Efficient embedding and retrieval of information for high-resolution videos coded with HEVC

Abstract

Steganography is the art of hiding information within a file. This work focuses on embedding such information in videos. In this scenario, it is critical to comply with the latest video standard, namely: the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), which allows reducing the size of the file to be transmitted. In this paper we propose an HEVC-compliant method to hide and retrieve information in high-resolution videos. The procedure is based on modifying the luminance of certain blocks, not the HEVC encoder. Nevertheless, this must be carefully done, as the HEVC standard is a powerful attack in itself, since it compresses 50% the size of the video on average and the embedded information may disappear. Results show that it is possible to retrieve all the information while maintaining the quality of the video when using intra frames. Furthermore, the proposed flow has shown to be resilient to state-of-the-art steganalysis attacks.