In steganography, the ________ is the stream or file into which the data is hidden.

• A. Carrier
• B. Payload
• C. Container
• D. Vessel

Answer: (A)

In steganography, the carrier is the host medium that carries the hidden message. The goal is to embed the payload into this stream or file in a way that the changes are subtle enough to go unnoticed, so the file appears normal to an observer. The carrier can be an image, audio, video, or text file, and the hiding process often alters minor details of the carrier—such as least significant bits in an image or slight audio tweaks—without obvious signs of tampering.

The payload is the actual data being hidden, not the host that contains it. Terms like container or vessel aren’t standard for describing the host file in steganography; the established term for that role is carrier (also called the cover object).