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Steganographic Analysis of Blockchains †

Steganography is one of the ways to hide data between parties. Its use can be worrisome, e.g., to hide illegal communications. Researchers found that public blockchains can be an attractive place to hide communications; however, there is not much evidence of actual use in blockchains. Besides, previ...

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Autores principales: Giron, Alexandre Augusto, Martina, Jean Everson, Custódio, Ricardo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8231769/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34199274
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21124078
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author Giron, Alexandre Augusto
Martina, Jean Everson
Custódio, Ricardo
author_facet Giron, Alexandre Augusto
Martina, Jean Everson
Custódio, Ricardo
author_sort Giron, Alexandre Augusto
collection PubMed
description Steganography is one of the ways to hide data between parties. Its use can be worrisome, e.g., to hide illegal communications. Researchers found that public blockchains can be an attractive place to hide communications; however, there is not much evidence of actual use in blockchains. Besides, previous work showed a lack of steganalysis methods for blockchains. In this context, we present a steganalysis approach for blockchains, evaluating it in Bitcoin and Ethereum, both popular cryptocurrencies. The main objective is to answer if one can find steganography in real case scenarios, focusing on LSB of addresses and nonces. Our sequential analysis included 253 GiB and 107 GiB of bitcoin and ethereum, respectively. We also analyzed up to 98 million bitcoin clusters. We found that bitcoin clusters could carry up to 360 KiB of hidden data if used for such a purpose. We have not found any concrete evidence of hidden data in the blockchains. The sequential analysis may not capture the perspective of the users of the blockchain network. In this case, we recommend clustering analysis, but it depends on the clustering method’s accuracy. Steganalysis is an essential aspect of blockchain security.
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spelling pubmed-82317692021-06-26 Steganographic Analysis of Blockchains † Giron, Alexandre Augusto Martina, Jean Everson Custódio, Ricardo Sensors (Basel) Article Steganography is one of the ways to hide data between parties. Its use can be worrisome, e.g., to hide illegal communications. Researchers found that public blockchains can be an attractive place to hide communications; however, there is not much evidence of actual use in blockchains. Besides, previous work showed a lack of steganalysis methods for blockchains. In this context, we present a steganalysis approach for blockchains, evaluating it in Bitcoin and Ethereum, both popular cryptocurrencies. The main objective is to answer if one can find steganography in real case scenarios, focusing on LSB of addresses and nonces. Our sequential analysis included 253 GiB and 107 GiB of bitcoin and ethereum, respectively. We also analyzed up to 98 million bitcoin clusters. We found that bitcoin clusters could carry up to 360 KiB of hidden data if used for such a purpose. We have not found any concrete evidence of hidden data in the blockchains. The sequential analysis may not capture the perspective of the users of the blockchain network. In this case, we recommend clustering analysis, but it depends on the clustering method’s accuracy. Steganalysis is an essential aspect of blockchain security. MDPI 2021-06-13 /pmc/articles/PMC8231769/ /pubmed/34199274 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21124078 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Giron, Alexandre Augusto
Martina, Jean Everson
Custódio, Ricardo
Steganographic Analysis of Blockchains †
title Steganographic Analysis of Blockchains †
title_full Steganographic Analysis of Blockchains †
title_fullStr Steganographic Analysis of Blockchains †
title_full_unstemmed Steganographic Analysis of Blockchains †
title_short Steganographic Analysis of Blockchains †
title_sort steganographic analysis of blockchains †
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8231769/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34199274
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21124078
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