On Thu, 12 Sep 96 19:26:56 -0700, Jim Miller wrote:

Most everybody on the list is familiar with the technique of hiding encrypted messages in the LSBs of image files. Personally, I would not use such a technique because don't I believe it's really undetectable. I assume, without proof, that the LSBs of images files have statistical properties that are sufficiently different from encrypted data that a clever person could determine whether or not an image file contained an imbedded encrypted message.

Actually, if you use only a few bits - and not, say, bit 15 of *every* pixel - you can feel secure *IF* you are writing truly encrypted data. A regular PGP message has a bunch of header material that most certainly is not random-looking. OTOH, if you only write the raw data, then there is no way to differentiate from the random noise added by any scanner - in most cases, the last couple bits in each RGB triplet of a truecolor image are random. # Chris Adams <adamsc@io-online.com> | http://www.io-online.com/adamsc/adamsc.htp # cadams@acucobol.com | V.M. (619)515-4894 "I have never been able to figure out why anyone would want to play games on a computer in any case when the whole system is a game. Word processing, spreadsheets, telecoms -- it's all a game. And they pay you to play it." -- Duncan Frissell