FontCode, a subtle way to hide a secret message ... in a font

Researchers have found a way to encode a message in graphic variations of the letters of a text. Subtle and effective.

A group of researchers from the American University of Columbia has just introduced a new steganography technique. As a reminder, this mathematical art makes it possible to conceal messages in another, the most common example being to hide them in image or sound files. What can be done with open source software such as Anubis or OpenStego. Even pirates are beginning to use steganography to spread their malware.

Called FontCode, this new technique encodes the secret message in subtle graphic variations of the characters. For each letter of a given font, Times New Roman for example, researchers will establish a series of variants that can be associated with numbers. Depending on the secret message to hide, FontCode will replace each character with one of these variants.

The final result can be saved as a PDF document or an image. The text can also be printed on paper without the encoding being affected. To decode the message, it is sufficient to have the file analyzed by dedicated software. In the case of a printed medium, the recipient of the message can also scan it through a smartphone. In both cases, the recognition of the different variants relies on automatic learning algorithms, in this case a convolutional neural network. The researchers posted a video demonstration of their new technique online.

The amount of data that can be integrated obviously depends on the length of the original text. A text of about 40,000 characters can hide about 70 kilobits of data. It's not huge, but enough to spread a secret message. The use cases of FontCode are also multiple. The most obvious is that of being able to create a secret communication channel between several people. They can even encrypt the hidden message, provided they agree on a common key.

FontCode can also be used to seamlessly integrate metadata to provide information about the text and / or author or simply insert a QRCode hyperlink. FontCode also allows you to insert a digital tattoo to fight against piracy or a digital signature to guarantee the authenticity of the text and to fight against falsifications.

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