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Data Stash is a steganographic security tool. Just what is steganography anyways? Its the art of hidden writing. Just what do I mean by that? Well read on.

Data Stash is a clever little security tool that allows you to hide sensitive data files within other files. Select a large bitmap or database file (or any file you'd like to use) as a receptacle, then add the data files you'd like to hide, via an easy drag and drop mechanism. The receptacle file remains fully functional. Password protection is also provided, using Blowfish encryption. This is useful if you wish to keep out certain files from prying eyes, under the guise of a normal file. For example you can hide sensitive document files into a bitmap file, and retrieve them later. Opening the bitmap file would only show the image of the bitmap, and not the files that are stored in it. You can hide files into .exe, .com, .mpg, and so on.

What this means is that you can hide several pictures in for example, a movie file. Opening up the movie file will not show the hidden picture files. For a visual demonstration check out the demo.

This program was mentioned in a Bangkok post newspaper article dated 9 Feb, 01. Click here to read about it.

Run demo

Key features:

• Hide files within other files (Steganography)
• Receptacle file remains fully functional
• Password protection
• Fast operation

Data Stash costs US$19.95. You can purchase it here. A trial version is available for download and has certain limitations, some which include:

• Only hiding of only up to max 3 files in one vault file
• Each stash file can be only only up to 100k

How it works

Whenever a drag and drop operation is performed, a structure of type HDROPINFO is passed on to the application where the drag and drop operation is carried out. This structure includes information on the type of object being passed, how many of these objects are there, and so on and so forth. Data Stash extracts information from this structure, and process each file one by one. An algorithm is used to process the file, and as each file is processed, it is written to the receptacle file.

How it was implemented

Software used:

• Visual C++ using MFC
• Adobe Photoshop 5.0
• Windows 98/2000

Visual C++ was used to implement the actual program, while Photoshop was used for aesthetic purposes. The icon was taken from an icon library. And finally debugging was done on the Win2k/98 platform.

Awards recieved (as far as I know)

ZDNet 4 stars
Sharewareriver.com 5 stars