IV_Encrypt 🐧

Lightweight Linux image viewer · metadata editor · encrypted steganography With love for the Linux community.

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⚡ Features

• 🖼️ View images (4K+), fixed 1200×600 UI with a scrollable preview
• 📝 Read & edit image metadata (written back into the image via exiftool)
• 🔒 Encrypt messages (libsodium) and hide them in image pixels (LSB)
• 🔍 Extract & decrypt messages with the correct password
• ⚙️ Non-blocking metadata write (worker thread + progress spinner)

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🧩 Dependencies

• gcc, pkg-config
• libgtk-3-dev, libgdk-pixbuf2.0-dev
• libsodium-dev
• libexif-dev (optional)
• exiftool (runtime)

Ubuntu / Debian

sudo apt install build-essential pkg-config \
libgtk-3-dev libgdk-pixbuf2.0-dev libsodium-dev libexif-dev \
libimage-exiftool-perl

Fedora

sudo dnf install gcc pkgconf-pkg-config \
gtk3-devel gdk-pixbuf2-devel \
libsodium-devel perl-Image-ExifTool

🛠️ Build

gcc iv_encrypt.c -o iv_encrypt \
`pkg-config --cflags --libs gtk+-3.0 gdk-pixbuf-2.0 libexif` \
-lsodium -lm

▶️ Run

./iv_encrypt

Or open an image directly

./iv_encrypt image.jpg

🔐 How It Works :

• Metadata is read and written using exiftool

• Messages are encrypted using libsodium

• Encrypted data is embedded in image pixels (LSB steganography)

• The resulting image looks normal but contains hidden data

• Without the password, the message cannot be decrypted

💡 Notes

• Stego images are saved as PNG to avoid data loss

• If the password is lost, the message is unrecoverable

• Always keep backups of original images

📜 License

MIT License

🙏 Credits

• GTK & GdkPixbuf

• libsodium

• exiftool

• Linux open-source community