The MP3 Photographer

An LSB2 Steganography Encoder which encodes MP3 audio into PNG images

Part 2 of the Steganography Made Fun! Toolkit

• Latest Release / Executables
• Source Code

About the Project

The toolkit has three parts divided into three repositories:

• Part 1: The TXT Hider
• Part 2: The MP3 Photographer
• Part 3: The PNG Musician (This Repository)

Release Directory Structure

• IN\ : This is where you place the JPG and MP3 files
• SRC\ : Contains the Steganographically Encoded PNG Files
• LICENSE : GNU GPL v3.0 License for The MP3 Photographer
• README.txt : Release Information
• The MP3 Photographer.exe : Executable for Windows Devices (built using PyInstaller)

Repository Structure

• IN\ : This is where you place the JPG and MP3 files
• SRC\ : Contains the Steganographically Encoded PNG Files
• LICENSE : GNU GPL v3.0 License for The MP3 Photographer
• README.md : Repository Information
• install_requirements.bat : Installs the necessary package requirements using pip (Requires pip access in PATH)
• The MP3 Photographer.py : Source Code

Usage Instructions

1. Just let things be where they are (relatively)
2. Place the JPG files with <song_name>.jpg in the adjacent directory labeled IN\
3. Place the MP3 files with <song_name>.mp3 in the adjacent directory labeled IN\ (Check the Restrictions below)
4. Run The MP3 Photographer.py using the IDE of your choice or via CMD using the python "The MP3 Photographer.py" command
5. Obtain the Steganographically Encoded PNG files in the SRC\ Directory

Place the Custom PNG files generated by The MP3 Photographer in the SRC\ folder of The PNG Musician folder to play them

Restrictions

Amount of data that can be steganograhically encoded in a particular image is limited. Both The MP3 Photographer and The PNG Musician work on colour images of resolution 1280x720 with the 2 LSB bits in each channel of each pixel holding the MP3 file

Ultimately, the size of MP3 file is restricted to 1280x720x3x2 = 5,529,600 bits or 675 kB

I use Audacity to limit the MP3 file sizes into the restriction limits with the following settings:

Maximum Duration	1 minute
Bit Rate Mode	Preset
Quality	Medium, 145-185 kbps
Channel Mode	Force Export to Mono
Metadata	Cleared

Requirements

• Operating System: Windows

Disclaimer

• I do not own any rights to the images or music in this repository. All rights are reserved by the respective artists and record labels
• Most Antivirus Softwares falsely tag the EXE as suspicious piece of software. Please whitelist the EXE on your device to use it
• The provided SHA256 Checksum is for the EXE provided and can be verified if required

Acknowledgements and References

• ASCII Art by: TextKool
• Quickstart: Secrets Hidden in Images (Steganography) - Computerphile