Steganographic Capacity Research Articles

Methods of embedding control information in images

The paper discusses various methods of steganography used to embed control information in digital images. The main focus is on the principles of operation, advantages and disadvantages of each method. Classical and modern methods such as LSD, FT, PVD, MPVD, DCT, S-UNIWARD, WOW, HUGO and Steghide are considered. Their resistance to steganalysis, steganographic capacity and computational complexity are analyzed. Understanding these methods makes it possible to increase the efficiency and safety of using steganographic techniques in various practical tasks.

Enhancing steganography capacity through multi-stage generator model in generative adversarial network based image concealment

Enhancing steganography capacity through multi-stage generator model in generative adversarial network based image concealment

МЕТОД ДВОКАСКАДНОЇ ІМПЛАНТАЦІЇ ПРИХОВАНОЇ ІНФОРМАЦІЇ НА ОСНОВІ СТЕГАНОКОМПРЕСІЙНИХ ПЕРЕТВОРЕНЬ

In the article, the need for further development of the state is directly related to: solving issues of increasing defense capability and information security; development of information and intelligent systems. The necessity of ensuring the required level of completeness of information, compliance with the requirements of its relevance, achievement and maintenance of the appropriate level of integrity, accessibility and confidentiality is substantiated. The article emphasizes that for this purpose, complex systems of coding and information protection are being built. It is shown that recently, in order to further increase the level of security of information resources, methods of hidden embedding of information have been used. In this field of scientific and applied research, the direction of timely delivery of integral video information in a secure mode is outlined. For protection, the following can be used: meta-messages, which are formed on the basis of intelligent analysis of video frames; separate video segments of aerial photographs containing the most important information for decision-making. This article examines a class of methods of steganographic transformations, which are associated with embedding messages in digital containers, which are formed by a stream of video segments (VS). However, existing steganographic systems are based mainly on the use of the amount of psychovisual (PSV) redundancy available for reduction. Therefore, an increase in steganographic capacity leads to a loss of integrity and efficiency of delivery of video-container information. Steganocompression coding in the stegano-polyadic basis was created on the basis of taking into account the amount of redundancy permissible for reduction. In this case, in the process of compression of the components of the VS, the direct embedding of hidden information is organized. Concealment of information is carried out by technological stages, depending on the compression transformation of the transitional syntax of the quilted sequence. The key stage is the technology of two-stage implementation of the elements of the concealed message added to the stegano sequences to the syntax of the steganocompression representation of the BC components.

StegFormer: Rebuilding the Glory of Autoencoder-Based Steganography

Image hiding aims to conceal one or more secret images within a cover image of the same resolution. Due to strict capacity requirements, image hiding is commonly called large-capacity steganography. In this paper, we propose StegFormer, a novel autoencoder-based image-hiding model. StegFormer can conceal one or multiple secret images within a cover image of the same resolution while preserving the high visual quality of the stego image. In addition, to mitigate the limitations of current steganographic models in real-world scenarios, we propose a normalizing training strategy and a restrict loss to improve the reliability of the steganographic models under realistic conditions. Furthermore, we propose an efficient steganographic capacity expansion method to increase the capacity of steganography and enhance the efficiency of secret communication. Through this approach, we can increase the relative payload of StegFormer to 96 bits per pixel without any training strategy modifications. Experiments demonstrate that our StegFormer outperforms existing state-of-the-art (SOTA) models. In the case of single-image steganography, there is an improvement of more than 3 dB and 5 dB in PSNR for secret/recovery image pairs and cover/stego image pairs.

