Design of a steganographic virtual operating system

Elan Ashendorf; Scott Craver

doi:10.1117/12.2079875

4 March 2015 Design of a steganographic virtual operating system

Elan Ashendorf, Scott Craver

Proceedings Volume 9409, Media Watermarking, Security, and Forensics 2015; 94090G (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2079875
Event: SPIE/IS&T Electronic Imaging, 2015, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

A steganographic file system is a secure file system whose very existence on a disk is concealed. Customarily, these systems hide an encrypted volume within unused disk blocks, slack space, or atop conventional encrypted volumes. These file systems are far from undetectable, however: aside from their ciphertext footprint, they require a software or driver installation whose presence can attract attention and then targeted surveillance. We describe a new steganographic operating environment that requires no visible software installation, launching instead from a concealed bootstrap program that can be extracted and invoked with a chain of common Unix commands. Our system conceals its payload within innocuous files that typically contain high-entropy data, producing a footprint that is far less conspicuous than existing methods. The system uses a local web server to provide a file system, user interface and applications through a web architecture.

Citation Download Citation

Elan Ashendorf and Scott Craver "Design of a steganographic virtual operating system", Proc. SPIE 9409, Media Watermarking, Security, and Forensics 2015, 94090G (4 March 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2079875

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