Mount encrypted, hidden storage inside innocent media files.

Installation • Usage • Hybrid RAID • Technical Details • Disclaimer

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Overview

MirageFS is a high-stealth steganographic filesystem built in Rust. It allows you to format and mount standard media files (.png, .jpg, .webp, .mp4, .mov, .mp3) as fully functional read/write drives.

Unlike traditional steganography tools that simply hide a static payload, MirageFS implements a virtual block device inside the media. This means you can interact with your hidden files in real-time using your OS's native file explorer (cp, mv, vim, mkdir, rmdir, etc.) without extracting them first.

Key Features

Strong Encryption

Your data is secured with state-of-the-art authenticated encryption.

• Cipher: XChaCha20-Poly1305 (Extended Nonce + MAC authentication).
• KDF: Argon2id (Resistant to GPU/ASIC brute-force attacks).
• Nonce Randomization: Every block write generates a unique nonce; writing the same file twice produces completely different ciphertext.

Playlist RAID & Folder Support

MirageFS supports Playlist Leveling, allowing you to treat an entire album or folder of media files as a single logical drive.

• Smart JBOD: Instead of passing files individually, point MirageFS to a folder of MP3s or photos. It will automatically expand and pool them into a RAID array.
• Capacity Pooling: Transparently slice large files across multiple carrier files in a folder.

Integrated Cloud Uploader

MirageFS now includes a built-in cloud uploader powered by srapi-rs to share your hidden carriers anonymously.

• Anonymous Hosting: Upload carrier files to Filebin, Temp.sh, Tmpfiles.org, or Jumpshare directly from the CLI.
• Automated Binning: Automatically create buckets/bins for your uploads and receive shareable URLs instantly.

Embedded Web Interface

MirageFS now ships with a stunning, self-hosted Web Management UI served directly from the binary.

• Visual File Manager: Navigate folders, view file details, and manage storage with a modern web UI.
• Drag & Drop Upload: Encrypt files instantly by dragging them into the browser window.
• Zero Client Setup: Works on any device with a web browser (Mobile/Desktop) without installing WebDAV clients.

Universal Driverless Access

MirageFS includes an embedded WebDAV Server.

• No Drivers Required: Works on restricted systems (corporate laptops, public computers) where you cannot install FUSE or kernel drivers.
• Network Capable: Mount your hidden drive over the LAN or VPN.
• Cross-Platform: Native integration with Windows Explorer, macOS Finder, iOS, and Android.

Timestamp Freeze

MirageFS freezes filesystem timestamps to a fixed value to avoid revealing activity.

• FUSE + WebDAV: Report a fixed timestamp for files and directories.
• Carrier Files: Original atime/mtime are restored after access and writes.

Note

Linux ctime cannot be user-set; MirageFS minimizes updates by restoring carrier timestamps after IO.

Hybrid "Smart" RAID Controller

MirageFS introduces a sophisticated Tiered RAID 0 system that automatically balances stealth and capacity.

• Zone 1 (High Stealth): Stripes data across ALL devices (e.g., Image + Video). This maximizes entropy dilution, making the payload harder to detect forensically.
• Zone 2 (Overflow): Once static carriers (like PNGs) are full, the controller seamlessly transitions to Overflow Mode, writing remaining data exclusively to expandable carriers (MP4s).
• Result: You get the forensic safety of striping plus the massive capacity of video files in a single logical volume.

Advanced Steganography

MirageFS employs distinct, format-optimized strategies to defeat forensic analysis.

Media Format	Strategy	Stealth Technique
MP3	Phantom-Sync Engine	Injects data into APIC tags using Sync-Safe Base128 encoding. This mathematically prevents audio glitches by ensuring no MP3 "Sync Words" are generated in the payload.
MP4 / MOV	Shadow mdat Injection	Appends a secondary mdat atom ignored by standard players. Data is encapsulated in valid H.264 NAL Units (Type 12 "Filler Data") to look like video stream padding.
PNG	Feistel Bijective Mapping	Uses a Feistel Network and Cycle Walking to map logical blocks to physical pixels in $O(1)$ time. Salt locations are derived from the password.
JPEG	DNG Morphing	Data is injected into APP1 segments mimicking valid Adobe DNG Private Data (Tag 0xC634) inside a standard TIFF structure.
WebP	RIFF Morphing	Similar to JPEG, data is disguised as vendor-specific metadata inside the EXIF chunk of the RIFF container.

Full Filesystem Semantics

MirageFS is not just a key-value store; it is a compliant POSIX-like filesystem.

• Directory Support: Create nested folders (mkdir), remove them (rmdir), and organize your data hierarchy.
• Atomic Renames: Move and rename files/folders instantly (mv).
• Auto-Shrink: Deleting files triggers a "swap-and-pop" compaction. The MP4 container physically shrinks on disk to reflect the deleted data, leaving no "slack space" evidence.

