1 Introduction 1.1 General Steganography comes from the Greek and literally means, "Covered or secret writing".

Digital Steganography is the art of inconspicuously hiding data within data. Steganography is a process that involves hiding a message in an appropriate carrier for example, an image or an audio file. The carrier can then be sent to a receiver without anyone else knowing that it contains a hidden message. Although related to cryptography, they are not the same. Steganography intent is to hide the existence of the message, while cryptography scrambles a message so that it cannot be understood. The goal of Steganography is to hide messages inside other harmless messages in a way that does not allow any enemy to even detect that there is a second secret message present. The only missing information for the enemy is the short easily exchangeable random number sequence, the secret key, without the secret key, the enemy should not have the slightest chance of even becoming suspicious that on an observed communication channel, hidden communication might take place. There are many techniques available to the digital steganographer. The most common technique is to exploit the lenient constraints of popular file formats. Many publicly available software packages use this technique on a variety of media. In the field of steganography, some terminology has developed. The adjectives Cover, Embedded and Stego were defined at the Information Hiding Workshop held in Cambridge, England. The term ``cover'' is used to describe the original, innocent message, data, audio, still, video and so on. When referring to audio signal Steganography, the cover signal is sometimes called the ``host'' signal. The information to be hidden in the cover data is known as the embedded'' data. The ``stego'' data is the data containing both the cover signal and the ``embedded'' information. Logically, the processing of putting the hidden or embedded data, into the cover data, is sometimes known as embedding.

Stego- Key (eg:-password)

Cover Media (Carrier)

Steganography Technique (Algorithm)

Stego-media (Carrier with hidden message)

Secret Messsage (to be hidden) Figure 1 : Steganography Terminology 1.2 Motivation Steganography can be applied to different type of media including text, audio and video. Audio and video files are considered to be excellent carriers for the purpose of steganography due to presence of redundancy. Audio steganography requires a text or audio secret message to be embedded within a cover audio message. Due to availability of redundancy, the cover audio message before steganography and stego message after steganography remains same. However, audio steganography is considered more difficult than video steganography because the Human Auditory System (HAS) is more sensitive than Human Visual System (HVS). To perform audio steganography successfully, the adopted technique should work against HAS. For any audio steganography technique to be implementable, it needs to satisfy three conditions are Capability is the amount of secret information that can be embedded within the host message; transparency means how well the secret message is embedded in the stego message; and Robustness of a technique indicates the ability of embedded secret message to withstand attacks. Steganography is a means of storing information in a way that hides that informations existence. Paired with existing communication methods, steganography can be used to carry out hidden exchanges. Avoiding communication in well-known forms greatly reduces the risk of information being leaked in transit. Another form of steganography, called watermarking is used primarily for identification and entails embedding a unique piece of information within a medium without noticeably altering the

medium. Steganography can also enhance individual privacy. This is effective only if the hidden communication is not detected.

The most private communication is the one that never existed!

1.3 Evaluation of Audio Steganography 1.3.1 Advantages Audio based Steganography has the potential to conceal more information: i. ii. iii. Audio files are generally larger than images Our hearing can be easily fooled Slight changes in amplitude can store vast amounts of information

The flexibility of audio Steganography is makes it very potentially powerful : i. The methods discussed provide users with a large amount of choice and makes the technology more accessible to everyone. A party that wishes to communicate can rank the importance of factors such as data transmission rate, bandwidth, robustness, and noise audibility and then select the method that best fits their specifications. ii. For example, two individuals who just want to send the occasional secret message back and forth might use the LSB coding method that is easily implemented. On the other hand, a large corporation wishing to protect its intellectual property from "digital pirates" may consider a more sophisticated method such as phase coding, SS, or echo hiding.

Another aspect of audio Steganography that makes it so attractive is its ability to combine with existing cryptography technologies i. Users no longer have to rely on one method alone. Not only can information be encrypted, it can be hidden altogether.

Many sources and types makes statistical analysis more difficult : i. Greater amounts of information can be embedded without audible degradation

Security : i. Many attacks that are malicious against image Steganography algorithms (e.g. geometrical distortions, spatial scaling, etc.) cannot be implemented against audio

Steganography schemes. Consequently, embedding information into audio seems more secure due to less steganalysis techniques for attacking to audio. ii. As emphasis placed on the areas of copyright protection, privacy protection, and surveillance increases, Steganography will continue to grow in importance as a protection mechanism.

