Troubleshooting and Limitations

Common Errors

“Select a carrier image or WAV first.”

You tried to embed without choosing a carrier file.

“Passphrase is required when randomization and/or encryption is enabled.”

You enabled randomization or encryption but left the passphrase empty.

“Choose a payload file.”

You selected file payload mode but did not choose a file.

“Payload too large.”

The carrier does not have enough capacity for:

• the header
• the payload
• optional filename bytes
• optional crypto fields

Use a larger carrier, fewer channels, smaller payload, or different settings.

“Only PCM 8/16-bit WAV supported.”

The WAV file is not PCM, or it uses an unsupported bit depth.

“No Stegodon header found.”

The file is not a Stegodon carrier, or the embedded header was destroyed by editing or recompression.

Decryption failure

The passphrase is likely incorrect, or the embedded payload was damaged.

Limitations

1. JPEG and Lossy Media

Stegodon may accept an image input loaded in the browser, but lossy formats are poor carriers for reliable bit preservation.

If a file is later recompressed as JPEG, hidden data may be destroyed.

2. Detection Is Heuristic

The Detect tab does not prove the presence or absence of steganography.

It provides a rough statistical estimate only.

3. Capacity Display Is Approximate

The capacity analyzer reports approximate raw capacity.

It does not subtract full protocol overhead in advance.

Actual usable capacity is lower.

4. No Integrity Check Beyond AES-GCM

When encryption is not enabled, the payload has no dedicated cryptographic integrity layer beyond the presence of the Stegodon header.

Randomization alone does not verify correctness.

5. No Compression Step

The application does not compress text or file payloads before embedding.

Large payloads therefore consume capacity directly.

6. No Multi-Format Audio Support

Only PCM WAV 8-bit and 16-bit are supported.

MP3, AAC, FLAC, and OGG are not supported by the supplied embed/extract code.

7. Header Discovery Assumes Stegodon Format

Extraction and detection are specialized for Stegodon's own format and will not automatically recover arbitrary third-party stego schemes.

8. Alpha Channel Is Not Used

Image embedding uses RGB only.

Transparent-image alpha data is ignored.

Forensic Caution

A file with no header may still contain hidden data from:

• another tool
• another format
• another embedding strategy

Similarly, a suspicious statistical score may be caused by ordinary media characteristics rather than steganography.

Best Practices

• Prefer PNG over JPEG
• Prefer PCM WAV over compressed audio
• Keep payloads small
• Use 1-bit LSB for better stealth
• Use both encryption and randomization for stronger secrecy
• Keep the passphrase safe
• Preserve the original stego output exactly
• Avoid editing or re-saving the file after embedding

Recommended Improvements

If you continue developing Stegodon, strong next improvements would be:

1. Show estimated usable capacity after header overhead
2. Add payload compression as an option
3. Add stronger extraction diagnostics
4. Add drag-and-drop support
5. Add more file-type validation for image carriers
6. Add a payload checksum for non-encrypted payloads
7. Add optional alpha-channel embedding for advanced workflows
8. Add exportable forensic report output for the Detect tab
9. Add explicit warning when users choose lossy image inputs
10. Add more advanced statistical detectors if deeper analysis is needed

Summary

Stegodon is a capable local steganography utility for images and WAV files.

It is best suited for:

• lightweight private embedding
• educational demonstrations
• reversible hide/extract workflows
• quick stego screening

It should not be presented as a full forensic platform, but it is a strong client-side steganography tool with a clear and practical workflow.