🛡️ Free practice test question from: SOC (Security+)

Steganography is the practice of concealing sensitive information within seemingly innocuous files, and in this case, image files are being used as the carrier medium.

Modifying the least significant bits of each pixel's color values to encode the data is the most sophisticated and commonly used steganographic technique.

How it works:

→ Digital images are composed of pixels with color values (typically RGB)

→ Each color channel (Red, Green, Blue) has 8 bits representing its intensity

→ The least significant bits (LSB) have minimal visual impact when modified

→ By subtly altering these least significant bits, attackers can encode binary data without visibly changing the image

A) Is plausible as metadata can be used for steganography, but the scenario describes images appearing unaltered, which is more consistent with pixel-level modifications rather than metadata changes.

C) Involves visible alterations, which contradicts the observation that images appear normal to users.

D) Involves appending data, which could be detected through file size changes or integrity checks, making it less stealthy compared to LSB modifications.