Dual image based LSB steganography
01 Jan 2018-pp 61-66
TL;DR: A new steganographic model using dual image has been proposed to increase the obscurity of the secret as well as to make it more secure by using different dictionary word indexing scheme every time based on a random secret key that is appended in the embed key.
Abstract: A new steganographic model using dual image has been proposed to increase the obscurity of the secret as well as to make it more secure. It uses two different images namely reference image and cover image along with a secret embed key (stego key). Reference image is divided into blocks with assigned block-codes. Total number of blocks and other embedding parameters (block traversing direction, starting block etc.) are stored in the embed key. Secret message converted to binary and bit pairs are made. Bit pairs of secret message are encoded using the bit pairs of different blocks of reference image and sometimes updating a few LSB bits in the reference image. As an optional capacity enhancement module for text only secret messages dictionary word indexing based encoding is applied. Finally encoded bit stream is embedded into the cover image using any standard LSB technique with its own merits and demerits. LSB changes in the reference image are almost negligible. Embedding key is encrypted using public key of the receiver hence even if someone gets the encoded message it is not possible to get the secret message. As this model can use any existing LSB replacement scheme to embed encoded message into the cover image the state of the art security and other quality features are by default available to it. This is made more secure by using different dictionary word indexing scheme every time based on a random secret key that is appended in the embed key.
Citations
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01 May 2019
10 citations
22 Jul 2019
TL;DR: Comparative simulations with some well-known PVD-based techniques show good results in terms of visual imperceptibility and different quality metrics such as MSE, PSNR, SSIM etc.
Abstract: Pixel value differencing (PVD) and Least Significant Bit (LSB) embedding are well known spatial domain steganographic techniques. PVD utilizes the sharp changes of intensities among adjacent pixels where a large number of secret bits could be embedded without any perceptible change. one-time pad (OTP) symmetric cryptography is known for its security. In the proposed scheme one or more LSB bits of the selected pixels are used depending on the pixel intensity difference with neighboring pixels in 2 × 2 image blocks of the cover image. Secret bits are encrypted using OTP with randomly generated pre-shared key. Such encrypted bits are completely random and resemble noise hence make the scheme robust against different statistical attacks. Comparative simulations with some well-known PVD-based techniques show good results in terms of visual imperceptibility and different quality metrics such as MSE, PSNR, SSIM etc.
9 citations
Cites methods from "Dual image based LSB steganography"
...Authors in [10] used a reference image along with the cover image for encoding of the secret bits before embedding into the cover image LSBs....
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TL;DR: The proposed scheme successfully eludes many standard steganalysis attacks such as histogram-based analysis (PDH), chi-square based embed probability test, Regular and Singular groups (RS) analysis, sample pair test, etc.
Abstract: In spatial domain image steganography, Least Significant Bits (LSB) of cover image pixels are used to embed a secret message due to minimal distortion and higher payload capacity. In this paper, we have introduced an exclusive-OR (XOR) based encoding of encrypted secret message bits using varying higher-order pixel intensity bits. Encoding and LSB embedding is done block-wise by dividing the cover image into a number of blocks. The secret message is first encrypted using symmetric key cryptography and then encoded those encrypted bits by XORing them with randomly selected higher-order pixel bis of the cover image to obscure the secret bits further. Next, an inversion technique is applied to the encoded bits block-wise to keep the LSB bit changes to a minimum. The stego-key consists of the symmetric encryption key and the encode-key containing parameter settings such as the number_of_blocks, starting_block, start_pixel_offset, block_selection_rule, etc. This stego-key is shared prior to the actual communication using public-key cryptography to ensure the key’s authenticity and integrity. The extraction process does not require the cover image; the stego-image and the stego-key are sufficient. Experimental results show the visual imperceptibility along with improved image quality metrics such as Mean Square Error (MSE), Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), Normalized Cross-Correlation (NCC), and Structural Similarity (SSIM) index in comparison to other well-known techniques. The average PSNR value remains above 51dB, even with 90% of the capacity utilized. The proposed scheme successfully eludes many standard steganalysis attacks such as histogram-based analysis (PDH), chi-square based embed probability test, Regular and Singular groups (RS) analysis, sample pair test, etc. on the tested stego-images.
8 citations
TL;DR: A novel technique has been proposed using a randomized indexed word dictionary, and a list of email addresses to increase the hiding capacity and security and is free from statistical attacks, OCR based attacks, and does not depend on the use of any particular text processor.
Abstract: Text steganography is inherently difficult due to minimal redundant information space to hide secret payload. The same fact limits the hiding capacity and security too. In this study, a novel technique has been proposed using a randomized indexed word dictionary, and a list of email addresses to increase the hiding capacity and security. A forward email platform has been used as the cover, and email addresses in the carbon copy (CC) field contain secret data that are encoded using a randomized index-based word dictionary. The email username list and indexed word dictionary are both pre-shared between the communicating parties. But during every new communication, a random bitstream (temporary stego-key) is generated from the system time and communicated separately using public-key cryptography. This temporary stego-key is used to randomize the index values of the words in the dictionary. Most of the existing state-of-the-art techniques provide a hiding capacity of 6–10%. The proposed scheme achieves a capacity of 12.17% using some common secret text and email body text (cover text) as used in all other studies. The proposed technique provides higher hiding capacity and security by randomizing the word indexes every time using temporary stego-key. It is also free from statistical attacks, OCR based attacks, and does not depend on the use of any particular text processor.
