Smart-Lock Security Re-engineered using Cryptography and Steganography

This project is essentially an academic artifact based on a 2019 ArXiv paper. With 0 stars and no activity in over 7 years, it lacks any real-world traction or community. From a competitive standpoint, the smart lock market has moved decisively toward industry-wide standards like Matter and Thread, which utilize hardware-backed security (Secure Elements) and standardized PKI that are far more robust than the steganography-based approach proposed here. While the combination of steganography and BLE was a novel academic exploration at the time, it introduces unnecessary complexity and 'security through obscurity' compared to modern BLE 4.2+ 'LE Secure Connections' which natively mitigate the MITM risks the author cites. Platform giants like Apple (HomeKey), Google, and Amazon dominate this space by controlling the ecosystem and hardware specifications. This project serves as a historical reference implementation rather than a viable modern security solution.