Covert Communications via Spotify Playlists

Abstract

In this paper, we utilize a music streaming platform called Spotify to create two distinct covert channels. The usage for these covert channels is based on the ability for various users to access publicly available playlists. Users can use these playlists to send and receive covert messages. The first method uses the first letter of an album name to construct a message, and the second uses song's explicit tags to create binary messages. We concluded that these covert channels were successful. This is because they could send messages with adequate obscurity that outside actors would not be privy to the covert message contained.