Whitespace Steganography Hider
Hide text in trailing spaces/tabs, double-spacing, line endings, or indentation. SNOW-style output. AES-256-GCM.
Enter Your Cover Text
The visible text that will carry your hidden message via invisible whitespace
Load demo text
Loads a sample cover article + demo secret message
100% Client-Side Processing
No server upload, no logs. Your text is processed entirely in this browser tab.
How to Hide Data Using Whitespace Steganography (5 steps)
- Paste your cover text (article, source code, email, or README) or upload a .txt file
- Type your secret message or upload a file to hide
- Choose a method — Trailing Space/Tab is most compatible, or let Auto pick for you
- Add a passphrase for AES-256-GCM encryption (recommended)
- Click Hide in Whitespace — download your stego .txt file
4 Whitespace Methods — Capacity, Detection, Platform Survival
| Method | Mechanism | Capacity | Best Platform Survival |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trailing Space/Tab | Space=0, tab=1 appended at line endings | ~3 bits per line — highest capacity | Plain text files, email attachments, raw downloads |
| Inter-Word Spacing | Single space=0, double space=1 between words | ~1 bit per word gap | Email body, Google Docs, markdown |
| Line Ending (LF/CRLF) | LF=0, CRLF=1 per line | ~1 bit per line | Maximum stealth — invisible to every text viewer |
| Tab Indentation | Spaces-indent=0, tab-indent=1 per indented line | ~1 bit per indented line | Source code, YAML, Markdown carriers |
| AES-256-GCM | PBKDF2 + random salt/IV encryption | +48 bytes overhead | Available on every method except SNOW-style raw mode |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is SNOW steganography, and is this tool's SNOW-style mode compatible with it?
SNOW (Steganographic Nature Of Whitespace) is the original whitespace steganography tool by Matthew Kwan, still used for CTF challenges. This tool's SNOW-style raw mode uses the same general technique — headerless, tab-marked trailing whitespace — but its own bit encoding, not stegsnow's actual variable-length column-radix packing. Files are not interchangeable with the real stegsnow CLI in either direction. It also doesn't implement stegsnow's ICE cipher, so SNOW-style mode never uses encryption.
Can whitespace steganography be detected?
Trailing whitespace is detectable by cat -A (Linux), any text editor's "show whitespace" mode, and git diff --whitespace. Inter-word spacing and line-ending methods are far less detectable. AES-256-GCM encryption means the content stays unreadable even if the hiding location is found.
What is whitespace steganography best used for?
Short secrets — API tokens, watermark IDs, license keys, verification codes. A 30-line cover text holds roughly 10-20 bytes with Trailing Space/Tab. Enable deflate compression for a 30-60% size reduction on text payloads. For large files, use LSB image steganography instead.
Why does my text editor strip the trailing whitespace?
Most code editors (VSCode, Vim, Sublime Text) strip trailing whitespace automatically on save. Always share the downloaded .txt file as a file attachment without opening it in an editor — never copy-paste stego text through one.
Can I use this with Git or GitHub?
No — Git strips trailing whitespace by default and often normalizes line endings on commit, destroying Trailing Space/Tab and Line Ending payloads. Share the .txt file directly (email attachment, Telegram, Dropbox) instead.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
Never. All encoding runs entirely in your browser — no WebWorker needed, since this is pure fast string manipulation. Nothing is uploaded to a server.