Using pixelation to redact images? Those pixels may not actually be hiding anything.
This week, Dan Petro, Lead Researcher at offensive security firm Bishop Fox has demonstrated how he was able to completely recover text from an image redacted via the pixelation method. Further, the researcher has released a GitHub tool that can be used by anyone to reconstruct text from obscure, pixelated images.
But Petro shows why it might be safer to just stick good old opaque bars over the text you want to hide, rather than chancing it with alternate techniques — especially with pixelation. “The bottom line is that when you need to redact text, use black bars covering the whole text. Never use anything else. No pixelization, no blurring, no fuzzing, no swirling,” warns Petro.
See https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/researcher-fully-recovers-text-from-pixels-how-to-reverse-redaction/
#technology #privacy #redaction #documents