Visual Cryptography

MINI PROJECT III

B. Naveen Kumar, III MCA,I Sem, 101FD01001, Vignan University.

ABSTRACT
Traditional cryptography schemes require end users to employ complex operations for encryption as well as decryption. An alternative to encrypt messages is visual cryptography, where the decryption is completely performed by the human visual system. This approach seems to be very promising and userfriendly technique for security issues. Here we examine the main idea of visual cryptography and present several applications using visual cryptography. Furthermore we will discuss the usefulness for reaching the security objectives authenticity, integrity, and confidentiality and we will have a closer look at the usability aspects of the new approach in comparison to the traditional approach aiming at security issues.

Modules
Introduction Existing System Proposed System Feasibility Cryptography Visual Cryptography Terminology Basic Model (2,2 Model) Screens

INTRODUCTION
Cryptography includes a set of techniques to achieve confidentiality when transmitting or storing data. Cryptography can be categorized into three different schemes :1. Symmetric cryptography 2. Asymmetric cryptography 3. Secret sharing The traditional symmetric and asymmetric cryptography transforms a given message to a random looking string of character with aid of a secret or public key.

Cont.. The result of this cryptography is Cipher Text is supposed to reveal no information on the plaintext. The decryption, hence the transforming of the cipher text back to the plaintext, is employed by using the same or a different secret key.

Secret sharing is based on the distribution of the secret information over several parties. Only if the required subset of parties put their information together the secret is revealed.

Cont..

The disadvantages of traditional symmetric and asymmetric cryptographic schemes is that they require complex operational steps for the encryption as well as for the decryption of information. For average and in experimented user these schemes are rarely convenient to employ. In 1994 Moni Naor and Adi Shamir combined the two mechanisms secret sharing and traditional cryptography. They introduced a new concept named visual cryptography for the encryption and decryption of printed material such as images and texts.

Existing System
In present day the data that to be transferred through the networks are encrypted through the Symmetric & Asymmetric cryptography to make the normal data to cipher text, which is not easily understood by the other than the man how know the decryption key to make the jumbled data to a normal data.

In this type of cryptography's we use some complex algorithms to make plaintext to cipher text. So many people is not comfortable to use this type of cryptography techniques and also difficult to handle. The key is to be given to the end user to decrypt the cipher text.

PROPOSED SYSTEM
The new scheme requires no complex mathematical operations but only human visual system or the deciphering of a given printed material. The concept relies on transparency is considered separately. The transparencies consist of randomly located white and black pixels. When stacking these transparencies together the secret message an image or an text, is revealed. The decryption is executed by the human visual system and only the ownership of all transparencies can reveal the secret. The encryption of the secret information is employed by distributing the secret on two transparences. There for one is for the key and another one represents the cipher text. To decipher the cipher one merely has to stack the two transparencies together. As a result the given input is reveled.

FEASIBILITY
This is more feasible in many segments than the traditional cryptographic techniques which are in use. This is more secure because it can only done by the human visual system. No complex type of mathematical operations are not needed to reveal the plain text. It is also cost based and performance basely more feasible than the normal cryptography techniques. Because it is more efficient and also less risk involved to handle.

Cryptography
Plain Text Text
Plain Text

Encryption

Cipher

Decryption

Channel

Visual Cryptography
Plaintext (in form of image) Encryption (creating shares)

Channel (Fax, Email)

Decryption (Human Visual System)

Visual Cryptography
Visual Cryptography is a secret-sharing method that encrypts a secret image into several shares but requires neither computer nor calculations to decrypt the secret image. Instead, the secret image is reconstructed visually: simply by overlaying the encrypted shares the secret image becomes clearly visible A Visual Cryptography Scheme (VCS) on a set of n participants is a method of encoding a 'secret' image into n shares such that original image is obtained only by stacking specific combinations of the shares onto each other.

Advantage of Visual Cryptography

Simple to implement Encryption dont required any NP-Hard problem dependency Decryption algorithm not required (Use a human Visual System). So a person unknown to cryptography can decrypt the message. We can send cipher text through FAX or E-MAIL Infinite Computation Power cant predict the message.

