really undetectable crypto

[jim@suite.suite.com (Jim Miller)]

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.

Fortunately, there are other steganographic techniques that, I believe,  
are undetectable.  The trick is to hide your encrypted bits in other  
encrypted bits.

trick #1)   Let's say you want to send a short encrypted message via a  
communications channel that only allows cleartext messages with optional  
MD5 message hashes.  You can construct cleartext messages, via  
trial-and-error, such that the first 4 or 8 bits (or more, if you have the  
time) of the MD5 hash match the first 4 or 8 bits of your encrypted  
message.  You can pre-compute all the required cleartext messages in  
advance, and then send them one after another.  The recipient of the  
cleartext messages can reconstruct the encrypted message by gathering  
together the first 4 or 8 bits of each MD5 hash.

Since the bits in an MD5 message hash are presumably cryptographically  
random, there should be no way to tell if some of the bits combine to make  
an encrypted message.

trick #2)  Let's say you are allowed to use 40 bit encryption, but nothing  
stronger.  As in trick #1, you can pre-compute plaintext messages such  
that the first 4 or 8 of the bits in the output of the government-approved  
40 bit encrypted data match the first 4 or 8 bits of your hidden encrypted  
message.

trick #n) see above.  Any communications channel that allows you to send  
*any* bits that are cyptographically random can be used to send arbitrary  
encrypted messages.

Jim_Miller@suite.com


P.S. The pre-computed plaintext messages don't have to be garbage  
messages.  You can probably make an innocent-looking message produce the  
desired bits by adding extra whitespace or typos.