Security-oriented steganographic payload allocation for multi-remote sensing images

Multi-image steganography, a technique for concealing information within multiple carrier mediums, finds remote sensing images to be particularly apt carriers due to their complex structures and abundant texture data. These characteristics bolster the resilience against steganalysis and enhance steganographic capacity. The efficacy of multi-image steganography hinges on the diplomatic strategy of cover selection and the meticulous allocation of the payload. Nevertheless, the majority of current methods, which are empirically formulated, predominantly focus on the texture complexity of individual images, thereby potentially undermining overall security. This paper introduces a security-oriented approach to steganographic payload allocation for multiple remote sensing images aimed at fortifying the security of multi-image steganography. Our primary contributions include employing a steganalysis pre-trained network to quantify texture complexity in remote sensing cover images, directly correlating it with security. Additionally, we have developed an adaptive payload allocation strategy for multiple images, which embeds a payload proximate to each image’s maximal steganographic capacity while concurrently ensuring the security of the embedding process. Experimental results corroborate that our methodology excels in cover selection and payload allocation and achieves better undetectability against modern steganalysis tools.

Invisible Shield: Unveiling an Efficient Watermarking Solution for Medical Imaging Security

Securing medical imaging poses a significant challenge in preserving the confidentiality of healthcare data. Numerous research efforts have focused on fortifying these images, with encryption emerging as a primary solution for maintaining data integrity without compromising confidentiality. However, applying conventional encryption techniques directly to e-health data encounters hurdles, including limitations in data size, redundancy, and capacity, particularly in open-channel patient data transmissions. As a result, the unique characteristics of images, marked by their risk of data loss and the need for confidentiality, make preserving the privacy of data contents a complex task. This underscores the pressing need for innovative approaches to ensure the security and confidentiality of sensitive healthcare information within medical images. The proposed algorithm outperforms referenced algorithms in both image fidelity and steganographic capacity across diverse medical imaging modalities. It consistently achieves higher Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) values, indicating superior image fidelity, reduced noise, and preserved signal quality in CT, MRI, ultrasound, and X-ray modalities. The experimental results demonstrate a considerable improvement in both the Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) and maximum embedding capacity. Specifically, the average PSNR value for the X-ray modality reached a notable 73 dB, signifying superior image quality. Moreover, the CT modality exhibited the highest maximum embedding capacity, measured at 0.52, showcasing its efficiency in accommodating data within the images. Moreover, the algorithm consistently offers increased steganographic data hiding capacity in these images without perceptibly degrading their quality or integrity.

Enhancing of coverless image steganography capacity based on image block features

Enhancing of coverless image steganography capacity based on image block features

Chaotic color multi-image compression-encryption/ LSB data type steganography scheme for NFT transaction security

With the rapid development of blockchain technology, the security of non-fungible tokens (NFT) in the transaction process has attracted much attention. In the transaction process, the commoditized NFT images will inevitably involve display and leakage problems, which is likely to lead to economic losses drink copyright disputes between the trading parties. To protect transaction security, a chaotic color multi-image compression encryption/LSB data-type steganography scheme is proposed in the paper. A series of chaotic sequences are obtained by iterating the chaotic map, while compression sensing (CS) is introduced to compress multiple secret images and fuse the compressed secret images into one large secret image. Then this image is encrypted, and the encrypted large secret image is hidden on multiple cover images by steganography. This encryption can hide the change in the statistical properties caused by steganography. Finally, the cover image is combined with the 3D object model by using it as a texture for the 3D object model to realize the type steganography of the image data. The simulation and performance test results of the scheme illustrate that the scheme has a large enough key space and steganography capacity, as well as good resistance to differential attacks, statistical attacks, compression reconstruction quality, and robustness. This scheme can well protect the transaction security of NFT images, and at the same time open a channel connecting 2D images and 3D obj textured models, which provides a new idea for steganography.

