154 IJCSNS International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, VOL.10 No.

8, August 2010

Analysis of Different Steganographic Algorithms for Secured

Data Hiding
Dr.M.Umamaheswari1 Prof.S.Sivasubramanian2 S.Pandiarajan3
Department of Computer Science and Engineering,
Bharath University, Chennai-73, Tamil Nadu, India.

Abstract: The goal of steganography is to avoid drawing suspicion to the transmission of a hidden message. If suspicion is
raised, steganography may fail. The success of steganography depends on the secrecy of the action. If steganography is
detected, the system will fail but data security depends on the robustness of the applied algorithm. In this paper, we
compress the secret message and encrypt it by the receiver’s public key along with the stego key and embed both messages
in a carrier using an embedding algorithm. The stego - image is the result we get by running the algorithm you select on the
message (file to hide) and cover (image). It can be saved into BMP or PNG format. The reason that it can only be saved in
these formats is because they are lossless - there is no information lost as part of the file formatting. The various
applications of steganography include secure military communications, multimedia watermarking and fingerprinting
applications for authentication purposed to curb the problem of digital piracy.

Key words: Steganography, Cryptography, Data Hiding, Steganographic algorithms.

message which would result from encryption and

1. INTRODUCTION compression would also be easier to hide than a message
with a high degree of regularity. Therefore encryption and
The word "Steganography" is of Greek origin and means compression are recommended in conjunction with
"covered or hidden writing". The main aim in steganography
steganography is to hide the very existence of the message Steganography refers to the science of “invisible"
in the cover medium. Steganography and cryptography are communication. Unlike cryptography, where the goal is to
counter parts in digital security the obvious advantage of secure communications from an eavesdropper,
steganography over cryptography is that messages do not steganographic techniques strive to hide the very presence
attract attention to themselves, to messengers, or to of the message itself from an observer. The general idea of
recipients. Also, the last decade has seen an exponential hiding some information in digital content has a wider
growth in the use of multimedia data over the Internet. class of applications that go beyond steganography, Fig. 1.
These include Digital Images, Audio and Video files. This
rise of digital content on the internet has further
accelerated the research effort devoted to steganography.
The initial aim of this study was to investigate
steganography and how it is implemented. Based on this
work a number of common methods of steganography
could then be implemented and evaluated. The strengths
and weaknesses of the chosen methods can then be
analysed. To provide a common frame of reference all of
the steganography methods implemented and analysed
Fig. 1 Relationship of steganography to related fields
used GIF images.
To make a steganographic communication even more
In order to defeat the steganalytic attacks,algorithms have
secure the message can be compressed and encrypted
before being hidden in the carrier. Cryptography and been proposed which try to restore the statistics which get
steganography can be used together[3]. If compressed the distorted during the embedding procedure and which may
message will take up far less space in the carrier and will be used for steganalysis.
minimise the information to be sent. The random looking

Manuscript received August 5, 2010

  Manuscript revised August 20, 2010
IJCSNS International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, VOL.10 No.8, August 2010 155
 

