CASE 012 · Synonym-Choice Steganography

Forked Vocabulary

A four-letter signal is carried by deliberate word choices. Use the recovered codebook to reconstruct the message.

Advanced 300 pts Hint penalty: 35 pts

Artifact

Inspect this carefully

The quiet analyst followed a slim corridor, keeping to the marked route as the lantern grew dim. From the doorway, guards watch the rapid sweep of instruments while a short pulse left a single mark. Investigators begin with a small indicator, keeping a steady pace as each hidden trace becomes easier to note; they select details that remain plain under review. Later, the quiet team enters a slim passage and repeats the route beneath a faint lamp. They observe a quick shift during a brief pause, where one unexpected sign alters the working theory. Analysts begin with a small reference, keeping a steady rhythm while the hidden pattern is preserved in the record. They select the details that remain clear after comparison.

Recovered codebook fragment

Read the carrier words in prose order. For each pair below, the left word represents 0 and the right word represents 1. The 16-pair codebook repeats exactly once.

  1. quiet / calm
  2. narrow / slim
  3. route / path
  4. faint / dim
  5. watch / observe
  6. quick / rapid
  7. brief / short
  8. mark / sign
  9. begin / start
  10. tiny / small
  11. steady / stable
  12. hidden / concealed
  13. note / record
  14. choose / select
  15. remain / stay
  16. clear / plain
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Text DOM textContent

            
Characters Unicode code points

            

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    About the technique

    Synonym-Choice Steganography

    Synonym-choice steganography uses a shared codebook of context-appropriate lexical alternatives as symbolic states. The visible prose can remain readable, but successful decoding depends on synchronized carrier positions, stable word choices, and a codebook that both sides interpret the same way.

    Read the related field guide →

    Questions

    Frequently asked

    What is synonym-choice steganography?

    It is a linguistic hidden-information technique in which one word from a predefined set of context-appropriate alternatives is chosen to represent a symbol such as binary 0 or 1.

    Are synonyms always interchangeable?

    No. Words with similar dictionary meanings can differ in register, grammar, collocation, implication, or sense, so safe carrier choices must be curated for their specific contexts.

    Why can paraphrasing destroy the message?

    A paraphrase can replace, delete, insert, or reorder carrier words. That can flip symbols or desynchronize later positions even when the visible meaning remains similar.