I was recently watching a video where they were talking about using a software called OutGuess to reveal hidden messages in Jpeg photos. I remember Q posting a LOT of Jpegs and was thinking maybe there is hidden text in those photos---especially the American flag he posted several times. Just wondering if anyone has tried this? I am not smart enough. I barely can type a sentence!
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Steganography hides the bits for message bytes directly in the data for the image, not in EXIF or metadata. For instance, the least significant two bits of a pixel data byte can be set to two bits of a message byte. The image won’t be materially degraded because the chosen image bits are of low significance. Half of the bits will be correct anyway and differences from the original image would likely appear to be noise.
To defeat any attempt to decode the hidden message, the resulting byte stream can be enciphered (and deciphered) with a one-time pad system resulting in almost complete security. The almost comes from using the one-time pad correctly. Doing so results in complete security.
Metadata can be easily read with almost any image software. It is kind of hidden, but easily read. It is just info related to the picture - like exposure info, location where it was taken, settings like the aperture, etc.
Steganography is usually (always?) encrypted and takes special software to see the message, along with the password to decrypt the message. Stuff like text messages, other pictures, and some small files can be hidden that way.