1.3.2

Disadvantages Robustness: Copyright marks hidden in audio samples using substitution could be easily manipulated or destroyed if a miscreant comes to know that information is hidden this way. Commercialized audio Steganography have disadvantages that the existence of hidden messages can be easily recognized visually and only certain sized data can be hidden.

1.4 Aim And Objective Problem Description

1.4.1

Aim

To improve the conventional LSB modification technique in the science of audio steganography, in order to enhance the security for secret messages on electronic communication systems.

1.4.2

Objective

Objective of this project is to come up with the technique hiding the presence of secret message and working against steganalysis as well as with satisfying transparency, Capability and Robustness. To increase robustness, the steganography technique could be backed by an encryption scheme.

1.4.3

Problem Description

In todays society the most practical implementation of steganography is used in the world of computers. Data is the heart of computer communication and over the year a lot of methods have been created to accomplish the goal of using steganography to hide data. The trick is to embed the hidden object into a significantly larger object so the change is undetectable by the human ear. The best object up to this writing is probably a digital audio. It is important to understand the process by which digital steganography takes place, and to make sure your cover audio is large enough to support the byte manipulation. The basics of embedding data rely on three different facts. These three items are capacity, security, and robustness. Capacity means the amount of data that can be hidden in the cover audio. Security is the interceptors ability to decipher the data hidden inside the cover audio. Finally, robustness means the amount of manipulation a cover

audio can handle before it is obvious a change has taken place. Steganography closely resembles encryption in the fact that it requires the receiver to know the secret which is called the secret key.

1.5 System Requirements HARDWARE 1 2 3 PROCESSOR RAM MONITOR : : : PENTIUM IV 2.6 GHz, Intel Core 2 Duo. 512 MB DD RAM 15 COLOR

SOFTWARE 1 2 3 Front End : JAVA (SWINGS) Windows XP/07 Net Beans

Operating System : IDE :

1.6 Report Organization

Overview of the proposed System

2.1 Existing System Papers referred : [1] AUDIO STEGANOGRAPHY USING BIT MODIFICATION Kaliappan Gopalan Department of Engineering, Purdue University Calumet, Hammond, IN 46323 Abstract: A method of embedding a covert audio message in a cover utterance .for secure communication is presented. The covert message is represented in a compressed form with possibly encryption and/or encoding for added security. One bit in each of the samples of a given cover utterance is altered in accordance with the data bits and a key. The same key is used to retrieve the embedded bits at the receiver. The results, based on cover signals from a clean TIMIT utterance and a noisy aircraft cockpit utterance, show that the technique meets several major criteria for successful covert communication. Low Bit Encoding (LSB) The LSB modification is one of the simplest audio steganography techniques providing high capacity. In this technique, data is being hidden in least significant bit(s) of audio samples. The weightage of LSBs in comparison with the combined weightage of whole sample is very small. However, changing the LSBs will induce some noise but as long as the noise induced is below detectable threshold, audio steganography is possible. Increasing the number of altered LSBs will induce more noise. If noise increases above the threshold and becomes detectable through any of the steganalysis methods, audio steganography technique fails. Using more LSBs per sample increases the capacity and decreases the transparency. On the other hand, using less LSBs per sample will decrease the capacity and increase the transparency. So, there is always a trade-off between both these parameters.

LSB modification technique encoder, the host message in analog form is converted to digital form through analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The LSB(s) of host message samples are being modified to embed the secret message. The modified host message or stego message is passed through digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to produce analog stego message.

LSB modification decoder, passes analog stego message through ADC to obtain samples of the stego message. On the basis of encoding, decoding is performed where the bits from different samples are extracted to retrieve complete secret message. samples of stego message could easily retrieve the secret message.

Figure 2 : LSB Encoder

Figure 3: LSB Decoder

Drawbacks in Low Bit Encoding (LSB)

Easy for steganalysis once bit position as known. Identifying the presence of secret message is easy by camparing original audio file with modified audio file variations in sine wave is clearly Identifiable Increases noise

