Showing papers on "Steganography tools published in 2013"

Moving steganography and steganalysis from the laboratory into the real world

Abstract: There has been an explosion of academic literature on steganography and steganalysis in the past two decades. With a few exceptions, such papers address abstractions of the hiding and detection problems, which arguably have become disconnected from the real world. Most published results, including by the authors of this paper, apply "in laboratory conditions" and some are heavily hedged by assumptions and caveats; significant challenges remain unsolved in order to implement good steganography and steganalysis in practice. This position paper sets out some of the important questions which have been left unanswered, as well as highlighting some that have already been addressed successfully, for steganography and steganalysis to be used in the real world.

A Survey of Image Steganography Techniques

Abstract: Abspract Steganography is going to gain its importance due to the exponential growth and secret communication of potential computer users over the internet. It can also be defined as the study of invisible communication that usually deals with the ways of hiding the existence of the communicated message. Generally data embedding is achieved in communication, image, text, voice or multimedia content for copyright, military communication, authentication and many other purposes. In image Steganography, secret communication is achieved to embed a message into cover image (used as the carrier to embed message into) and generate a stegoimage (generated image which is carrying a hidden message). In this paper we have critically analyzed various steganographic techniques and also have covered steganography overview its major types, classification, applications.

VoIP steganography and its Detection—A survey

Abstract: Steganography is an ancient art that encompasses various techniques of information hiding, the aim of which is to embed secret information into a carrier message. Steganographic methods are usually aimed at hiding the very existence of the communication. Due to the rise in popularity of IP telephony, together with the large volume of data and variety of protocols involved, it is currently attracting the attention of the research community as a perfect carrier for steganographic purposes. This article is a first survey of the existing Voice over IP (VoIP) steganography methods and their countermeasures.

Enhancing the Security and Quality of LSB Based Image Steganography

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.

A Secure Image Steganography Based on RSA Algorithm and Hash-LSB Technique

Abstract: Steganography is a method of hiding secret messages in a cover object while communication takes place between sender and receiver. Security of confidential information has always been a major issue from the past times to the present time. It has always been the interested topic for researchers to develop secure techniques to send data without revealing it to anyone other than the receiver. Therefore from time to time researchers have developed many techniques to fulfill secure transfer of data and steganography is one of them. In this paper we have proposed a new technique of image steganography i.e. Hash-LSB with RSA algorithm for providing more security to data as well as our data hiding method. The proposed technique uses a hash function to generate a pattern for hiding data bits into LSB of RGB pixel values of the cover image. This technique makes sure that the message has been encrypted before hiding it into a cover image. If in any case the cipher text got revealed from the cover image, the intermediate person other than receiver can't access the message as it is in encrypted form.

A Secure And High Capacity Image Steganography Technique

Abstract: Steganography is the science of invisible communication. The purpose of Steganography is to maintain secret communication between two parties. The secret information can be concealed in content such as image, audio, or video. This paper provides a novel image steganography technique to hide multiple secret images and keys in color cover image using Integer Wavelet Transform (IWT). There is no visual difference between the stego image and the cover image. The extracted secret images are also similar to the original secret images. Very good PSNR (Peak Signal to Noise Ratio) values are obtained for both stego and extracted secret images. The results are compared with the results of other techniques, where single image is hidden and it is found that the proposed technique is simple and gives better PSNR values than others.

A secure video steganography with encryption based on LSB technique

Abstract: Need of hiding information from intruders has been around since ancient times. Nowadays Digital media is getting advanced like text, image, audio, video etc. To maintain the secrecy of information, different methods of hiding have been evolved. One of them is Steganography, which means hiding information under some other information without noticeable change in cover information. Recently Video Steganography has become a boon for providing large amount of data to be transferred secretly. Video is simply a sequence of images, hence much space is available in between for hiding information. In proposed scheme video steganography is used to hide a secret video stream in cover video stream. Each frame of secret video will be broken into individual components then converted into 8-bit binary values, and encrypted using XOR with secret key and encrypted frames will be hidden in the least significant bit of each frames using sequential encoding of Cover video. To enhance more security each bit of secret frames will be stored in cover frames following a pattern BGRRGBGR.

