An Efficient Dual Text Steganographic Approach: Hiding Data in a List of Words

Abstract

In this paper, we present a novel approach in text steganography using a list of words to hide the secret message. The approach uses the ASCII value of characters and conceals secret message without altering the cover file. The hash value of a message is computed and appended at the end of the message. To provide security, both the message and the appended hash value are encrypted using the proposed encipher algorithm and then the resulting cipher text is embedded inside a cover file using the proposed hide algorithm. After embedding, the stego file, which consists of a list of words, is sent to the receiver. At the receiver side, message authentication and integrity can be verified by applying the same hash function to the deciphered message. The security of the approach is equivalent to the most secure one time pad cryptosystem. We also present an empirical comparison of the proposed approach with some of the existing approaches and show that our approach outperforms the existing approaches.