Figure 4: LSB in 8b/sample signal is overwrote by 1 bit of embedded data

[2] A view on latest audio steganography techniques- Fatiha Djebbar_, Beghdad Ayady, Habib Hamamzand Karim Abed-Meraimx _Universite de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest, France and UAE University, UAE, IEEE 2011 Abstract: Steganography has been proposed as a new alternative technique to enforce data security. Lately, novel and versatile audio steganographic methods have been proposed. A perfect audio Steganographic technique aim at embedding data in an imperceptible, robust and secure way and then extracting it by authorized people. Hence, up to date the main challenge in digital audio steganography is to obtain robust high capacity steganographic systems. Leaning towards designing

a system that ensures high capacity or robustness and security of embedded data has led to great diversity in the existing steganographic techniques. In this paper, we present a current state of art literature in digital audio steganographic techniques. We explore their potentials and limitations to ensure secure communication. A comparison and an evaluation for the reviewed techniques is also presented in this paper. Echo Hiding Echo hiding method embeds data into audio signal by introducing short echo to the host signal. The nature of the echo is a resonance added to the host audio. Therefore, the problem of sensitivity of the HAS to the additive noise is avoided. After the echo has been added, the stego signal retains the same statistical and perceptual characteristics. Data is hidden by manipulating three parameters of the echo signal: initial amplitude, offset (delay) and decay rate so that the echois not audible. For a delay up to 1 ms between the original signal and the echo, the effect is indistinguishable. In addition to that, the amplitude and the decay rate could be set to values under the audible threshold of human ear. Drawbacks in Echo Hiding However, the drawback is lenient detection and low detection ratio that restrict application. Due to low embedding rate and low security, no audio Steganography system based on echo hiding has been presented in recent researches.
Tone Insertion

Tone insertion techniques rely on the inaudibility of lower power tones in the presence of significantly higher ones. A phenomenon of the auditory masking of HAS in the spectral domain. The masking effect is a property of HAS which make any weak speech component imperceptible by listeners in presence of a much louder one Drawbacks of Tone Insertion The stego-speech quality can be negatively affected. Lack of transparency and security is also a major concern.

[2] An Enhanced Least Significant Bit Modification Technique for Audio Steganography , Muhammad Asad, Junaid Gilani, Adnan Khalid Telecommunication Engineering Department, University of Engineering and Technology Taxi/a Abstract- Increased use of electronic communication has given birth to new ways of transmitting information securely. Audio steganography is the science of hiding some secret text or audio information in a host message. The host message before steganography and stego message after steganography have the same characteristics. Least Significant Bit (LSB) modification technique is the most simple and efficient technique used for audio steganography. The conventional LSD modification technique is vulnerable to steganalysis. This paper proposes two ways to improve the conventional LSB modification technique. The first way is to randomize bit number of host message used for embedding secret message while the second way is to randomize sample number containing next secret message bit. The improvised proposed technique works against steganalysis and decreases the probability of secret message being extracted by an intruder. Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) with 256 bits key length is used to secure secret message in case the steganography technique breaks. Proposed technique has been tested successfuUy on a .wav file at a sampling frequency of 8000 samples/second with each sample containing 8 bits. Enhance Least Significant Bit Modification Technique This paper proposes two two techniques that enhances and improves the conventional LSB modification technique, one is randomizing the bits to be modified in host message to hide secret message bits and second is randomizing the sample number which contains next secret message bit. In the proposed methodology called enhanced LSB modification technique, on the encoder side, the host message is being passed through an ADC where it is sampled at sampling frequency of 8000 samples/second with each sample containing 8 bits. Through experimentation, it has been observed that modifying first, second or third LSB of a sample with secret message bit doesn't produce a detectable change or noise. On the basis of this analysis, two techniques named Bit Selection and Sample Selection to improvise the LSB modification technique are being proposed. Apart from this, the secret message is encrypted by AES-256 to make the relationship between plaintext and ciphertext more complex. Adding encryption will increase the robustness. The enhanced LSB embedding is performed at the encoder on the basis of Bit Selection and Sample Selection. Encryption is also included. In case the steganography algorithm breaks, the use of encryption algorithm will make the encrypted secret message to be exposed to the intruder instead of the actual secret message. The decoder extracts the encrypted secret message. The encrypted secret message is then decrypted to obtain the actual secret message.

Advantages of the System Steganalysis is a challenging task due to randomized data block and bit selection as well as secret message is encrypted with AES. More Secured, transparency, capability and robust. Reduced noise

Bit Selection To confuse the intruder, same bit of a sample is never used to embed the secret message. Randomness is produced by selecting a different bit in every sample to hide secret message. First two Most Significant Bits (MSBs) of a sample will decide which bit of the same sample would contain the secret message bit.

Table 2: Bit Selection Mapping Table I shows a possible Bit Selection mapping. Different Bit Selection mappings can be designed but the secret message bit should always be embedded in first three LSBs of a sample. If the first two MSBs of a sample are equal to 00, the third LSB will be replaced with secret message bit. If the first two MSBs are equal to 01, the second LSB will be replaced and if the first two MSBs are either 10 or 11, the first LSB will be replaced with the secret message bit.