IDGAN: Information-Driven Generative Adversarial Network of Coverless Image Steganography

Traditional image steganography techniques complete the steganography process by embedding secret information into cover images, but steganalysis tools can easily detect detectable pixel changes that lead to the leakage of confidential information. The use of a generative adversarial network (GAN) makes it possible to embed information using a combination of information and noise in generating images to achieve steganography. However, this approach is usually accompanied by issues such as poor image quality and low steganography capacity. To address these challenges, we propose a steganography model based on a novel information-driven generative adversarial network (IDGAN), which fuses a GAN, attention mechanisms, and image interpolation techniques. We introduced an attention mechanism on top of the original GAN model to improve image accuracy. In the generation model, we replaced some transposed convolution operations with image interpolation for better quality of dense images. In contrast to traditional steganographic methods, the IDGAN generates images containing confidential information without using cover images and utilizes GANs for information embedding, thus having better anti-detection capability. Moreover, the IDGAN uses an attention mechanism to improve the image details and clarity and optimizes the steganography effect through an image interpolation algorithm. Experimental results demonstrate that the IDGAN achieves an accuracy of 99.4%, 95.4%, 93.2%, and 100% on the MNIST, Intel Image Classification, Flowers, and Face datasets, respectively, with an embedding rate of 0.17 bpp. The model effectively protects confidential information while maintaining high image quality.

A Coverless Audio Steganography Based on Generative Adversarial Networks

Traditional audio steganography by cover modification causes changes to the cover features during the embedding of a secret, which is easy to detect with emerging neural-network steganalysis tools. To address the problem, this paper proposes a coverless audio-steganography model to conceal a secret audio. In this method, the stego-audio is directly synthesized by our model, which is based on the WaveGAN framework. An extractor is meticulously designed to reconstruct the secret audio, and it contains resolution blocks to learn the different resolution features. The method does not perform any modification to an existing or generated cover, and as far as we know, this is the first directly generated stego-audio. The experimental results also show that it is difficult for the current steganalysis methods to detect the existence of a secret in the stego-audio generated by our method because there is no cover audio. The MOS metric indicates that the generated stego-audio has high audio quality. The steganography capacity can be measured from two perspectives, one is that it can reach 50% of the stego-audio from the simple size perspective, the other is that 22–37 bits can be hidden in a two-second stego-audio from the semantic. In addition, we prove using spectrum diagrams in different forms that the extractor can reconstruct the secret audio successfully on hearing, which guarantees complete semantic transmission. Finally, the experiment of noise impacts on the stego-audio transmission shows that the extractor can still completely reconstruct the semantics of the secret audios, which indicates that the proposed method has good robustness.

Random Matrix Transformation and Its Application in Image Hiding

Image coding technology has become an indispensable technology in the field of modern information. With the vigorous development of the big data era, information security has received more attention. Image steganography is an important method of image encoding and hiding, and how to protect information security with this technology is worth studying. Using a basis of mathematical modeling, this paper makes innovations not only in improving the theoretical system of kernel function but also in constructing a random matrix to establish an information-hiding scheme. By using the random matrix as the reference matrix for secret-information steganography, due to the characteristics of the random matrix, the secret information set to be retrieved is very small, reducing the modification range of the steganography image and improving the steganography image quality and efficiency. This scheme can maintain the steganography image quality with a PSNR of 49.95 dB and steganography of 1.5 bits per pixel and can ensure that the steganography efficiency is improved by reducing the steganography set. In order to adapt to different steganography requirements and improve the steganography ability of the steganography schemes, this paper also proposes an adaptive large-capacity information-hiding scheme based on the random matrix. In this scheme, a method of expanding the random matrix is proposed, which can generate a corresponding random matrix according to different steganography capacity requirements to achieve the corresponding secret-information steganography. Two schemes are demonstrated through simulation experiments as well as an analysis of the steganography efficiency, steganography image quality, and steganography capacity and security. The experimental results show that the latter two schemes are better than the first two in terms of steganography capacity and steganography image quality.

Hiding Image within Image Based on Deep Learning

Information hiding technology is a technology that transmits secret information through a carrier, and is a research hotspot in the field of information security. The traditional information hiding algorithm relies on the meticulous design of human beings, and obtains the dense image through modification. With the development of deep learning, the integration of information hiding technology and deep learning has resulted in many information hiding technologies based on deep learning. Among them, image hiding has become a research hotspot due to its large steganographic capacity. Therefore, this paper reviews the information hiding technology based on deep learning. According to the difference of hidden models, it is analysed from four aspects: (1) information hiding model based on encoder-decoder; (2) information hiding model based on generative adversarial network; (3) information hiding model based on invertible network; (4) information hiding model based on neural network information hiding models for style transfer. Finally, these models are analysed and compared, and the future development direction is discussed and prospected.

