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Multi-image steganography and authentication using crypto-stego techniques

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Abstract

It is a necessity to protect sensitive information in digital form from an adversary who may indulge in cyber-crimes such as modification, masquerading, and replaying of data. Security systems designed to counter such attacks must keep abreast of the adversary. In this paper, we have proposed a novel multi-image crypto-stego technique using Rabin cryptosystem and Arnold transform that provides a mechanism to hide digital data in the form of text, image, audio, and video. The proposed technique is a novel approach for (n,n) secret sharing that prevents attack by an intruder impersonating as a shareholder. In the proposed technique, the header information is created to retrieve data in the correct order. Randomized encrypted data and partial header information are camouflaged in the edges of multiple images in an adaptive manner. Minimal and distribution sequence keys distribute data in shares. Experimental results yield high values of PSNR and low values of MSE for the audio, image, video signals. Further, as the entropy values for original cover image coincide with the crypto-stego image up to the third place of decimal, the secret message will go unnoticed. Sensitivity analysis reveals that even a minor variation in a single share makes the recovery of the secret message infeasible. Comparison with the state of the art techniques indicates that the proposed technique either scores over its competitors or performs equally well in terms of standard evaluation metrics.

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Notes

  1. a (mod n) is defined as set of all integers which have the same remainder as a when divided by n

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Acknowledgements

Authors thank the referees for their comments and suggestions which improved the presentation of the paper. Prof. R. K. Sharma is ConsenSys Blockchain Professor. He thanks ConsenSys AG for that previlage. This work has been supported for University of Delhi, Delhi-110007 with research grant RC/2015/9677.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Delhi, Delhi, 110007, India

    Himani Sharma & Naveen Kumar

  2. Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Delhi, 110016, India

    D. C. Mishra & R. K. Sharma

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  1. Himani Sharma
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  2. D. C. Mishra
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  3. R. K. Sharma
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  4. Naveen Kumar
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Correspondence to Himani Sharma.

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Sharma, H., Mishra, D.C., Sharma, R.K. et al. Multi-image steganography and authentication using crypto-stego techniques. Multimed Tools Appl 80, 29067–29093 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-021-11068-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-021-11068-8

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