Stego Usage Guide

StegnGo is a small CLI tool that hides data (images or text) inside images. This is known as steganography. Optionally, data can be encrypted before embedding.

Installation

Download or build the stegngo tool from the repository. Once available in your PATH, you can invoke it as follows:

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Basic Commands

• encode: Takes a container image (PNG or JPG) and a payload (file or text) and produces a new image with hidden data.
• decode: Takes an encoded image and extracts the hidden data.

Options

• --container=PATH: Path to the container image (PNG/JPG) used to hide or reveal data.
• --payload=PATH: Path to the payload file (can also be raw text or typed directly if no file is specified for encoding).
• --password=SECRET: Password for AES encryption (defaults to 32-byte key derived via Argon2).
• --no-encryption: (Optional) Disables AES encryption.
• --output=OUT_PATH: Output path for the resulting stego image or extracted payload.
• --filename=NAME: (Optional) Name for the extracted file when decoding.
• --checksum=HASH: (Optional) SHA-256 checksum for validating the container image.

Example: Encoding

# Encode a text file inside an image, with encryption enabled
stego encode \
  --container="cover.png" \
  --payload="some message or secret_message.txt" \
  --password="mysecretpass" \
  --output="" \
  --filename="myFile"

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Example: Decode

Decode the hidden data from an image

stego decode \
  --container="encoded.png" \
  --password="mysecretpass" \
  --output="" \
  --filename="myFile"

Alternative Run

You can also run by:

go run main.go decode [options]

Once decoding is complete, you will find the hidden content in either the root directory of the project or in thee specified output path.

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Note: If --no-encryption is used, no AES encryption/decryption takes place, but data is still hidden via steganography

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