A Highly Secure Digital Image Steganography Technique Using Chaotic Logistic Map and Support Image

Abstract

A widely applied technique to transmit secret information, hiding in a cover image is Least Significant Bit (LSB) image steganography. Various stega-analysis algorithms are available to detect the amount of hidden data in such cover image. Nonlinear chaotic map functions which are highly complex in behaviour with unpredictable time evolution are used for designing security algorithms. In this paper we report a highly secure steganography technique using chaotic map and a support image to hide secret information in a grayscale cover image. The secret information is encrypted before hiding and the support image is pre-processed to defy stega-analysis. Our technique applies three prong security to secret information by using a very robust random sequence for encryption, a support grayscale image, and pre-processing of the support image.