Sample Selection Another way to confuse the intruder is to add some more randomness in secret message embedding by using selective sample numbers to hide secret message. This means all the samples will not contain the secret message bit but a few. This randomness will be controlled by the first three MSBs. Table II shows a possible Sample Selection mapping. Different Sample Selection mappings can be designed but skipping more number of samples will decrease the capacity. If i is the

current sample, the last column of Table II indicates the next sample that will contain secret message bit. The number of samples skipped between two consecutive secret message bits is equal to one more than the decimal value of first three bits. If the first three MSBs of first sample (i = 1) in an audio signal are equal to 010, the last column indicates the next secret message bit to be embedded in sample number i + 3 = 4. This means the first bit of secret message will be embedded in first sample and the second bit of secret message will be embedded in fourth sample skipping the second and third samples. In the same way, if the first three MSBs of the fourth sample are equal to 011, the third secret message bit will then be embedded in the eighth sample.

Table 1 : Sample Selection Mapping

Drawbacks of Enhanced LSB

Different Sample Selection mappings can be designed but skipping more number of samples will decrease the capacity. In the system proposed in [3], the main disadvantage is that the length of the cover audio should be very big. This is because due to random embedding of bits in the cover audio, there might be large spaces left in between. In the worst case scenario, a 64 bit cover audio is required to store a single byte of message. This happens when the first three bits i.e, the MSB s of the message are always 1 1 1. In such case the next sample selected will always be i+8th and hence to hide 1 single alphabet which is 8 bit long, 64 bits of the cover audio is required.

2.2 Proposed Solution

We propose a new sample selection mapping so that an appropriate number of samples are skipped such that the security of the system is not compromised.

Analysis and Design

3.1 Brief Introduction

3.2 Requirement Analysis 3.2.1 Functional Requirements

3.2.1.1 Product Prospective

Steganography is a very old technique of hiding the data. This software is all about hiding the data.This software is made according to the modern need of hiding data. It uses various new techniques for hiding the data.

3.2.1.2 Product Features

Carrier File should be .wav file. Hidden message can be a .txt file or can be written in the text area provided in the interface. Encryption is supported and is optional. Easy to use Graphical User Interface such that all the information required is at one place and the user doesnt have to skip through various screens.

3.2.1.3 User Characteristics

Any user with little knowledge of computers and security will be able to use our application.

3.2.1.4 Operating Requirements Operating System: Win XP, 2000, 98, Vista,7 Software req. : JRE 1.6 or higher, Windows media player Recommended Conf.: 256mb RAM or higher, 10mb Disk space Screen Resolution: 1024x768

3.2.1.5 Assumptions and dependencies

The system only depends on the fact that JRE 1.6 or higher is installed. Also wav audio files of reasonable size are required to carry out Steganography.

3.2.1.6 Domain Requirements

3.2.2

Non-Functional Requirements

3.2.2.1 Performance Requirements

The ram should be 128mb at least. But 256mb ram is recommended. The disk space required to store the software is 10mb and to store the output files and other configuration files associated with the software the recommended disk space required is 15mb.

3.2.2.2 Safety Requirements The size constraint should be evaluated by the end user only. The software doesnt check for the size constraint. This is done to enhance the performance of the software in terms of speed. In case the hidden object size increases the size of the cover audio, the extra information is added towards the end which might introduce noice into the embedded audio file. Hence care should be taken. The size of the hidden object depends on the method used which maybe the 8 th bit LSB, the enhanced LSB or the proposed LSB method. More data can be hidden in the traditional 8th Bit LSB and the proposed method whereas less information can be stored in the enhanced LSB because more number of samples are skipped.

The screen resolution should be set to 1027x768 or higher to get the complete view of the software. In case of lower screen resolution, the software not only looks awkward but also not completely visible.
3.2.2.3 Security Requirements

3.3 Design Of the Proposed System

3.3.1

Design Overview

Implementation Flow Chart

Sender
Host Message

Encryption
Encrypted Message Audio File

Embedding

Stega Message

Receiver
Stega Message

Audio

Encrypted Message

Decryption

Host Message

3.3.2 Architectural Design Class Diagram

State Diagram

Sequence Diagram

3.3.3 System Interface Description Our system provides a very friendly user interface. It consists of two modules, one for embedding and the other for extracting the secret message. All the functions involved in the embedding or the extraction are provided at one place so that it becomes easy for the user. After embedding or extracting, the user can save or open the output of that particular operation according to their wish.

