A method for real-time detection of and protection from steganography in a kernel mode comprises detecting transmission of a file via a firewall, an operating system, or an e-mail system. A size of the file is determined. From a file system, a stored filesize of the file is retrieved. The determined size of the file is compared to the stored filesize of the file. Responsive to the determined size of the file being larger than the stored filesize of the file, steganography detection analytics are executed on the file. Responsive to the steganography detection analytics indicating presence of steganography in the file, a steganography remediation action is executed, and information is transmitted describing the steganography to a client device.