grey level of the combined share is proportional to the hamming weight H(V) of the ORed m-vector V.
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VC & Steganography
Decreases probability of attacker detecting a cryptosystem Simple method : Replace the Least significant bit of each pixel in an image with a bit of information from the secret
2048x3072 pixels with 24-bits RGB info Able to hide 2.3M message

Complex method : Redefining standards of black and white and changing sub-pixel patterns Drawbacks
high overhead to hide relatively few info bits Virtually useless if system is known

Improvement
Using some random sequence of the last bit for storing the data Challenge: produce such random sequence such that the attacker cannot figure out the sequence!

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VC&S Example
Conceal a secret with two innocent-looking shares

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VC for insecure groups

Only certain groups of members can be trusted Instead of having a (2,3) threshold, only certain groups of people can recover the secret message. Groups of members are specified as qualified or forbidden

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VC for insecure groups

TWO properties: Contrast When qualified users stack their transparencies they can correctly recover the hidden message. Security Even by inspecting all their shares, a forbidden set of participants cant decide whether hidden image pixel should be white or black.
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VC for Insecure Groups-Example

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VC for Insecure Groups-Example(2)

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VCS-Related references
Visual cryptography (1995)-Moni Naor & Adi Shamir Constructions and bounds for visual cryptography (1996)- Ateniese, Blundo. Visual cryptography: Threshol Schemes and information hiding (1999)- Xian, Heys, Robinson Extended capabilities for visual cryptography (1999)- Ateniese, Blundo. Doug Stinsons Visual cryptography Page (http://cacr.math.uwaterloo.ca/~dstinson/visual.html) Visual Cryptography (http://www.dia.unisa.it/VISUAL/whatis.htmL) Visual Cryptography Kit (www-lce.eng.cam.ac.uk/~fms27/vck) Introduction to Steganography http://www.garykessler.net/library/fsc_stego.html. Steganalysis programs, stegparchive.com stegano.net http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TICwSUlhRWg

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