Using Steganography to Improve Hash Functions' Collision Resistance

Lately, hash function security has received increased attention. Especially after the recent attacks that were presented for SHA-1 and MD5, the need for a new and more robust hash function has become imperative. Even though many solutions have been proposed as replacements, the transition to a new function could be costly and complex. In this paper, we introduce a mode of operation that can be applied to any existing or future hash function in order to improve its collision resistance. In particular, we use steganography, the art of hiding a message into another message, to create a scheme, named Σ-Hash, which enforces the security of hashing algorithms. We will demonstrate how, apart from hash function security, Σ-Hash can also be used for securing Open Source code from tampering attacks and other applications.