Abstract
In a recent work, chaos has been utilized to modify addresses of message bits while hidden in a cover image. In this study, we extend the above technique to include multiple chaotic maps for increased security. Three systems have been modified using chaotic-address mapping for image steganography in the spatial domain. The first system, the well-known LSB technique, is based on the selection of pixels and then hides secret message in the Least Significant Bits LSBs of the given pixel. The second system is based on searching for the identical bits between the secret message and the cover image. The third system is based on the concept of LSB substitution. It employs mapping of secret data bits onto the cover pixel bits. To increase the security performance of the above chaos-based steganographic techniques, multiple-chaotic maps are introduced in this study by using multiple formulas to generate chaotic sequences used to track the addresses of shuffled bits. The generated chaotic sequences were evaluated to determine the randomness (using correlation tests) and the chaotic characteristics of a nonlinear system (using Lyapunov exponent, Poincare section and 0-1 test). The performance and security levels of the proposed techniques were evaluated by using Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR), Mean Square Error (MSE), histogram analysis and correlative analysis. The results show that the proposed method performs existing systems.
Highlights
Data-Hiding is a fundamental part of computer and communication security, data is saved and exchanged through computer and communication devices
As the attacker knows about these famous approaches, the hidden information could be at risk, where the sequential selection especially in LSB approach of the pixels in the cover image causes a decrease in the security level so the random selection will be provided high security
Mean Square Error (MSE) illustrates the square of error between cover image and stego image, MSE measures the distortion in image
Summary
Data-Hiding is a fundamental part of computer and communication security, data is saved and exchanged through computer and communication devices. Cryptography provides security by changing content of the message, but steganography is hidden the message without changing its content. Transform domain-based algorithms, the algorithms are based on converting the cover image to the frequency domain where the secret data is embedded in the transform coefficients that can change to hide the data (Wu and Noonan, 2012). As the attacker knows about these famous approaches, the hidden information could be at risk, where the sequential selection especially in LSB approach of the pixels in the cover image causes a decrease in the security level so the random selection will be provided high security. Due of the random behavior of chaos, it can be used to provide a high level of security in steganography (Kadhim and Hussain, 2018)
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