12

I am wondering if there are any implementations of a filesystem (as in FUSE) that would allow me to host a file in chunks steganographically distributed all over the internet.

The way I imagine it, the user needs a master URL with the first block containing an encrypted list of the URLs for remaining chunks of data, hidden steganographically in different websites. When the user wants to modify a chunk, the filesystem would create a new chunk and - at the end of the work - generate a new master URL containing the final list of URLs listing the chunks of a new version of the file.

Would such a system work if the master URL contained URLs of multiple copies of the blocks saved on different websites in different formats (i.e. audio, video, image, forum comments with the text hidden with whitespace)?

d33tah
  • 6,524
  • 8
  • 38
  • 60
  • 1
    Interesting question - Any solution would need a mechanism for dealing with instances when one of the URL's is no longer in use or if any of the URL's experience downtime. – yonetpkbji May 04 '13 at 21:14
  • 1
    [Ursa Minor](https://www.usenix.org/conference/fast-05/ursa-minor-versatile-cluster-based-storage) seems interesting, but not a complete match. Some other [clustered file systems](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clustered_file_system#Examples) might also prove worthy of further research. But I can't think of any that would match exact requirements. Distributed encrypted FS exist (see Wiki link), but I wouldn't know of one that employs stenography as means of protecting unauthorised access to its data. [This paper (PDF)](http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA490161) is also interesting. – TildalWave May 04 '13 at 21:25
  • @TildalWave: Thanks! Please post it as an answer so I can plus you up. – d33tah May 04 '13 at 21:26
  • 2
    It's not answering your question (thus _only_ a comment), so I suggest we give it a bit more time and see if somebody else finds a better match as per your requirements. If no answers are added in a few days time, I'll try and write a bit more meaningful answer (once I research it a bit more). ;) – TildalWave May 04 '13 at 21:29
  • 1
    I just know IgorFS (http://os.ibds.kit.edu/downloads/publ_2008_amann-ua-fuhrmann_igorfs.pdf), but i don't think it's implemented by now... – Dr.Ü May 04 '13 at 21:53
  • 2
    @Dr.Ü Actually you can download the source for IgorFS from the links at the bottom of http://www.so.in.tum.de/wiki/index.php5/Igor_File_System Or directly: http://www.so.in.tum.de/~ba/igor-0.3.5.tar.gz http://www.so.in.tum.de/~ba/igorfs-0.2.3.tar.gz I don't know that the code actually works as I haven't tested it. – Dan D. May 05 '13 at 02:04

1 Answers1

4

The need for such a distributed file store is largely filled by Freenet. Freenet is a distributed hash table where by various chunks of a file is obtained anonymously from various nodes in the network.

The addition of stenography upon Freenet would add a level of secrecy in that only people who know where to look can find the information.

rook
  • 46,916
  • 10
  • 92
  • 181