HiddenWave 🌊

Secure Audio Steganography & Cryptography in Rust

HiddenWave is a fast, memory-safe CLI tool and library that hides files and text messages inside audio files (WAV/MP3) using a striding byte-injection algorithm. It combines steganography (hiding the existence of data) with AES-256-GCM cryptography (protecting the contents).

It's a re-write of the original C++ version

Features

• WAV & MP3 Support: Natively parse WAV files or decode MP3s on the fly via symphonia.
• Encryption: Payloads are encrypted and authenticated using AES-256-GCM with a PBKDF2-derived key.
• Striding Algorithm: Distributes the payload evenly across the audio file to minimize distortion.
• Format Preservation: Automatically outputs safe lossless .wav formats to prevent lossy compression from destroying payloads.
• Library API: Exposes hiddenwave_lib for easy integration into other Rust projects.

Installation

As a CLI Tool (Cargo Install)

cargo install hiddenwave

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/thehackersbrain/hiddenwave-rs.git
cd hiddenwave-rs
cargo build --release

The compiled binary will be at ./target/release/hiddenwave-rs.

CLI Usage

1. Check Capacity (check or c)

Analyze an audio file to see exactly how much data it can hold.

hiddenwave c -i cover_audio.mp3

2. Hide Data (hide or h)

Hide a message or file. If no output -o is specified, it defaults to output.wav.

# Hide a text message with a password
hiddenwave h -i song.wav -m "Meeting at midnight" -p "SuperSecret123"

# Hide an entire file (e.g., PDF, ZIP) inside an MP3
hiddenwave h -i podcast.mp3 -f secret_document.pdf -o secure_audio.wav -p "SuperSecret123"

3. Extract Data (extract or e)

Extract and decrypt your hidden payloads.

# Extract a hidden text message
hiddenwave e -i secure_audio.wav -p "SuperSecret123"

# Extract a hidden file
hiddenwave e -i secure_audio.wav -o recovered.pdf -p "SuperSecret123"

Using as a Library

Add hiddenwave to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
hiddenwave = "x.x.x"

Example: Embedding and Extracting Data

use hiddenwave_lib::stego::{embed::embed, extract::extract};

// Note: To use the library, you provide raw PCM audio bytes and the payload.

How It Works

1. Encryption: Your payload is encrypted using AES-256-GCM. The key is derived via PBKDF2 (100,000 iterations).
2. Analysis: The tool calculates the available raw PCM audio samples and determines a "stride" (interval).
3. Injection: The encrypted bytes are injected at the calculated intervals, replacing bits to make the change imperceptible to the human ear.
4. Sentinels: A magic byte sequence (@<;;) marks the end of the payload for safe extraction.

MP3 Disclaimer: MP3 is a lossy format. If you compress an audio file containing steganography into an MP3, the compression algorithm will destroy the hidden bytes. HiddenWave accepts MP3s as input, but must output a lossless .wav file to preserve your data.