A Coverless Text Steganography by Encoding the Chinese Characters' Component Structures

The current coverless text steganography methods have a low steganographic capacity, and yet some of them cannot assure a message can be concealed. How to achieve a high steganographic capacity has become the research hotspot in text steganography. This paper proposes a text coverless steganography method by encoding the Chinese characters’ component structures. Its main idea is that a binary bit string can be conveyed by the Chinese characters’ component structures. The positions of Chinese characters that carry a secret message will be expressed in two systems of the linear remainder equations, whose solutions will be secretly sent to the receiver to extract the secret message. In the method, a single Chinese character can express p bits. The analyses and statistics show that its capacity will be much higher when the same Chinese character is used more than once than existing methods, and it can conceal any message successfully. In addition, this method can also be employed in other languages.

A Coverless Text Steganography by Encoding the Chinese Characters’ Component Structures

The current coverless text steganography methods have a low steganographic capacity, and yet some of them cannot assure a message can be concealed. How to achieve a high steganographic capacity has become the research hotspot in text steganography. This paper proposes a text coverless steganography method by encoding the Chinese characters’ component structures. Its main idea is that a binary bit string can be conveyed by the Chinese characters’ component structures. The positions of Chinese characters that carry a secret message will be expressed in two systems of the linear remainder equations, whose solutions will be secretly sent to the receiver to extract the secret message. In the method, a single Chinese character can express p bits. The analyses and statistics show that its capacity will be much higher when the same Chinese character is used more than once than existing methods, and it can conceal any message successfully. In addition, this method can also be employed in other languages.

High-Capacity Image Steganography Algorithm Based on Image Style Transfer

Steganography is a technique for publicly transmitting secret information through a cover. Most of the existing steganography algorithms are based on modifying the cover image, generating a stego image that is very similar to the cover image but has different pixel values, or establishing a mapping relationship between the stego image and the secret message. Attackers will discover the existence of secret communications from these modifications or differences. In order to solve this problem, we propose a steganography algorithm ISTNet based on image style transfer, which can convert a cover image into another stego image with a completely different style. We have improved the decoder so that the secret image features can be fused with style features in a variety of sizes to improve the accuracy of secret image extraction. The algorithm has the functions of image steganography and image style transfer at the same time, and the images it generates are both stego images and stylized images. Attackers will pay more attention to the style transfer side of the algorithm, but it is difficult to find the steganography side. Experiments show that our algorithm effectively increases the steganography capacity from 0.06 bpp to 8 bpp, and the generated stylized images are not significantly different from the stylized images on the Internet.

Neural Reversible Steganography with Long Short-Term Memory

Deep learning has brought about a phenomenal paradigm shift in digital steganography. However, there is as yet no consensus on the use of deep neural networks in reversible steganography, a class of steganographic methods that permits the distortion caused by message embedding to be removed. The underdevelopment of the field of reversible steganography with deep learning can be attributed to the perception that perfect reversal of steganographic distortion seems scarcely achievable, due to the lack of transparency and interpretability of neural networks. Rather than employing neural networks in the coding module of a reversible steganographic scheme, we instead apply them to an analytics module that exploits data redundancy to maximise steganographic capacity. State-of-the-art reversible steganographic schemes for digital images are based primarily on a histogram-shifting method in which the analytics module is often modelled as a pixel intensity predictor. In this paper, we propose to refine the prior estimation from a conventional linear predictor through a neural network model. The refinement can be to some extent viewed as a low-level vision task (e.g., noise reduction and super-resolution imaging). In this way, we explore a leading-edge neuroscience-inspired low-level vision model based on long short-term memory with a brief discussion of its biological plausibility. Experimental results demonstrated a significant boost contributed by the neural network model in terms of prediction accuracy and steganographic rate-distortion performance.

