Quick Start

This guide walks through the most common workflow: generating keys, embedding a payload into a cover image, and extracting it.

1. Generate Keys

# Generate an ML-KEM-1024 key pair for encryption
shadowforge keygen --algorithm kyber1024 --output ./keys

# Generate an ML-DSA-87 key pair for signing
shadowforge keygen --algorithm dilithium3 --output ./keys-sign

This creates public.key and secret.key inside each output directory.

2. Embed a Payload

# Hide a file inside a PNG cover image using LSB steganography
shadowforge embed \
  --input secret-document.txt \
  --cover photo.png \
  --output stego-photo.png \
  --technique lsb

The output file looks identical to the original photo but carries the hidden payload.

3. Extract a Payload

# Recover the hidden file
shadowforge extract \
  --input stego-photo.png \
  --output recovered-document.txt \
  --technique lsb

4. Analyse Cover Capacity

Before embedding, check how much data a cover can hold:

shadowforge analyse \
  --input photo.png \
  --technique lsb \
  --format json

Available Techniques

Technique	Cover Type	Best For
`lsb`	PNG, BMP	Large payloads in lossless images
`dct`	JPEG	Lossy images (survives recompression)
`palette`	GIF, indexed PNG	Small payloads in palette images
`lsb-audio`	WAV	Audio covers
`phase`	WAV	Phase-encoded audio (more robust)
`echo`	WAV	Echo-hidden audio
`zero-width`	Plain text	Text covers (zero-width Unicode)
`pdf-content`	PDF	PDF content-stream LSB
`pdf-metadata`	PDF	PDF metadata fields
`corpus`	Image corpus	Zero-modification cover selection

Next Steps

Distributed embedding for splitting payloads across multiple covers
Threat model to understand what shadowforge protects against
Operational security for real-world usage procedures

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