A Proposed Algorithm for Hiding a Text in an Image Using QR Code

Abstract

In this paper, an algorithm to hide information in an image using QR code technology is presented. QR Code “QUICK RESPONSE CODE” is a two-dimensional array that can include different types of data and was first developed in 1993 for the Japanese Toyota Corporation for the purpose of tracking products through production and marketing. The researchers paid great attention to QR code technology especially in the field of information security. The proposed algorithm in this paper hides the secret text in the image in a random way by generating random positions and using the LSB “Least Significant Bit” method. After that, the random positions are saved in the QR code file, and this is the hiding stage. In the extraction stage, the QR code file is read first to extract the positions where the secret text has been hidden. After that, the secret text is read according to the LSB method. The algorithm was implemented using the C-Sharp programming language and Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 development environment. After conducting experiments on a number of images and extracting results based on the PSNR “Peak signal-to-noise ratio “test method, the results were good and the algorithm is very strong against a brute force attack. This algorithm can be used in building authentication systems. Index Terms— Information Security, Text Hiding, QR Code, LSB Steganography, Random Position, LSB.