Digital Forensics
Due Wednesday, February 14

Assignment 2: More subtle example of steganography

Your assignment is to analyze the two files immanuel_kant1.txt and immanuel2_kant.txt.

While they appear superficially to be the same text file, one of the two files has a hidden message in it. I would suggest doing both a diff and a xxd of both files in order to gain a more exact understanding of the files.

There are at least two programs on linprog8 that you can try to use to find the hidden message, snow and outguess.

Your write-up for this should

  1. identify which text is the "plain-text" version, and which is the "encrypted" version
  2. include the hidden message
  3. state which program produced the hidden message
  4. demonstrate how one can recreate the the encrypted version of the text from the plain-text file (i.e., give a Bash command line that will take the plain-text version and create the encrypted version)
  5. include a complete analysis of the two files and their differences

Part of this message is rather well known. If you wish, you can add an "extra credit" section that explains what part of the message is famous and in what context; this will be for an additional two points on the assignment (thus making this assignment grade potentially as high as 102.)

Please turn this assignment in by the beginning of class on Wednesday, February 14.