Steganography in three simple steps

1 Install Outguess

Boot up your operating system of choice (ideally TAILS in this instance) and open the Terminal. Run sudo apt-get update then run

sudo apt-get install outguess. While the update and install is running, take the time to move your outer container file as well as the real and fake files into your home folder. Feel free to name these files something as obvious as “real” and “fake”, as Outguess doesn’t store the original filenames.

2 Encode files

Assume the container file is called cabinet. jpg and the real and fake files are called real. jpg and fake.jpg, encoded with the passwords “narly” and “bogus” respectively. The output file is called cabinet1.jpg. In this case the command to hide the files would be: outguess -k “bogus” -d fake.png -E -K “narly” -D real.png cabinet.jpg cabinet1.jpg Feel free to change any of these values when creating your own stegos.

3 Decode files

Once your files have been uploaded, your contact should repeat step 1 then download the steg file. If they’re acting under duress, they can run this command with the decoy password to reveal the fake file decoded.jpg: outguess -k “bogus” -r cabinet1.jpg decoded.jpg Otherwise they can reveal the real file thus: outguess -k “narly” -e -r cabinet1.jpg decoded.jpg