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Installation

MirageFS supports two modes: Native FUSE (High Performance) and WebDAV (High Compatibility).

Option 1: Native FUSE (Recommended for Linux/macOS)

Requires FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) drivers installed on the host.

• Debian/Ubuntu/WSL2:

  sudo apt update && sudo apt install fuse3 libfuse3-dev pkg-config

• Fedora:

  sudo dnf install fuse3 fuse3-devel pkg-config

• macOS: Install macFUSE.

Option 2: Portable / No-Driver Mode

No dependencies required! MirageFS will automatically fallback to WebDAV mode if FUSE is not detected.

Build from Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/SSL-ACTX/mirage-fs.git
cd mirage-fs

# Build Release Binary
cargo build --release

# (Optional) Install globally
sudo cp target/release/mirage /usr/local/bin/mirage

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Usage

1. Formatting (Destructive)

Create a new secret drive inside a carrier image or video (or a combination).

Warning

This overwrites any data previously hidden in the carrier. It does not destroy the visible image/video playback, but modifies the internal bit structure.

# Syntax: mirage <MOUNT_POINT> <MEDIA_FILES...> --format

# Video Mode (Massive Capacity)
mirage /tmp/secret holiday_video.mp4 --format

# Hybrid Mode (Best Stealth: Image + Video Striping)
mirage /tmp/secret cover.png movie.mp4 --format

2. Mounting (Smart Detect)

Run the command normally. MirageFS will attempt to mount via FUSE. If FUSE is unavailable (e.g., on Windows or restricted Linux), it will automatically start the WebDAV server.

mirage /tmp/secret cover.png movie.mp4

You can also force a local mount to be read-only:

mirage /tmp/secret cover.png --read-only

2.1 Remote Media URLs (Read-Only)

You can mount a remote carrier by passing an http:// or https:// URL. URL media is read-only and runs in WebDAV mode if FUSE is unavailable.

# Read-only mount from a remote image URL
mirage /tmp/secret https://example.com/secret.jpeg

# Read-only mount from a remote MP4 URL (streamed via HTTP range requests)
mirage /tmp/secret https://example.com/secret.mp4

Notes:

• Remote images are downloaded to a temporary cache (read-only). Remote MP4/MOV files are streamed using byte-range reads.
• --format is not allowed with URL media.
• You can set a safety cap for remote downloads with MIRAGE_URL_MAX_BYTES (default: 2 GiB).
• You can increase read-ahead for MP4 URL streaming with MIRAGE_URL_READAHEAD (bytes, default: 524288).
• Optional URL disk cache: set MIRAGE_URL_CACHE_DIR and MIRAGE_URL_CACHE_MAX (bytes, default: 512 MiB).
• Async cache writes: set MIRAGE_URL_WRITEBACK=1.
• Prefetch next range: set MIRAGE_URL_PREFETCH=1 (disabled by default).

3. Web UI (Browser Access)

You can access the new graphical interface by opening the server address in any web browser.

Link: http://127.0.0.1:8080 (Default)

• Authentication: Secured with Basic Auth. Use --user and --pass to customize (Default: admin / your carrier password).
• System Dashboard: A new real-time status dashboard showing filesystem health, block usage, and carrier integrity.
• File Management: Full support for Search, Instant Rename, and improved folder navigation.
• Drag & Drop: Upload files instantly to your hidden drive.
• Stats & Metrics: Real-time JSON data via /__stats (Filesystem) and /__metrics (Network/Carrier).
• Security: All web access is now protected by Basic Authentication.

4. WebDAV Mode (Manual / Network Share)

You can force WebDAV mode (bypassing FUSE) to mount the drive as a Network Share. This is useful for systems without FUSE drivers or for remote access.

# Start Server on Port 8080 with custom credentials
mirage /mnt/point cover.png movie.mp4 --webdav --port 8080 --user myuser --pass mysecret

How to Access:

• Windows: Open File Explorer -> Right Click "This PC" -> "Map Network Drive" -> http://127.0.0.1:8080
• macOS: Finder -> Go -> Connect to Server (Cmd+K) -> http://127.0.0.1:8080
• Linux (GNOME/Nautilus): Files App -> Other Locations -> Connect to Server -> dav://127.0.0.1:8080
• Linux (CLI): mount -t davfs http://127.0.0.1:8080 /mnt/mountpoint

Note

When mounting as a network drive, your OS will prompt for the Username and Password configured via the CLI (Default: admin and your encryption password).

Note

Visiting the root URL (http://127.0.0.1:8080) in a browser loads the Web UI. To mount the filesystem as a native drive in your OS, you must use the "Connect to Server" / "Map Network Drive" feature of your file manager, not a web browser.

5. Unmounting

To close the drive and flush all data:

• Press Ctrl + C in the terminal.
• Or run: fusermount -u /tmp/secret (FUSE mode only)

6. Cloud Uploading (Anonymous Sharing)

Share your hidden carriers by uploading them to anonymous file hosting providers directly from MirageFS.

