stego-retweet

Stego-retweet is a tool for hiding messages in Twitter using retweets. With this tool you can hide two chars per retweet.

• stego-retweet
  • Install
  • Configuration
  • Hide a message
  • Unhide a message

Install

First you need to clone the GIT repository:

~$ git clone https://github.com/daniellerch/stego-retweet.git

Inside the stego-retweet directory you will find a requirements file for installing Python dependencies with pip:

~$ pip install -r requirements.txt

After that, you can execute stego-retweet with:

~$ python3 stegoretweet.py -h
usage: stegoretweet.py [-h] [-m {send,recv}] [-s SECRET] [-ht HASHTAGS] [-a ACCOUNT] [-r RETWEETS]

Stego-retweet is a tool for hiding messages in Twitter using retweets. With this tool you can hide two
chars per retweet.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -m {send,recv}, --mode {send,recv}
                        Mode of execution, to send or recieve messages.
  -s SECRET, --secret SECRET
                        Secret to hide.
  -ht HASHTAGS, --hashtags HASHTAGS
                        List of hashtags.
  -a ACCOUNT, --account ACCOUNT
                        Sender twitter account name, without @.
  -r RETWEETS, --retweets RETWEETS
                        Number of recent retweets to search hidden information.

Configuration

To use stego-retweet you need a Twitter account with an associated application. Please, go to https://apps.twitter.com/.

When you create an application you obtain some access tokens you have to configure in the src/config.py "file".

TWITTER_CONSUMER_KEY = 'XXX'
TWITTER_CONSUMER_SECRET = 'XXX'
TWITTER_KEY = 'XXX'
TWITTER_SECRET = 'XXX'

You can also set some environment variables for the trace level or to select the directory where you want the log to be written.

• The trace level is set by default to INFO. You can select another level of detail by executing the following command:

  export TRACE_LEVEL="DEBUG"

• The directory where the logs were written has a default value of log. You can change it by running the following command:

  export LOG_PATH="/home/user/log"

• The maximum log file size is 5 Megabytes by default. If you want to change this value, you just have to run the following command specifying the new value in Megabytes:

  export LOG_MAX_MEGABYTES="7"

• Finally, the maximum number of rotated log files, by default 3, but if you want to change this value you just have to execute the following command:

  export LOG_MAX_FILES="5"

Hide a message

To hide a message you have to execute "stegoretweet.py" with the "send" option and the message you want to hide.

Example:

~$ python3 stegoretweet.py -m send -s "Hello World!"
Password: 
Tweet with id "1386998378488238080" containing the target "texts" successfully retweeted!
Tweet with id "1386998854034329600" containing the target "guatemala" successfully retweeted!
Tweet with id "1386998565415931904" containing the target "addressed" successfully retweeted!
Tweet with id "1386999237292937220" containing the target "kiss" successfully retweeted!
Tweet with id "1386999212110499842" containing the target "rochester" successfully retweeted!
Tweet with id "1386998536198262788" containing the target "symbols" successfully retweeted!

Using the above command yout are going to retweet whatever tweet that serves to hide the message. To have a little control you can provide a list of hashtags. Stego-retweet will hide information in tweets that contain these hashtags if they are found. Otherwise, stego-retweet will use any other tweet.

Example:

~$ python3 stegoretweet.py -m send -ht "crypto,bitcoin,infosec" -s "Hello World!"
Password:
Tweet with id "989922919383011328" containing the target "attended #crypto" successfully retweeted!
Tweet with id "988077479037427713" containing the target "conservation #bitcoin" successfully retweeted!
Tweet with id "989915705439961088" containing the target "particularly #crypto" successfully retweeted!
Tweet with id "989930267304517633" containing the target "headquarters" successfully retweeted!
Tweet with id "989119168611082241" containing the target "fears #crypto" successfully retweeted!
Tweet with id "989519586155487233" containing the target "complicated #bitcoin" successfully retweeted!

Unhide a message

To read a message you have to use the option "recv" and the name of the Twitter account of the sender (without @). You need to provide the same password used to send the message.

Example:

~$ python3 stegoretweet.py -m recv -a AccountName -r 6
Password: 
hello world!

You can see some garbage in the results if you choose a too high number of retweets. This is due to retweets that does not contains any hidden information.