A secure data communication system using cryptography and steganography

Abstract: The information security has become one of the most significant problems in data communication. So it becomes an inseparable part of data communication. In order to address this problem, cryptography and steganography can be combined. This paper proposes a secure communication system. It employs cryptographic algorithm together with steganography. The jointing of these techniques provides a robust and strong communication system that able to withstand against attackers. In this paper, the filter bank cipher is used to encrypt the secret text message, it provide high level of security, scalability and speed. After that, a discrete wavelet transforms (DWT) based steganography is employed to hide the encrypted message in the cover image by modifying the wavelet coefficients. The performance of the proposed system is evaluated using peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and histogram analysis. The simulation results show that, the proposed system provides high level of security.

A Review of Comparison Techniques of Image Steganography

Abstract: Steganography is an important area of research in recent years involving a number of applications. It is the science of embedding information into the cover image viz., text, video, and image (payload) without causing statistically significant modification to the cover image. The modern secure image steganography presents a challenging task of transferring the embedded information to the destination without being detected.This paper deals with hiding text in an image file using Least Significant Bit (LSB) based Steganography, Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) based Steganography and Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) based steganography.The LSB algorithm is implemented in spatial domain in which the payload bits are embedded into the least significant bits of cover image to derive the stego-image whereas DCT & DWT algorithm are implemented in frequency domain in which the stego-image is transformed from spatial domain to the frequency domain and the payload bits are embedded into the frequency components of the cover image.The performance and comparison of these three techniques is evaluated on the basis of the parameters MSE, PSNR, Capacity & Robustness.

A Secure Color Image Steganography In Transform Domain

Abstract: Steganography is the art and science of covert communication. The secret information can be concealed in content such as image, audio, or video. This paper provides a novel image steganography technique to hide both image and key in color cover image using Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and Integer Wavelet Transform (IWT). There is no visual difference between the stego image and the cover image. The extracted image is also similar to the secret image. This is proved by the high PSNR (Peak Signal to Noise Ratio), value for both stego and extracted secret image. The results are compared with the results of similar techniques and it is found that the proposed technique is simple and gives better PSNR values than others.

An Overview of Digital Image Steganography

Abstract: Hiding Capacity plays a vital role for efficient covert communication. This is achieved by Steganography. Steganography is the science of hiding the information into the other information so that the hidden information appears to be nothing to the human eyes. There are many ways to hide information inside an image, audio/video, document etc. But Image Steganography has its own advantages and is most popular among the others. This paper gives a review of various methods such as image domain and transformation domain algorithms available for implementing Image Steganography. In this paper, a high-capacity Image Steganography schemes are discussed for different file formats. Covert communication is taking place by encrypting the password for information to be protected. The intended receiver will decrypt the information using that password.

Steganography in digital images: Common approaches and tools

Abstract: The art and science of using digital images for secret communication is known as image steganography. This paper presents a background on key concepts behind it. A representation of steganography area is graphically and mathematically shown. The origin and history of this area, its important properties, and major applications are outlined. An introduction to steganalysis is provided. Distinctions between steganography, cryptography, and watermarking in terms of technique and intent are briefly discussed. Details of the way images are represented are outlined. Benefits and drawbacks of steganography domains are highlighted. Common approaches used for embedding messages into images are discussed in some detail. Methods used for embedding messages into images are also explored. Current steganography tools are highlighted. A demonstration of how secret information is embedded into an image through the use of available steganographic tools is shown. Comparisons between different image steganography alg...

Image Steganography: A Review

Abstract: Steganography can be defined as the study of invisible communication that usually deals with the ways of hiding the existence of the communicated message. If it is achieved successfully, the message does not attract attention from eavesdroppers and attackers. The main objectives of steganography are undetectability, robustness (resistance to various image processing methods and compression) and capacity of the hidden data. These are the main factors which make it different from other techniques watermarking and cryptography. This paper includes the important steganography methods and the main focus is on the review of steganography in digital images.

Evaluating image steganography techniques: Future research challenges

Abstract: Steganography is the art of “concealed writing” and it refers to techniques that hide information inside innocuous looking objects known as “Cover Objects”. There are different types of covers available for embedding secret information but images are pervasive in day to day applications and have high redundancy in representation. Thus, they are appealing contenders to be used as cover objects. This paper evaluates the different algorithms for digital image steganography both in the spatial and transform domain like LSB substitution, OPAP, Pixel Indicator Technique, F5 etc. and tries to put light on some possible future research directions in the topic of consideration.