The techniques involved in such applications are Bob are two inmates who wish to communicate in order to
collectively referred to as information hiding. For example, hatch an escape plan. However, all communication
an image printed on a document could be annotated by between them is examined by the warden, Wendy, who
metadata that could lead a user to its high resolution will put them in solitary confinement at the slightest
version. suspicion of covert communication. Specifically, in the
In general, metadata provides additional information about general model for steganography, illustrated in Fig. 2, we
an image. Although metadata can also be stored in the file have Alice wishing to send a secret message m to Bob. In
header of a digital image, this approach has many order to do so, she "embeds" m into a cover-object c, and
limitations. Usually, when a file is transformed to another obtains a stego-object s. The stego-object s is then sent
format (e.g., from TIFF to JPEG or to BMP), the metadata through the public channel. Thus we have the following
is lost. Similarly, cropping or any other form of image definitions:
manipulation destroys the metadata[5]. Finally, metadata Cover-object: refers to the object used as the carrier to
can only be attached to an image as long as the image embed messages into. Many different objects have been
exists in the digital form and is lost once the image is employed to embed messages into for example images,
printed. Information hiding allows the metadata to travel audio, and video as well as file structures, and html pages
with the image regardless of the file format and image to name a few.
state (digital or analog).A special case of information Stego-object: refers to the object which is carrying a
hiding is digital watermarking. hidden message. So given a cover object, and a messages
Digital watermarking is the process of embedding the goal of the steganographer is to produce a stego object
information into digital multimedia content such that the which would carry the message.
information (the watermark) can later be extracted or In a pure steganography framework, the technique for
detected for a variety of purposes including copy embedding the message is unknown to Wendy and shared
prevention and control. Digital watermarking has become as a secret between Alice and Bob. However, it is
an active and important area of research, and development generally considered that the algorithm in use is not secret
and commercialization of watermarking techniques is but only the key used by the algorithm is kept as a secret
being deemed essential to help address some of the between the two parties, this assumption is also known as
challenges faced by the rapid proliferation of digital Kerchoff's principle in the field of cryptography. The
content. secret key, for example, can be a password used to seed a
The key difference between information hiding and pseudo-random number generator to select pixel locations
watermarking is the absence of an active adversary. In in an image cover-object for embedding the secret
watermarking applications like copyright protection and message (possibly encrypted)[11]. Wendy has no
authentication, there is an active adversary that would knowledge about the secret key that Alice and Bob share,
attempt to remove, invalidate or forge watermarks. In although she is aware of the algorithm that they could be
information hiding there is no such active adversary as employing for embedding messages.
there is no value associated with the act of removing the
information hidden in the content. Nevertheless,
information hiding techniques need to be robust against
accidental distortions.
Unlike information hiding and digital watermarking, the
main goal of steganography is to communicate securely in
a completely undetectable manner.
Steganography provides a means of secret communication
which cannot be removed without significantly altering
the data in which it is embedded. The embedded data will
be confidential unless an attacker can find a way to detect
it.
Confidentiality Integrity Unremovability
Encryption Yes No Yes
Digital No Yes No
Signatures
Steganography Yes/No Yes/No Yes

Table.1 Comparison of secret communication techniques

The modern formulation of steganography is often given Fig. 2 General model for steganography
in terms of the prisoner's problem [11] where Alice and

 
156 IJCSNS International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, VOL.10 No.8, August 2010
 

2. TYPES OF STEGANOGRAPHY changes the least significant bits of the pixel colours to
match the message. To decode the process the least
Steganography can be split into two types, these are significant bits starting at the top left are read off. This is
Fragile and Robust. The following section describes the not very secure - it's really easy to read off the least
definition of these two different types of steganography. significant bits. It also isn't very smart - if the message
Fragile steganography involves embedding information doesn't completely fill up the possible space then just the
into a file which is destroyed if the file is modified. This top part of the image is degraded but the bottom is left
method is unsuitable for recording the copyright holder of unchanged - making it easy to tell what's been changed.
the file since it can be so easily removed, but is useful in
situations where it is important to prove that the file has Algorithm Pixel Swap
not been tampered with, such as using a file as evidence in
a court of law, since any tampering would have removed • Randomly select 2 pixels x1 and x2 from the cover
the watermark. Fragile steganography techniques tend to image using a pseudo–random sequence.
be easier to implement than robust methods. • If the two pixels lie within a specified distance α
Robust marking aims to embed information into a file (α=2 or 3 generally), they are suitable for
which cannot easily be destroyed. Although no mark is embedding, otherwise generate another set of
truly indestructible, a system can be considered robust if pixels.
the amount of changes required to remove the mark would • Pick up the message bit. If the message bit is zero
render the file useless. Therefore the mark should be (or one), check if x1 > x2 otherwise swap x1 and
hidden in a part of the file where its removal would be x2. Do the reverse operation for the message bit
easily perceived. one (zero)
There are two main types of robust marking. • For decoding, select the pixels using the same
Fingerprinting involves hiding a unique identifier for the pseudo-random sequence. Check if the 2 pixels
customer who originally acquired the file and therefore is are within the pre-specified range α. If x1>x2,
allowed to use it. Should the file be found in the the message bit is zero (one) otherwise the
possession of somebody else, the copyright owner can use message bit is one (zero).
the fingerprint to identify which customer violated the
license agreement by distributing a copy of the file. This scheme preserves the first order statistic (histogram)
Unlike fingerprints, watermarks identify the copyright inherently without applying separate restoration process.
owner of the file, not the customer. Whereas fingerprints This scheme also does not add any visual distortion to the
are used to identify people who violate the license image since the threshold used for swapping of pixels is
agreement watermarks help with prosecuting those who kept considerably small (α <=5) which only affects the
have an illegal copy. Ideally fingerprinting should be used least significant bit planes of an image. To measure the
but for mass production of CDs, DVDs, etc it is not distortion introduced by the embedding in the cover image,
feasible to give each disk a separate fingerprint. the Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) after embedding
Watermarks are typically hidden to prevent their detection was observed for one hundred images.
and removal, they are said to be imperceptible watermarks.
However this need not always be the case. Visible 2.1.2 HIDE SEEK
watermarks can be used and often take the form of a visual
pattern overlaid on an image. The use of visible This algorithm randomly distributes the message across the
watermarks is similar to the use of watermarks in non- image. It is named after "Hide and Seek" - a Windows 95
digital formats (such as the watermark on British money). steganography tool that uses a similar technique. It uses a
password to generate a random seed, then uses this seed to
2.1 ALGORITHMS USED IN STEGANOGRAPHY pick the first position to hide in. It continues to randomly
generate positions until it has finished hiding the message.
There are four algorithms currently implemented, each use It's a little bit smarter about how it hides because you have
least significant bit steganography and some filter the to try every combination of pixels in every order to try and
image first. "crack" the algorithm - unless you have the password. It's
still not the best method because it is not looking at the
2.1.1 BLINDHIDE pixels it is hiding in - it might be more useful to figure out
areas of the image where it is better to hide in.
This is the simplest way to hide information in an image.
It blindly hides because it just starts at the top left corner 2.1.3 FILTER FIRST
of the image and works it's way across the image (then
down - in scan lines) pixel by pixel. As it goes along it This algorithm filters the image using one of the inbuilt

