A steganography attack refers to the malicious use of steganography, the practice of hiding data or messages within other non-suspicious data, such as images, audio files, videos, or other digital content, in a way that conceals its existence. In the context of cybersecurity, a steganography attack involves embedding malicious content or instructions within these seemingly benign files to evade detection by security systems.

Embedding Malicious Content:

• An attacker embeds malware, commands, or data within a host file (e.g., an image or video) using steganographic techniques.
• The modified file looks normal to the human eye and to traditional file inspection tools.

Distribution of the File:

• The attacker distributes the steganographic file through phishing emails, websites, social media, or other means.

Extraction of Hidden Data:

• The malicious content is extracted by specific software or commands that the attacker or malware uses on the victim's system.

Least Significant Bit (LSB) Manipulation: Modifying the least significant bits of pixel values in an image to store data.

File Metadata Manipulation: Hiding information in the metadata of images, audio, or other files.

Frequency Domain Techniques: Embedding hidden data into the frequency components of compressed media, like JPEG or MP3 files.

Network Steganography: Using covert channels in network protocols to transmit hidden data.

Malware Distribution:

• Malware hidden in an image file is downloaded to a victim's computer. When opened by the attacker’s software, the malware activates.

Data Exfiltration:

• Sensitive data is encoded into seemingly innocuous files and exfiltrated from a secure network without raising alarms.

Command-and-Control (C2) Communication:

• Attackers use steganographic files to transmit commands to compromised systems, avoiding detection by security tools.