A novel and efficient digital image steganography technique using least significant bit substitution
Abstract Steganography is used to hide sensitive types of data including images, audio, text, and videos in an invisible way so that no one can detect it. Image-based steganography is a technique that uses images as a cover media for hiding and transmitting sensitive information over the internet. H...
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| Format: | Article |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-83147-3 |
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| author | Shahid Rahman Jamal uddin Hameed Hussain Sabir Shah Abdu Salam Farhan Amin Isabel de la Torre Díez Debora Libertad Ramírez Vargas Julio César Martínez Espinosa |
| author_facet | Shahid Rahman Jamal uddin Hameed Hussain Sabir Shah Abdu Salam Farhan Amin Isabel de la Torre Díez Debora Libertad Ramírez Vargas Julio César Martínez Espinosa |
| author_sort | Shahid Rahman |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Steganography is used to hide sensitive types of data including images, audio, text, and videos in an invisible way so that no one can detect it. Image-based steganography is a technique that uses images as a cover media for hiding and transmitting sensitive information over the internet. However, image-based steganography is a challenging task due to transparency, security, computational efficiency, tamper protection, payload, etc. Recently, different image steganography methods have been proposed but most of them have reliability issues. Therefore, to solve this issue, we propose an efficient technique based on the Least Significant Bit (LSB). The LSB substitution method minimizes the error rate in the embedding process and is used to achieve greater reliability. Our proposed image-based steganography algorithm incorporates LSB substitution with Magic Matrix, Multi-Level Encryption Algorithm (MLEA), Secret Key (SK), and transposition, flipping. We performed several experiments and the results show that our proposed technique is efficient and achieves efficient results. We tested a total of 165 different RGB images of various dimensions and sizes of hidden information, using various Quality Assessment Metrics (QAMs); A name of few are; Normalized Cross Correlation (NCC), Image Fidelity (IF), Peak Signal Noise Ratio (PSNR), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Quality Index (QI), Correlation Coefficient (CC), Structural Similarity Index (SSIM), Mean Square Error (MSE), Entropy, Contrast, and Homogeneity, Image Histogram (IH). We also conducted a comparative analysis with some existing methods as well as security analysis which showed better results. The achieved result demonstrates significant improvements over the current state-of-the-art methods. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-a998339ea1ab4a4ea075a1ca7ee8a1d0 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj-art-a998339ea1ab4a4ea075a1ca7ee8a1d02025-01-05T12:22:31ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-01-0115111610.1038/s41598-024-83147-3A novel and efficient digital image steganography technique using least significant bit substitutionShahid Rahman0Jamal uddin1Hameed Hussain2Sabir Shah3Abdu Salam4Farhan Amin5Isabel de la Torre Díez6Debora Libertad Ramírez Vargas7Julio César Martínez Espinosa8Department of Computer Science, University of BunerRiphah School of Computing & Innovation, Riphah International University LahoreDepartment of Computer Science, University of BunerDepartment of Computer Science, University of BunerDepartment of Computer Science, Abdul Wali Khan UniversitySchool of Computer Science and Engineering, Yeungnam UniversityDepartment of Signal Theory and Communications, University of ValladolidUniversidad Europea del Atlántico. Isabel Torres 21Universidad Europea del Atlántico. Isabel Torres 21Abstract Steganography is used to hide sensitive types of data including images, audio, text, and videos in an invisible way so that no one can detect it. Image-based steganography is a technique that uses images as a cover media for hiding and transmitting sensitive information over the internet. However, image-based steganography is a challenging task due to transparency, security, computational efficiency, tamper protection, payload, etc. Recently, different image steganography methods have been proposed but most of them have reliability issues. Therefore, to solve this issue, we propose an efficient technique based on the Least Significant Bit (LSB). The LSB substitution method minimizes the error rate in the embedding process and is used to achieve greater reliability. Our proposed image-based steganography algorithm incorporates LSB substitution with Magic Matrix, Multi-Level Encryption Algorithm (MLEA), Secret Key (SK), and transposition, flipping. We performed several experiments and the results show that our proposed technique is efficient and achieves efficient results. We tested a total of 165 different RGB images of various dimensions and sizes of hidden information, using various Quality Assessment Metrics (QAMs); A name of few are; Normalized Cross Correlation (NCC), Image Fidelity (IF), Peak Signal Noise Ratio (PSNR), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Quality Index (QI), Correlation Coefficient (CC), Structural Similarity Index (SSIM), Mean Square Error (MSE), Entropy, Contrast, and Homogeneity, Image Histogram (IH). We also conducted a comparative analysis with some existing methods as well as security analysis which showed better results. The achieved result demonstrates significant improvements over the current state-of-the-art methods.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-83147-3Image steganographyLSBImage quality assessment metricsHistogram analysisImageCapacity |
| spellingShingle | Shahid Rahman Jamal uddin Hameed Hussain Sabir Shah Abdu Salam Farhan Amin Isabel de la Torre Díez Debora Libertad Ramírez Vargas Julio César Martínez Espinosa A novel and efficient digital image steganography technique using least significant bit substitution Scientific Reports Image steganography LSB Image quality assessment metrics Histogram analysis Image Capacity |
| title | A novel and efficient digital image steganography technique using least significant bit substitution |
| title_full | A novel and efficient digital image steganography technique using least significant bit substitution |
| title_fullStr | A novel and efficient digital image steganography technique using least significant bit substitution |
| title_full_unstemmed | A novel and efficient digital image steganography technique using least significant bit substitution |
| title_short | A novel and efficient digital image steganography technique using least significant bit substitution |
| title_sort | novel and efficient digital image steganography technique using least significant bit substitution |
| topic | Image steganography LSB Image quality assessment metrics Histogram analysis Image Capacity |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-83147-3 |
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