# Upload a single file to temp.sh (default)
mirage upload ./carrier.mp3

# Upload an entire folder of carriers to Filebin
# If no --bin-id is provided, a new one will be created automatically.
mirage upload --provider filebin ./album_folder/

# Upload to Jumpshare
mirage upload --provider jumpshare ./video_carrier.mp4

Supported Providers: temp-sh, tmpfiles, jumpshare, filebin.

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Technical Deep Dive

MP3 "Phantom-Sync" Engine

The MP3 format presents a unique challenge: encrypted ciphertext can accidentally generate the 12-bit "Sync Word" (0xFFE), causing audio decoders to crash or produce horrific static.

1. Sync-Safe Encoding: MirageFS passes all encrypted blocks through a Base128 (Sync-Safe) expander. By forcing the Most Significant Bit (MSB) of every byte to 0, we mathematically guarantee that the byte 0xFF can never exist in the payload, ensuring 100% glitch-free playback.
2. Metadata Morphing: The encoded payload is hidden within a massive ID3v2 APIC (Attached Picture) frame.
3. Camouflage: To forensic scanners, the high-entropy data is justified by a fake JPEG header, making the payload appear to be a large, possibly corrupted, high-resolution album cover.
4. VBR Spoofing: MirageFS locates and updates the Xing or Info VBR headers to lock the track duration, ensuring the media player's seek bar remains accurate and unaffected by the injected data.

MP4 "Shadow Injection" Engine

MirageFS exploits the atom structure of ISO Base Media Files (MP4/MOV). Standard players read the moov (Movie) atom to find the location of video frames in the mdat (Media Data) atom.

1. Injection: We append a second mdat atom to the end of the file. Standard players stop reading after the first mdat, making our payload invisible to playback.
2. Camouflage: Raw encrypted data looks like random noise (high entropy), which is suspicious. We wrap every encrypted block in H.264 NAL Unit headers (specifically Type 12: Filler Data).
3. Result: To a forensic tool or packet inspector, the hidden data appears to be valid video stream padding/bitrate filler.

The PNG "Feistel" Engine

MirageFS treats the PNG pixels as a domain of size . A custom Feistel Network creates a bijective (1-to-1) permutation between the Logical Block Address and the Physical Pixel Index.

• Zero Memory Overhead: No mapping table is stored. Locations are calculated mathematically on the fly.
• Collision Avoidance: The engine smartly skips "Salt" pixels during the permutation step to ensure the RAID header is never overwritten.

Hybrid RAID: Tiered Striping

When mixing static carriers (PNG/JPG) with dynamic carriers (MP4), a standard RAID 0 would be limited by the smallest drive. MirageFS uses a Tiered Controller:

• Zone 1: Data is striped across both the PNG and the MP4. This dilutes the entropy.
• Zone 2: When the PNG fills up (reaching the "Symmetric Stripe Limit"), the controller automatically detects the MP4 is expandable. It continues writing data to the MP4 only.
• Read/Write Logic: The controller calculates Logical_Index % Device_Count for Zone 1 addresses, and transparently re-maps higher addresses to the remaining dynamic devices.

The JPEG/WebP "Morphing" Engine

Compressed formats like JPEG destroy LSB data. MirageFS exploits the metadata layer instead.

1. Dilution: High-entropy encrypted data is expanded (7 bits → 8 bytes) to lower its statistical randomness.
2. Camouflage: Data is wrapped in valid TIFF headers and labeled as DNGPrivateData (Tag 0xC634).
3. Result: Forensic tools ignore the data, identifying it as "proprietary Adobe metadata" rather than a suspicious payload.

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Platform Notes

Linux (Native)

Works out of the box with standard FUSE installation.

Windows (WSL2 / Native)

MirageFS works perfectly on Windows via the new WebDAV Mode.

1. Run MirageFS: mirage.exe X: video.mp4 --webdav
2. Map the drive in Explorer to http://127.0.0.1:8080
3. Enjoy your hidden drive as letter Z: (or similar).

Legacy WSL2 FUSE: If you prefer FUSE inside WSL2, ensure /etc/fuse.conf has user_allow_other uncommented.

macOS

• Preferred: Use WebDAV mode (Cmd+K -> http://127.0.0.1:8080) for zero-configuration access.
• FUSE: Requires macFUSE and manual approval of kernel extensions in System Settings.

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Disclaimer

Important

For Educational and Research Use Only. MirageFS is a proof-of-concept tool designed to demonstrate advanced steganography and filesystem concepts.

• Do not use this for critical data storage without backups.
• While the encryption is strong, steganography is an arms race; a sufficiently motivated forensic adversary with knowledge of this specific tool could potentially detect the modification artifacts.

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Author: Seuriin (SSL-ACTX)

v1.6.0