Stego-Text — Textual Steganography
Hide messages in plain sight. Encode secrets into innocent-looking prose that reads naturally to humans but contains recoverable hidden messages for those who know where to look.
Quick Start
Encoding
- Choose a message to hide
- Select an encoding method (see Method Selection Guide)
- Pick a carrier topic (something mundane and coherent)
- Compose text matching the encoding constraints
- Verify — decode your own output before presenting it
Decoding
- Identify which encoding method was used (or try all systematically)
- Extract the structural feature from each unit
- Map values to letters or collect anomalous words
- Read the hidden message
Encoding Methods
See references/encoding-methods.md for detailed specifications, constraints, and worked examples.
Method Overview
| Method | Unit Encoded | How It Works | Detection Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resonance | Words/phrases | Statistically improbable synonym substitutions | Very hard |
| Structural Harmonic | Letters (A=1..Z=26) | Word count per sentence → alphabet position | Hard |
| Dual-Channel Harmonic | Letters | Two independent features confirm same message | Very hard |
| Acrostic | Letters | First letter of each sentence | Medium |
| Fibonacci Positional | Letters | First letters at Fibonacci word positions | Very hard |
Method Selection Guide
- Resonance Encoding — Most novel. Hidden message words embedded as probability anomalies. Best for content-word messages ("machines dream quietly"). Hardest to create. See
references/resonance-deep-dive.md. - Structural Harmonic — Best all-around for letter-by-letter encoding. Natural word counts, moderate difficulty.
- Dual-Channel Harmonic — Maximum confidence. Two methods (e.g., word count + acrostic) independently produce the same message.
- Acrostic — Fastest to create. First letters spell message. Easier to detect.
- Fibonacci Positional — Single-paragraph encoding. Exponential spacing makes detection very difficult.
Critical Rules
- Always verify — After encoding, decode your own output to confirm correctness
- Natural text first — If text sounds forced to hit constraints, rewrite it
- Vary structure — Don't let encoded sentences fall into repetitive patterns
- Topic consistency — Carrier text must read as coherent prose on a single topic
- Count carefully — Hyphenated words = 1 word. Contractions = 1 word. Digit numbers = 1 word.
Word Counting Rules (Structural Harmonic / Dual-Channel)
- Hyphenated compounds = 1 word ("well-designed", "state-of-the-art")
- Contractions = 1 word ("don't", "it's", "we're")
- Digit numbers = 1 word ("42", "2026")
- Abbreviations = 1 word ("Dr.", "U.S.", "AI")
- Standard split = whitespace-delimited tokens