Capacity is the wrong paradigm
Ira S. Moskowitz, LiWu Chang, Richard E. Newman · 2002
At present, "capacity" is the prevailing paradigm for covert channels. With respect to steganography, however, capacity is at best insufficient, and at worst, is incorrect. In this paper, we propose a new paradigm called "capability" which gauges the effectiveness of a steganographic method. It includes payload carrying ability, detectability, and robustness components. We also discuss the use of zero-error capacity for channel analysis and demonstrate that a JPEG compressed image always has the potential to carry hidden information.