Using IWT and LSB method to hide encrypted image in color image

Abstract EN

In this paper, we transmit an encrypted secret image, where an image is used as medium to hide the encrypted secret image, called cover image.

So, we have first encrypted a secret image by using Integer wavelet transform (IWT), then the secret image is scrambled by Arnold transform and xored operation with a two-type of chaotic map key to protect a cipher image and enhance the security.

This proposed technique can achieve the perfect reversibility that is image recovery and data extraction are free of any error.

In steganography stage, we have used the least significant bit (LSB) method to hide the three planes of the encrypted color image into true image.

A modified scanning ordering is used, and IWT in each block divides into the hiding image.

This method presents a new data hiding system in which steganography and cryptography are used to deny unauthorized data access.

The experimental results show that the assessment metric such as peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and Mean Square Error (MSE) is high imperceptibility for hidden images and significant encryption of information images.

The time required for encryption and decryption is between 0.4043- 0.77641 seconds.