A Multi-Source Steganography for Stereo Audio

Abstract: We proposed a steganography algorithm for stereo multi-source audio by studying sound source separation technique based on spatial clues and using it in information steganography technology.In this algorithm,the binary spectrum mask technology which is used in sound source separation technology is introduced in steganography algorithm.Regard the separated sound sources as carriers,and embed the stereo sound,by modifying part of the coefficients in odd windows in time-frequency domain,to achieve steganography information embedding,which replaces the traditional single source embedding steganography algorithms.Experimental results show that this algorithm has large embedding capacity,and it is able to resist the attacks of StriMark Benchmark for Audio and other common attacks effectively.The average bit error rate is smaller than 2.80%,which provides good robustness.

Security improvisation in image steganography using DES

Abstract: The incredible evolution of Internet technologies & its applications require high level the security of data over the communication channel. Image steganography is a digital technique for concealing information into a cover image. Least Significant-Bit (LSB) based approach is most popular steganographic technique in spatial domain due to its simplicity and hiding capacity. All of existing methods of steganography focus on the embedding strategy with less consideration to the pre-processing, such as encryption of secrete image. The conventional algorithm does not provide the preprocessing required in image based steganography for better security, as they do not offer flexibility, robustness and high level of security. The proposed work presents a unique technique for Image steganography based on the Data Encryption Standard (DES) using the strength of S- Box mapping & Secrete key. The preprocessing of secrete image is carried by embedding function of the steganography algorithm using two unique S-boxes. The preprocessing provide high level of security as extraction is not possible without the knowledge of mapping rules and secrete key of the function. Additionally the proposed scheme is capable of not just scrambling data but it also changes the intensity of the pixels which contributes to the safety of the encryption.

A New Approach for Information Security using an Improved Steganography Technique

Abstract: —This research paper proposes a secured, robust approach of information security using steganography. It presents two component based LSB (Least Significant Bit) steganography methods for embedding secret data in the least significant bits of blue components and partial green components of random pixel locations in the edges of images. An adaptive LSB based steganography is proposed for embedding data based on the data available in MSB’s (Most Significant Bits) of red, green, and blue components of randomly selected pixels across smooth areas. A hybrid feature detection filter is also proposed that performs better to predict edge areas even in noisy conditions. AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) and random pixel embedding is incorporated to provide two-tier security. The experimental results of the proposed approach are better in terms of PSNR and capacity. The comparison analysis of output results with other existing techniques is giving the proposed approach an edge over others. It has been thoroughly tested for various steganalysis attacks like visual analysis, histogram analysis, chi-square, and RS analysis and could sustain all these attacks very well.

A hybrid approach for image security by combining encryption and steganography

Abstract: Multimedia data is more used on internet so it is desired to secure the data before transmitting. Various algorithms have been researched and proposed in this regards. This paper presents the hybrid approach for image security that combines both encryption and steganography. First the image is encrypted using proposed new version of AES algorithm, which is then hided into cover image using the steganography concept. Experimental results and analysis is shown. This hybrid approach provides greater security against attacks.

Analysis of secured video steganography using computer forensics technique for enhance data security

Abstract: Steganography is used to hide the messages inside other harmless messages in a way that does not allow any enemy to even sense that there is a second secret message present while the purpose of computer forensics is that it provides security from covert communication dealing with digital data and covert communication channel. In this paper we used video as cover media for hiding the secret message and used computer forensics as tool for authentication. Our aim is to hide an image and text behind a video file. Suitable algorithm such as 1LSB, 2LSB, 4LSB is used and 4LSB method found to be good for hiding more secret information data. This paper deals with the idea of video steganography, cryptography and the use of computer forensic techniques in both investigative and security manner.

A GA based audio steganography with enhanced security

Abstract: In the current internet community, secure data transfer is limited due to its attack made on data communication. So more robust methods are chosen so that they ensure secured data transfer. One of the solutions which came to the rescue is the audio Steganography. "A GA Based Audio Steganography with enhanced security" is one propose system which is based on audio Steganography and cryptography, ensures secure data transfer between the source and destination. Here we present a novel, principled approach to resolve the remained problems of substitution technique of audio Steganography. We use most powerful encryption algorithm (RSA) to encrypt message in the first level of security, which is very complex to break. In the second level, we use a more powerful GA based LSB (Least Significant Bit) Algorithm to encode the encrypted message into audio data. Here encrypted message bits are embedded into random and higher LSB layers, resulting in increased robustness against noise addition. The robustness specially would be increased against those intentional attacks which try to reveal the hidden message and also some unintentional attacks like noise addition as well. On the other hand, to reduce the distortion, GA operators are used. The basic idea behind this paper is maintained randomness in message bit insertion into audio data for hiding the data from hackers and multi-objective GA is used to reduce distortion.

