Steganalysis of Neural Networks Based on Symmetric Histogram Distribution

Abstract

Deep neural networks have achieved remarkable success in various fields of artificial intelligence. However, these models, which contain a large number of parameters, are widely distributed and disseminated by researchers, engineers, and even unauthorized users. Except for intelligent tasks, typically overparameterized deep neural networks have become new digital covers for data hiding, which may pose significant security challenges to AI systems. To address this issue, this paper proposes a symmetric steganalysis scheme specifically designed for neural networks trained for image classification tasks. The proposed method focuses on detecting the presence of additional data without access to the internal structure or parameters of the host network. It employs a well-designed method based on histogram distribution to find the optimal decision threshold, with a symmetric determining rule where the original networks and stego networks undergo two highly symmetrical flows to generate the classification labels; the method has been shown to be practical and effective. SVM and ensemble classifiers were chosen as the binary classifier for their applicability to feature vectors output from neural networks based on different datasets and network structures. This scheme is the first of its kind, focusing on steganalysis for neural networks based on the distribution of network output, compared to conventional digital media such as images, audio, and video. Overall, the proposed scheme offers a promising approach to enhancing the security of deep neural networks against data hiding attacks.