 
IJCSNS International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, VOL.10 No.8, August 2010 157
 

filters and then hides in the highest filter values first. It is 2. Next chose the number of bits you wish to hide
essentially a fancier version of BlindHide as it doesn't the secret image in. The more bits used in the
require a password to retrieve the message. Because we are host image, the more it deteriorates.
changing the pixels we need to be careful about filtering
Increasing the number of bits used though
the picture because we don't want to use information for
filtering that might change. If we do, then it may be obviously has a beneficial reaction on the
difficult (if not impossible) to retrieve the message again. secret image increasing its clarity.
So this algorithm filters the most significant bits, and 3. Now you have to create a new image by
leaves the least significant bits to be changed. It is less combining the pixels from both images. If
noticeable on an image because using the filter ensures we you decide for example, to use 4 bits to hide
are hiding in the parts of the image that are the least the secret image, there will be four bits left
noticeable.
for the host image. (PGM - one byte per
pixel, JPEG - one byte each for red, green,
2.1.4 BATTLE STEG
blue and one byte for alpha channel in some
The best of all. This algorithm performs "Battleship image types)
Steganography". It first filters the image then uses the
highest filter values as "ships". The algorithm then Host Pixel: 10110001
randomly "shoots" at the image (like in HideSeek) and Secret Pixel: 00111111
when it finds a "ship" it clusters it's shots around that hit in New Image Pixel: 10110011
the hope of "sinking" the "ship". After a while it moves
away to look for other ships. The effect this has is that the 4. To get the original image back you just need to
message is randomly hidden, but often hidden in the "best" know how many bits were used to store the
parts to hide in thanks to the ships. It moves away to look secret image. You then scan through the host
for other ships so that we don't degrade an area of an image, pick out the least significant bits
image too greatly. It is secure because you need a according the number used and then use
password to retrieve the message. It is fairly effective them to create a new image with one change
because it is hiding (if you set the values right) the - the bits extracted now become the most
majority of the information in the best areas. significant bits.