Implementation

4.1 Tools Used 4.2 Implementation 4.3 Testing 4.3.1 Testing Approach 4.3.2 Test Plan 4.3.3 Test cases 4.3.4 Test Procedure

4.3 Testing
What is testing?

Software Testing can be defined as: Testing is an activity that helps in finding out bugs/defects/errors in a software system under development, in order to provide a bug free and reliable system/solution to the customer.

In other words, you can consider an example as: suppose you are a good cook and are expecting some guests at dinner. You start making dinner; you make few very very very delicious dishes (off-course, those which you already know how to make). And finally, when you are about to finish making the

dishes, you ask someone (or you yourself) to check if everything is fine and there is no extra salt/chili/anything, which if is not in balance, can ruin your evening (This is what called 'TESTING').

This procedure you follow in order to make it sure that you do not serve your guests something that is not tasty! Otherwise your collar will go down and you will regret over your failure!

Why we go for testing?

Well, while making food, its ok to have something extra, people might understand and eat the things you made and may well appreciate your work. But this isn't the case with Software Project Development. If you fail to deliver a reliable, good and problem free software solution, you fail in your project and probably you may loose your client. This can get even worse!

So in order to make it sure, that you provide your client a proper software solution, you go for TESTING. You check out if there is any problem, any error in the system, which can make software unusable by the client. You make software testers test the system and help in finding out the bugs in the system to fix them on time. You find out the problems and fix them and again try to find out all the potential problems.

Introduction to Software Testing

Before moving further towards introduction to software testing, we need to know a few concepts that will simplify the definition of software testing. Error: Error or mistake is a human action that produces wrong or incorrect result. Defect (Bug, Fault): A flaw in the system or a product that can cause the component to fail or misfunction. Failure: It is the variance between the actual and expected result. Risk: Risk is a factor that could result in negativity or a chance of loss or damage.

Thus Software testing is the process of finding defects/bugs in the system, that occurs due to an error in the application, which could lead to failure of the resultant product and increase in probability of high risk. In short, software testing have different goals and objectives, which often include:

1. finding defects; 2. gaining confidence in and providing information about the level of quality; 3. Preventing defects.

Scope of Software Testing

The primary function of software testing is to detect bugs in order to correct and uncover it. The scope of software testing includes execution of that code in various environments and also to examine the aspects of code - does the software do what it is supposed to do and function according to the specifications? As we move further we come across some questions such as "When to start testing?" and "When to stop testing?" It is recommended to start testing from the initial stages of the software development. This not only helps in rectifying tremendous errors before the last stage, but also reduces the rework of finding the bugs in the initial stages every now and then. It also saves the cost of the defect required to find it. Software testing is an ongoing process, which is potentially endless but has to be stopped somewhere, due to the lack of time and budget. It is required to achieve maximum profit with good quality product, within the limitations of time and money. The tester has to follow some procedural way through which he can judge if he covered all the points required for testing or missed out any.

Software Testing Process

Software testing process is carried out in the following sequence, in order to find faults in the software system: Create Test Plan Design Test Case Write Test Case Review Test Case Execute Test Case Examine Test Results Perform Post-mortem Reviews Budget after Experience

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Software Testing Key Concepts

Defects and Failures: As we discussed earlier, defects are not caused only due to the coding errors, but most commonly due to the requirement gaps in the non-functional requirement, such as usability, testability, scalability, maintainability, performance and security. A failure is caused due to the deviation between an actual and an expected result. But not all defects result to failures. A defect can turn into a failure due to the change in the environment and or the

change in the configuration of the system requirements. Input Combination and Preconditions: Testing all combination of inputs and initial state (preconditions), is not feasible. This means finding large number of infrequent defects is difficult.

Static and Dynamic Analysis: Static testing does not require execution of the code for finding defects, whereas in dynamic testing, software code is executed to demonstrate the results of running tests. Verification and Validation: Software testing is done considering these two factors. Verification: This verifies whether the product is done according to the specification? Validation: This checks whether the product meets the customer requirement?

