Sending Hidden Data via Google Suggest

Abstract

Google Suggest is a service incorporated within Google Web Search which was created to help user find the right search phrase by proposing the autocompleting popular phrases while typing. The paper presents a new network steganography method called StegSuggest which utilizes suggestions generated by Google Suggest as a hidden data carrier. The detailed description of the method's idea is backed up with the analysis of the network traffic generated by the Google Suggest to prove its feasibility. The traffic analysis was also performed to discover the occurrence of two TCP options: Window Scale and Timestamp which StegSuggest uses to operate. Estimation of method steganographic bandwidth proves that it is possible to insert 100 bits of steganogram into every suggestions list sent by Google Suggest service.