6 citations
TL;DR: An improved method for combine (LSB and MSB) Based on color image RGB based onColor image RGB is presented.
Abstract: Image steganography is the art of hiding data into an image by using the secret key. This paper presents two techniques that combine the most significant bit (MSB) as well as the least significant bit (LSB) based on a color image (24bit for RGB). The presented study proposes a novel method to combine (LSB and MSB) bits based on check MSB values and replace bits from LSB with a secret message. The result of this proposed method that made not affect quality stego -image based on the resulting histogram that shows a match between the cover image and stego- image and more secure because not hidden in all image. The factors were used Mean Square Error (MSE), Compute Payload, in addition to Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR). The PSNR’s rate is high and MSE is less. The result of this paper when applying on the different image gives high PSNR of 87.141 and less MSE of 0.00012 when inserting message 80 bits and reduction value PSNR of 72.023 and MSE of 0.0040 when inserting message 1200 bits and measure entropy is the same value for cover image and stego –image then this method is more security for the attacker.
6 citations
Cites methods from "Dual image based LSB steganography"
...The number of pixels varies with a change in the density value due to a change in the lSB pixels, better to be the differences in histogram less between the cover image and the Stego image because these changes can be used to reveal the secret message in stego analysis [12]....
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References
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07 Oct 2001
TL;DR: It is shown that an observer can indeed distinguish between images carrying a hidden message and images which do not carry a message, which leads to the notion of steganographic capacity, that is, how many bits can the authors hide in a message without causing statistically significant modifications?
Abstract: There have been many techniques for hiding messages in images in such a manner that the alterations made to the image are perceptually indiscernible. However, the question whether they result in images that are statistically indistinguishable from untampered images has not been adequately explored. We look at some specific image based steganography techniques and show that an observer can indeed distinguish between images carrying a hidden message and images which do not carry a message. We derive a closed form expression of the probability of detection and false alarm in terms of the number of bits that are hidden. This leads us to the notion of steganographic capacity, that is, how many bits can we hide in a message without causing statistically significant modifications? Our results are able to provide an upper bound on the this capacity. Our ongoing work relates to adaptive steganographic techniques that take explicit steps to foil the detection mechanisms. In this case we hope to show that the number of bits that can be embedded increases significantly.
506 citations
"Dual image based LSB steganography" refers background in this paper
...The LSB embedding allows direct replacement of the secret information behind the cover image and only a single bit change of a pixel do not create any perceptible difference in image quality [9]....
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TL;DR: This paper shall use the dynamic programming strategy to get the optimal solution and the experimental results will show that this method consumes less computation time and also gets the optimal Solution.
369 citations
"Dual image based LSB steganography" refers background in this paper
...There exists many other variations to this scheme such as instead of replacing only a single bit, two or more least significant bits of cover image can be replaced so that secret message hiding capacity increases but it also deteriorates the quality of cover image with the increase in number of bits changed[7],[8]....
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TL;DR: This study presents a simple method for high-hiding capacity that outperforms the simple LSB substitution method given the same range of data digits in the embedded data and achieves good image vision quality without the need for post-processing.
298 citations
"Dual image based LSB steganography" refers background in this paper
...There exists many other variations to this scheme such as instead of replacing only a single bit, two or more least significant bits of cover image can be replaced so that secret message hiding capacity increases but it also deteriorates the quality of cover image with the increase in number of bits changed[7],[8]....
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01 Jan 2004
TL;DR: This tutorial reviews and discusses the notions of steganographic security and capacity, and some of the more recent image steganography and steganalysis techniques are analyzed with this perspective.
Abstract: In the last few years, we have seen many new and powerful steganography and steganalysis techniques reported in the literature. In the following tutorial we go over some general concepts and ideas that apply to steganography and steganalysis. We review and discuss the notions of steganographic security and capacity. Some of the more recent image steganography and steganalysis techniques are analyzed with this perspective, and their contributions are highlighted.
143 citations
27 Sep 2013
TL;DR: This work is concerned with implementing Steganography for images, with an improvement in both security and image quality, and shows good enhancement to Least Significant Bit technique in consideration to security as well as image quality.
Abstract: This work is concerned with implementing Steganography for images, with an improvement in both security and image quality. The one that is implemented here is a variation of plain LSB (Least Significant Bit) algorithm. The stego-image quality is improved by using bit-inversion technique. In this technique, certain least significant bits of cover image are inverted after LSB steganography that co-occur with some pattern of other bits and that reduces the number of modified LSBs. Thus, less number of least significant bits of cover image is altered in comparison to plain LSB method, improving the PSNR of stegoimage. By storing the bit patterns for which LSBs are inverted, message image can be obtained correctly. To improve the robustness of steganography, RC4 algorithm has been used to achieve the randomization in hiding message image bits into cover image pixels instead of storing them sequentially. This process randomly disperses the bits of the message in the cover image and thus, making it harder for unauthorized people to extract the original message. The proposed method shows good enhancement to Least Significant Bit technique in consideration to security as well as image quality.
97 citations
"Dual image based LSB steganography" refers methods in this paper
...A variation of plain LSB with bit inversion technique and RC4 algorithm has been implemented in [12] to improve image quality, security as well as robustness....
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...A large number of different LSB based steganographic methods with variations in hidden data embedding has been proposed and evaluated [11-13, 5-6]....
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