Hiding data in video sequences using steganography algorithms

Abstract: This paper focuses on the utilization of digital video/images as cover to hide data. The proposed steganography algorithm based on color histograms for data embedding into Video clips directly, where each pixel in each video frame is divided in two parts, the number of bits which will be embedded in the right part are counted in the left part of the pixel. This algorithm is characterized by the ability of hiding larger size of data and the ability of extracting the written text without errors, besides it gives a high level of authentication to guarantee integrity of the video/ images before being extracted. Furthermore, the data were embedded inside the video/ images randomly which gave the video/ images a higher security and resistance against extraction by attackers.

PadSteg: introducing inter-protocol steganography

Abstract: Hiding information in network traffic may lead to leakage of confidential information. In this paper we introduce a new steganographic system: the PadSteg (Padding Steganography). To authors' best knowledge it is the first information hiding solution which represents inter-protocol steganography i.e. usage of relation between two or more protocols from the TCP/IP stack to enable secret communication. PadSteg utilizes ARP and TCP protocols together with an Etherleak vulnerability (improper Ethernet frame padding) to facilitate secret communication for hidden groups in LANs (Local Area Networks). Basing on real network traces we confirm that PadSteg is feasible in today's networks and we estimate what steganographic bandwidth is achievable while limiting the chance of disclosure. We also point at possible countermeasures against PadSteg.

A DWT Method for Image Steganography

Abstract: In this era of Internet every digitized object is transferable and exchangeable over internet for various purposes. As every computer user knows that there are numerous security threats for digitized objects hence methods like steganography are getting more importance day by day. Though steganography is a very old method of hiding information behind some object, but still this is very effective for secure data transfer and data exchange. Today this method is used for digital objects like text, audio, video and images. In this paper a method for image steganography has been discussed, utilising basics of discrete wavelet transform.

Lazy Wavelet Transform Based Steganography in Video

Abstract: Visual steganography is the most widely practiced form of steganography. It started with concealing messages within the lowest bits of noisy images or sound files. We shall perform steganography on video files and hide the message in an encrypted format, thus achieving a multiple cryptographic system. The most commonly used technique is Least Significant Bit steganography (LSB steganography). But instead of traditional LSB encoding, we will use a modified encoding technique which will first transform the video using a Lazy Lifting Wavelet transform and then apply LSB in the sub-bands of the video that has been obtained. The proposed approach to video steganography utilizes the visual as well as the audio component. The lazy wavelet transform is applied to the visual frames, and the data is stored in the coefficients of the visual component. The length up to which it is stored is hidden using LSB in the audio component. Experimental results show that the proposed technique does not affect the higher and lower ends of the frequency distribution of the signal. Moreover, it has a high payload capacity and low computational requirements.

Text Steganography Based on Font Type in MS-Word Documents

Abstract: With the rapid development of Internet, safe covert communications in the network environment become an essential research direction. Steganography is a si gnificant means that secret information is embedded into cover data imperceptibly for transmission, so that information cannot be easily aware by others. Text Steganography is low in redundancy and related to natural language rules these lead to limit manipulation of text, so they are both great challenges to conceal message in text properly and to detect such conceal ment. This study proposes a novel text steganography method which takes into account the Font Types. This ne w method depends on the Similarity of English Font Types; we called it (SEFT) technique. It works by rep lace font by more similar fonts. The secret message was encoded and embedded as similar fonts in capital Letters of cover document. Proposed text steganogra phy method can works in different cover documents of different font types. The size of cover and stego d ocument was increased about 0.766% from original size. The capacity of this method is very high and the se cret message was inconspicuous to an adversary.

Pattern based 3D image Steganography

Abstract: This paper proposes a new high capacity Steganographic scheme using 3D geometric models. The novel algorithm re-triangulates a part of a triangle mesh and embeds the secret information into newly added position of triangle meshes. Up to nine bits of secret data can be embedded into vertices of a triangle without causing any changes in the visual quality and the geometric properties of the cover image. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is secure, with high capacity and low distortion rate. Our algorithm also resists against uniform affine transformations such as cropping, rotation and scaling. Also, the performance of the method is compared with other existing 3D Steganography algorithms.