Example:
Secret Image Share1 Stacking the share reveals the secret

Share2

Terminology:
PixelPicture element

Grey Level: The brightness value assigned to a pixel; values range from black, through gray, to white.
Hamming Weight (H(V)): The number of non-zero symbols in a symbol sequence
V- Vector of 1 and 1 of any length

A qualified set of participants is a subset of whose shares visually reveal the 'secret' image when stacked together. A forbidden set of participants is a subset of whose shares reveal absolutely no information about the 'secret' image when stacked together.

Terminology (cont)
The relative contrast (also called relative difference) of a VCS is the ratio of the maximum number of black sub pixels in a reconstructed (secret) white pixel to the minimum number of black sub pixels in a reconstructed (secret) black pixel. So, the lower the relative contrast in a scheme, the better. Note: the smallest relative contrast attainable in a VCS is 1/2, which is only achieved in a (2,2)-threshold VCS The contrast of a VCS is the difference between the minimum number of black sub pixels in a reconstructed (secret) black pixel and the maximum number of black sub pixels in a reconstructed (secret) white pixel.

Encoding of Pixels:

Original Pixel
Share1 Share2

overlaid
Note: White is actually transparent

Basis Matrices
Basis matrices are binary n x m used to encrypt each pixel in the secret image, where n is the number of participants in the scheme and m is the pixel expansion. The following algorithm is used to implement a VCS using basis matrices: If the n x m basis matrices S1 (used to encrypt black pixels) and S0 (used to encrypt white pixels) for any VCS are given, the secret image SI is encrypted as follows:

Basic Matrices (Cont..)

for each pixel p in SI: { if (p is black) Let R = a random permutation of the columns of S1 else Let R = a random permutation of the columns of S0 for each participant i (1 <= i <= n): { The position on participant is share that corresponds to p is expanded into m pixels where each of these pixels j (1 <= j <= m) is black if Ri,j = 1 and white if Ri,j = 0. } }

The Model
A solution to the k out of n visual secret sharing scheme consists of two collections of n x m Boolean (Basis) matrices S0 and S1. To share a white pixel, the dealer randomly chooses one of the matrices in S0 , and to share a black pixel, the dealer randomly chooses one of the matrices in S1. The chosen matrix defines the color of the m sub pixels in each one of the n transparencies for a original pixel. The solution is considered valid if the following three conditions are met: 1. For any S in S0 , the ``or'' V of any k of the n rows satisfies H(V ) <= d-.m 2. For any S in S1 , the ``or'' V of any k of the n rows satisfies H(V ) d. n-Total Participant k-Qualified Participant

(cont)
For any subset {i1 ; i 2 ; : : : i q} of {1; 2; : : : n} with q < k, the two collections of q x m matrices Dt for t {0,1} obtained by restricting each n x m matrix in Ct (where t = 0; 1) to rows i1 ; i2 ; ::; iq are indistinguishable in the sense that they contain the same matrices with the same frequencies.

Condition 3 implies that by inspecting fewer than k shares, even an infinitely powerful cryptanalyst cannot gain any advantage in deciding whether the shared pixel was white or black.

Computer Representation of pixels

Visual Cryptography scheme represented in computer using n x m Basis matrices

Original Pixel

share1 s1= share2 s0=

overlaid Image

(2,2) Model
1

Construct two 2x2 basis matrices as:

s0=

1 0

0 1

s1= 1 1

0 0

Using the permutated basis matrices, each pixel from the secret image will be encoded into two sub pixels on each participant's share. A black pixel on the secret image will be encoded on the ith participant's share as the ith row of matrix S1, where a 1 represents a black sub pixel and a 0 represents a white sub pixel. Similarly, a white pixel on the secret image will be encoded on the ith participant's share as the ith row of matrix S0.

Cont..
Before encoding each pixel from the secret image onto each share, randomly permute the columns of the basis matrices S0 and S1 This VCS (Visual Cryptography Scheme) divides each pixel in the secret image into m=2 sub pixels. It has a contrast of (m)m=1 and a relative contrast of (m)=1/2.

Screen