2.1.5 DYNAMIC BATTLESTEG AND Host Pixel: 10110011

Bits used: 4
FILTERFIRST
New Image: 00110000
These two algorithms do the same as BattleSteg and
FilterFirst, except they use dynamic programming to make Hiding depends on the settings you choose - but as an
the hiding process faster and less memory intensive. They example if we hide in the 2 least significant bits then, we
are NOT compatible with the original algorithms because can hide:
the order of pixels kept in the dynamic array is not exactly MaxBytes = (image.height() * image.width() * 3
the same. * 2) /8
i.e. the number of pixels, times the number of colours (3),
2.2 IMAGE TECHNIQUES times the number of bits to hide in, all divided by 8 to get
the number of bytes. It helps to hide a bit less than this
2.2.1 LEAST SIGNIFICANT BIT because the algorithms may take a while to find places
that haven't had anything hidden in it when we are close to
LSB – Least Significant Bit Hiding (Image Hiding). the threshold.
This method is probably the easiest way of hiding
information in an image and yet it is surprisingly effective. 2.3 TYPES OF FILTERS
It works by using the least significant bits of each pixel in
There are 2 different filters - the Laplace filter and the
one image to hide the most significant bits of another[8].
Sobel filter. Traditionally these filters are used for
So in a JPEG image for example, the following steps
detecting edges in pictures. As a side effect they happen to
would need to be taken
pick the "best areas" to change. This is because an edge
has a really light pixel next to a darker one. If we make the
1. First load up both the host image and the lighter pixel darker and the darker pixel lighter we aren't
image you need to hide. going to notice as much as if we make two pixels the same

 
158 IJCSNS International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, VOL.10 No.8, August 2010
 

color different. The Sobel filter is better at detecting edges, steganography often have a natural embedding rate of up
but the Laplace filter is better at picking up noise. to 3%, whereas images containing hidden information
The embedding rate bar shown on the encoding and usually have estimated embedding rates which accurately
simulation panels shows the percentage of space available reflects the amount of hidden information.
for steganography that will be written to. Anything less RS Analysis is a special case of Sample Pairs Analysis,
than 10% is a good rate. You can decrease the embedding which also uses least significant bit modifications to help
rate by using a smaller message, a larger image or by calculate an estimated embedding rate. Sample Pairs
changing the number of bits that will be written to (in the Analysis utilises finite state machines to classify groups of
algorithm options). For steganalysis, the embedding rate is pixels modified by a given pattern. Both steganalysis
an approximation of the percent of space available that has techniques are very accurate at predicting the embedding
been written to. However, the steganalysis techniques rate on stego-images using least
only use the very least significant bit in each color for significant bit embedding. Since the two proposed
their calculation. techniques, FilterFirst and BattleSteg, both use least
significant bit embedding, we can use RS Analysis and
Sample Pairs Analysis to compare them against more
3. STEGANALYSIS traditional techniques such as BlindHide and HideSeek.

For hiding information, an equal number of clever

techniques have been designed to detect the hidden 4.0 NEED FOR DATA HIDING
information [3]. These techniques are collectively known
as ‘steganalysis’. As introduced earlier, the Laplace • Covert communication using images (secret
formula is one such steganalytic method. Attacks on message is hidden in a carrier image) 
steganography can involve detection and/or destruction of • Ownership of digital images, authentication,
the embedded message. A stego-only attack is when only
copyright
the stego-image is available to be analysed . A known
cover attack is when the original cover image is also • Data integrity, fraud detection, self-correcting
available. It involves comparing the original cover image images
with the stego-image. As explained above hiding • Traitor-tracing (fingerprinting video-tapes) 
information results in alterations to the properties of a • Adding captions to images, additional
carrier which may result in some sort of degradation to the information, such as subtitles, to video,
carrier. Original images and stego-images can be analysed
embedding subtitles or audio tracks to video
by looking at colour composition, luminance and pixel
relationships and unusual characteristics can be detected. (video-in-video) 
If a hidden message is revealed at some later date the • Intelligent browsers, automatic copyright
attacker could analyse the stego-image for future attacks. information, viewing a movie in a given rated
This is called known message attack. The chosen stego version
attack is used when the steganography algorithm and the • Copy control (secondary protection for DVD)
image are known. A chosen message attack is when the
stegoanalyst generates stego-images using a given
steganography algorithm using a known message. The
5. PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY
purpose is to examine the patterns produced in the stego-
images that may point to the use of certain steganography Plausible deniability is defined as: “encryption scheme is
algorithms. Most steganographic algorithms embed deniable if the sender can generate plausible keys and
messages by replacing carefully selected pixels bits with random choices that will satisfy the authority and at the
message bits. Any changes to the data associated with the same time keep the past communication private.”
image through embedding will change the properties of In this paper, we propose a novel plausible deniability
the image in some way. This process may create patterns scheme in steganography by using a diversionary message
or unusual exaggerated noise and encrypt it with a DES-based algorithm. Then, we
Two other popular techniques are RS Analysis and compress the secret message and encrypt it by the
Sample Pairs Analysis.RS Analysis makes small receiver’s public key along with the stego key and embed
modifications to the least significant bit plane in an image both messages in a carrier using an embedding algorithm.
then uses these modifications and a discrimination It will be demonstrated how this method can support
function to classify groups of pixels. The counts of the plausible deniability and is robust against steganalysis.
groups based on the modifications allow the calculation of
an estimated embedding rate. Images that do not contain

