Security News > 2023 > February > The Insecurity of Photo Cropping

One of the hazards lies in the fact that, for some of the programs, downstream crop reversals are possible for viewers or readers of the document, not just the file's creators or editors.

Official instruction manuals, help pages, and promotional materials may mention that cropping is reversible, but this documentation at times fails to note that these operations are reversible by any viewers of a given image or document.

Uncropped versions of images can be preserved not just in Office apps, but also in a file's own metadata.

A photograph taken with a modern digital camera contains all types of metadata.

Many image files record text-based metadata such as the camera make and model or the GPS coordinates at which the image was captured.

Some photos also include binary data such as a thumbnail version of the original photo that may persist in the file's metadata even after the photo has been edited in an image editor.

News URL

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2023/02/the-insecurity-of-photo-cropping.html