An improved steganography without embedding based on attention GAN

Steganography is an art to hide information in the carriers to prevent from being detected, while steganalysis is the opposite art to detect the presence of the hidden information. With the development of deep learning, several state-of-the-art steganography and steganalysis based on deep learning techniques have been proposed to improve hiding or detection capabilities. Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) based steganography directly uses the minimax game between the generator and discriminator, to automatically generate steganography algorithms resisting being detected by powerful steganalysis. The steganography without embedding (SwE) based on GANs, where the generated cover images themselves are stego images carrying secret information has shown its state-of-the-art steganography performance. However, SwE based on GANs has serious weaknesses, such as low information recovery accuracy, low steganography capacity and poor natural showing. To solve these problems, this paper proposes a new SwE based on attention-GAN model, with carefully designed generator, discriminator and extractor, as well as their loss functions and optimized training mode. The generative model utilizes the attention method to improve the correlation among pixels and to correct errors such as image distortion and background abnormality. The soft margin discriminator is used to improve the compatibility of information recovery and fault tolerance of image generation. Experimental evaluations show that our method can achieve a very high information recovery accuracy (100% in some cases), and at the same time improve the steganography capacity and image quality.

Comparative analysis of medical images watermarking methods

The article is devoted to the analysis of watermarking algorithms in terms of their use in marking medical images. The algorithms based on the Integer Wavelet Transform (IWT), Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) were compared. The algorithms were implemented using the combinations: IWT, IWT-DCT, and IWT-SVD. As part of the research, the level of disturbances caused by embedding the watermark was checked using subjective and objective methods. The attack resistance of the watermarked images was tested and the steganographic capacity was measured. All algorithms are based on IWT, however, each has different advantages. The algorithm based on the IWT showed the highest capacity. The most resistant to attacks is IWT-SVD, and the lowest level of interference was obtained for the IWT-DCT algorithm.

Block-Based Steganography Method Using Optimal Selection to Reach High Efficiency and Capacity for Palette Images

The primary goal of steganographic methods is to develop statically undetectable methods with high steganographic capacity. The embedding efficiency is one kind of measure for undetectability. Block-based steganography methods have been proposed for achieving higher embedding efficiency under limited embedding capacity. However, in these methods, some blocks with larger embedding distortions are skipped, and a location map is usually incorporated into these methods to record the embedding status of each block. This reduces the embedding capacity for secret messages. In this study, we proposed a block-based steganography method without a location map for palette images. In this method, multiple secret bits can be embedded in a block by modifying at most one pixel with minimal embedding distortion; this enables each block to be used for data embedding; thus, our method provides higher embedding capacity. Furthermore, under the same capacity, the estimated and experimental embedding efficiencies of the proposed method are compared with those of Imaizumi et al. and Aryal et al.’s methods; the comparisons indicate that the proposed method has higher embedding efficiency than Imaizumi et al. and Aryal et al.’s methods.

Improving Steganographic capacity using distributed steganography over BMP

Our research area tackles the improvement of private data security using our proposed Steganographic method called DSoBMP-I (Distributed Steganography over BMP faze I) to improve the issues of low capacity, high detectability and distortion. The methodology consists of a new distributed steganographic approach to minimise the main weaknesses of today’s methods, including Discrete Cosine Transform, where the capacity, detectability and distortion needs an upgrade to accommodate securer steganography for our data protection. The proposed prototype approach that evolved after a few experiments using our distributed steganographic method, where secrete data is secure into a set of BMP files (as it is proven more reliable), originates from a raw file that is not necessarily a BMP at the start. After applying a layer of encryption for extra security using two different methods such as RC4 & RSA, comparing the two encryption techniques for its agility and extra security to address the issue of low capacity and better security using the DSoBMP-I method, all deriving from the supplied image. The overall achievement was improved capacity that doubles as the set of BMP images increases, less distortion and detectability as secrete data stays among different files.