The hiding of multimedia secret files in dual RGB cover images using LSB steganography techniques

Other Title(s)

الإخفاء للملفات السرية المتعددة الوسائط في صور مزدوجة ثلاثية الألوان باستخدام تقنيات الإخفاء في البتات الأقل الأهمية

Dissertant

al-Bayyati, Marwah Tariq Ahmad

Thesis advisor

al-Jarrah, Muzaffar Munir

Comitee Members

Kayid, Ahmad
Abu Huda, Bilal

University

Middle East University

Faculty

Faculty of Information Technology

Department

Computer Science Department

University Country

Jordan

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2016

English Abstract

Steganography, the technology of protecting a secret message by embedding it inside a cover image, continues to be investigated and enhanced as an alternative data protection method.

The main advantages of steganography over cryptography are: it does not provoke attacks as ideally, the existence of a secret message cannot be observed, and there is no key management overhead.

This thesis deals with hiding multimedia files in true color RGB cover images with an emphasis on high hiding capacity and secret data protection.

A proposed model (DuoHide) is presented in which a secret multimedia file, regardless of its type, is read as a stream of bytes and split vertically into two parts, one part contains the LSB half-bytes and the other part contains the MSB half-bytes.

The two parts are hidden inside two uncompressed RGB images using 4-bit LSB replacement technique.

Extraction of the secret file is achieved through merging the two hidden parts.

The model is implemented in the MATLAB environment.

The proposed model is evaluated using a set of public multimedia files; images, audios, and videos, of various sizes.

The secret file sizes ranged from 5% to about 100% of the cover image's size.

The purpose of the evaluation is to measure imperceptibility based on two criteria: Visual, by comparison between stego and cover images, and Statistical, using the Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) value between the stego and the cover images.

The experimental results showed that even at the highest embedding ratio, which is based on the secret to cover sizes, there are no perceptible visual differences between cover and stego images.

The PNSR value is calculated as PSNR1, for cover and stego1, and PSNR2 for cover and stego2.

There is a small difference between PSNR1 and PSNR2.

The lowest PSNR value is around 31 dB for the highest embedding ratio, which is considered acceptable concerning statistical imperceptibility.

The PSNR value increased as the embedding ratio decreased, reaching around 65 Decibel (dB) for the case of 5% embedding ratio.

Additional comparisons are performed, using the standard image Lena as cover, and a set of secret images.

The first comparison looks at PSNR values using the DuoHide model against a 3-bit LSB method.

The PSNR value for the DuoHide is higher than that of the 3-bit model.

This difference can be due to using a compressed JPG cover in the 3-bit model results, where the compression can add distortion.

The second comparison is between DuoHide and a single cover 4-bit LSB method.

The PSNR value of the dual cover method is around 3 dB higher than the single cover method, despite the fact that the dual cover method had double the hiding capacity.

Concerning enhancing the security of the secret file, in case an attacker manages to recover it from the stego file, the attacker will only get an incomprehensible set of bits.

The thesis ends with conclusions and suggestions for future work based on observations on the present research.

Main Subjects

Information Technology and Computer Science

No. of Pages

81

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
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Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-721127