Software Quality Assurance: Software testing is an important part of the software quality assurance. Quality assurance is an activity, which proves the suitability of the product by taking care of the quality of a product and ensuring that the customer requirements are met. ////////////////// Software Testing Artifacts

Software testing process can produce various artifacts such as: Test Plan: A test specification is called a test plan. A test plan is documented so that it can be used to verify and ensure that a product or system meets its design specification. Traceability matrix: This is a table that correlates or design documents to test documents. This verifies that the test results are correct and is also used to change tests when the source documents are changed. Test Case: Test cases and software testing strategies are used to check the functionality of individual component that is integrated to give the resultant product. These test cases are developed with the objective of judging the application for its capabilities or features. Test Data: When multiple sets of values or data are used to test the same functionality of a particular feature in the test case, the test values and changeable environmental components are collected in separate files and stored as test data. Test Scripts: The test script is the combination of a test case, test procedure and test data. Test Suite: Test suite is a collection of test case.

4.3.1

Testing Approach

Types of Software Testing Methodologies

Different types of types of software testing are used to assess completeness, correctness and quality of the software developed. The entire process of software testing is carried out on behalf of the end clients. The software testing types are mentioned below. It is important to note that all the methodologies used for testing a software fall under either one of the following methodologies.

White Box Testing

The white box testing strategy is also known as 'structural testing' or 'glass box testing'. In this type of testing, the tester has an internal view of the software. The aim of the tester is to know the exact functioning inside the box, i.e. internal structure of the software is tested. This methodology helps in identifying thoroughness of testing by covering the structural elements or coverage items. White box testing is often used for component and integration level of testing. In rare cases, it is used to test at higher levels. White box testing may be used for higher levels, when business process testing has to be carried out. While performing white box testing, the tester uses different types of inputs to test different paths in the code and determine the appropriate output. This software testing methodology makes use of techniques like control flow testing, data flow testing, branch testing and path testing. The methods used in this methodology are as follows: Unit Testing Static Testing Code Coverage Error Guessing Integration Testing (carried out by the developer himself)

Black Box Testing

In black box testing strategy, the tester only has an external view of the software. It is used to check both functional as well as non-functional aspects of the software. While these aspects are been checked, there is no reference made to the internal structure of the software. While writing the test cases, knowledge of specifications, requirements and design is necessary. Often functional or nonfunctional tests can be written using this methodology, however, more often functional tests are written. Both valid inputs and invalid inputs are used when this testing methodology is used. The different types of techniques used in this testing methodology are decision tables, state transition tables, equivalence partitioning, boundary value analysis, etc. The methods used in this methodology include:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

Integration Testing (carried out by a tester) Functional Testing Performance Testing Load Testing Stress Testing Exploratory Testing Usability Testing Reliability Testing Ad-Hoc Testing Smoke Testing Alpha Testing Beta Testing

Gray Box Testing

This type of testing requires knowledge of the internal data structures and algorithms used. Using this knowledge the test cases are designed. However, testing of the software is similar to that of black box testing. Gray box testing comes prominently into use when two different modules written by different developers are being tested. In such a test, only the interfaces of the modules are exposed to the testers. At this stage it is important to note that if the data repository is modified, then the test is classified under gray box testing. This methodology is often also used for reverse engineering, using which boundary value analysis, error messages, etc. are tested.

You will find mention of testing methodologies in the different software testing tutorials. These methodologies will help in ascertaining if all the requirements are satisfied. Different software organization may make use of different methodologies. Likewise, in some organizations software testing can start as soon as work on the software begins, while in others in may start in the later stages.

4.3.2 Test Plan 4.3.2.1 Features to be tested In this project, the proposed method should provide better security when transmitting or transferring the data or messages from one end to another. The main objective of the project is to hide the message or a secret data into an audio file which further act as a carrier of secret data and to transmit to the destination securely without any modification. If there are any perceivable changes when we are inserting or embedding the information into the audio or if any distortions occur in the audio there may be a chance for an unauthorised person to retrieve the data. So, the data encryption into an audio file and decryption and steganography plays a major role in the project. The three important features in the project are: Encryption: Encryption is done to provide an extra security level to our application. Even if the secret is compromised and someone came to know that there is some secret data in the audio, he still cannot view it because of the encryption. Steganography: The steganography part is done using the algorithms described above. The main feature of steganography is that the audio should not be distorted and the size of the host file to the modified file should be nearly same. Decryption: The decryption part is completely opposite to the encryption part described above. It requires the user to provide a correct password and the data in the audio will decrypted. The features to be tested are:1) Secret Message Encryption is done. 2) Encoding is done and there is no audible change in the encoded audio file when compared with the original host file. 3) Decoding of the encoded file is done. 4) After decoding, the decryption if required is done to get back the secret message.

4.3.2.2 Features not to be tested