 
IJCSNS International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, VOL.10 No.8, August 2010 159
 

6. CONCLUSION
Success in steganographic secrecy results from selecting
the proper mechanisms. However, a stego medium which
seems innocent enough may, upon further investigation,
actually broadcast the existence of embedded information.
Development in the area of covert communications and
steganography will continue. Research in building more
robust methods that can survive image manipulation and
attacks continues to grow. The more information is placed
in the public's reach on the Internet, the more owners of
such information need to protect themselves from theft
and false representation. Systems to recover seemingly
destroyed information and steganalysis techniques will be
useful to law enforcement authorities in computer
forensics and digital traffic analysis. The future
enhancements can be done for location based hiding, more
Fig.3 Graph of Embedding Rate versus Machine Learning number of filters can be added and can use same stego
Accuracy image with different filters.
For implementation of the proposed method the following
five steps are considered: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Step 1: Construct cipher text as cover medium. Let m be
the plain text, E encryption algorithm, K decryption key The authors would like to thank the Director, Secretary,
and mc cipher text, then: Correspondent, Principal, HOD of Bharath University,
Chennai for their motivation and constant encouragement.
EK (m) = mc
The authors would like to thank the Faculty Members of
Step 2: Embed secret message in the cipher text. Let SE be Department of Computer Science and Engineering for
the steganography algorithm, Ks the stego key, M the critical review of this manuscript and for his valuable
secret message, SG the stego object, then: input and fruitful discussions. Also, he takes privilege in
extending gratitude to his family members and friends
SEKs ( M,mc ) = SG who rendered their support throughout this research work.
Step 3: Uncover secret message from stego object. Let SD
be the algorithm for recovering the secret message using REFERENCES
[1] S. Katzenbeisser and F..A. P. Petitcolas, Eds., Information
the same stego key, then: HidingTechniques for Steganography and Digital
SDKs (SG) = M Watermarking. Norwell, MA: Artech House, 2000.
[2] I. J. Cox, M. L. Miller, and J. A. Bloom, Digital
Step 4: Deny secret communication – Reveal encryption Watermarking. San Mateo, CA: Morgan Kaufmann, 2002.
key K to uncover the cover medium plain text to deny [3] M. Wu and B. Liu, Multimedia Data Hiding. New York:
information hiding. Thus: Springer-Verlag, 2003.
[4] C.S. Lu, Multimedia Security: Steganography and Digital
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Property. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing, 2004.
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Step 4 must give the stego object. That is: Part III and IV. Boca Raton, FL: CRC, 2005.
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160 IJCSNS International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, VOL.10 No.8, August 2010
 

[9] J. Fridrich, M. Goljan and T. Holotyak “New Blind

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Dr.M.Umamaheswari, M.C.A., M.Phil.

M.Tech., Ph.d. works as the professor &
Head of department of CSE of Bharath
University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. She
has more than 12 years of teaching and
research experience and her areas of
specialization are Computer Networks,
Networks Security and Data Mining.

Mr.S.Sivasubramanian, M.Sc., M.Tech.

pursuing Ph.d. works as an
Asst.professor from Department of CSE
of Bharath University, Chennai, Tamil
Nadu. He has more than 8 years of
teaching and research experience and his
areas of specialization are mobile
computing, Database Management
System, Computer Networks, Networks Security and Data
Mining.

S.Pandiarajan received his Bachelor of

Science in Chemistry from Madurai
Kamaraj University, Diploma In
Computer Software from APTECH
Institute, Master of Science in Computer
Science and Information Technology
from Madurai Kamaraj University and
pursuing Master of Technology in
Computer Science and engineering from
Bharath University Chennai.