Search Results (28)

Adversarial examples pose severe challenges to information security, as their impacts directly extend to steganography and steganalysis technologies. This scenario, in turn, has further spurred the research and application of adversarial steganography. In response, we propose a novel adversarial embedding scheme rooted in a hybrid, partially data-driven approach. The proposed scheme first leverages an adversarial neural network (UT-GAN, Universal Transform Generative Adversarial Network) to generate stego images as a preprocessing step. Subsequently, it dynamically adjusts the cost function with the aid of a DCTR (Discrete Cosine Transform Residual)-based gradient calculator to optimize the images, ensuring that the final adversarial images can resist detection by steganalysis tools. The encoder in this scheme adopts a unique architecture, where its internal parameters are determined by a partially data-driven mechanism. This design not only enhances the capability of traditional steganography schemes to counter advanced steganalysis technologies but also effectively reduces the computational overhead during stego image generation. Full article

Generative steganography (GS) generates stego-media via secret messages, but existing GS only targets single-type multimedia data with poor universality. The generator and extractor sizes are highly coupled with resolution. Message mapping converts secret messages and noise, yet current GS schemes based on it use gridded data, failing to generate diverse multimedia universally. Inspired by implicit neural representation (INR), we propose generative implicit steganography via message mapping (GIS). We designed single-bit and multi-bit message mapping schemes in function domains. The scheme’s function generator eliminates the coupling between model and gridded data sizes, enabling diverse multimedia generation and breaking resolution limits. A dedicated point cloud extractor is trained for adaptability. Through a literature review, this scheme is the first to perform message mapping in the functional domain. During the experiment, taking images as an example, methods such as PSNR, StegExpose, and neural pruning were used to demonstrate that the generated image quality is almost indistinguishable from the real image. At the same time, the generated image is robust. The accuracy of message extraction can reach 96.88% when the embedding capacity is 1 bpp, 89.84% when the embedding capacity is 2 bpp, and 82.21% when the pruning rate is 0.3. Full article

In this article, we present a novel reinforcement learning-based framework in the discrete cosine transform to achieve better image steganography. First, the input image is divided into several blocks to extract semantic and structural features, evaluating their suitability for data embedding. Second, the Proximal Policy Optimization algorithm (PPO) is introduced in the block selection process to learn adaptive embedding policies, which effectively balances image fidelity and steganographic security. Moreover, the Deep Q-network (DQN) is used for adaptively adjusting the weights of the peak signal-to-noise ratio, structural similarity index, and detection accuracy in the reward formulation. Experimental results on the BOSSBase dataset confirm the superiority of our framework, achieving both lower detection rates and higher visual quality across a range of embedding payloads, particularly under low-bpp conditions. Full article

Generative steganographic text covertly transmits hidden information through readable text that is unrelated to the message. Existing AI-based linguistic steganography primarily focuses on improving text quality to evade detection and therefore only addresses passive attacks. Active attacks, such as text tampering, can disrupt the symmetry between encoding and decoding, which in turn prevents accurate extraction of hidden information. To investigate these threats, we construct two attack models: the in-domain synonym substitution attack (ISSA) and the out-of-domain random tampering attack (ODRTA), with ODRTA further divided into continuous (CODRTA) and discontinuous (DODRTA) types. To enhance robustness, we propose a proactive adaptive-clustering defense against ISSA, and, for CODRTA and DODRTA, a post-hoc repair mechanism based on context-oriented search and the determinism of text generation. Experimental results demonstrate that these mechanisms effectively counter all attack types and significantly improve the integrity and usability of hidden information. The main limitation of our approach is the relatively high computational cost of defending against ISSA. Future work will focus on improving efficiency and expanding practical applicability. Full article

As adaptive multi-rate (AMR) speech applications become increasingly widespread, AMR-based steganography presents growing security risks. Conventional steganalysis methods often assume known embedding rates, limiting their practicality in real-world scenarios where embedding rates are unknown. To overcome this limitation, we introduce a novel framework that integrates a multi-scale transformer architecture with multi-task learning for joint classification and regression. The classification task effectively distinguishes between cover and stego samples, while the regression task enhances feature representation by predicting continuous embedding values, providing deeper insights into embedding behaviors. This joint optimization strategy improves model adaptability to diverse embedding conditions and captures the underlying relationships between discrete embedding classes and their continuous distributions. The experimental results demonstrate that our approach achieves higher accuracy and robustness than existing steganalysis methods across varying embedding rates. Full article

Image steganalysis detects hidden information in digital images by identifying statistical anomalies, serving as a forensic tool to reveal potential covert communication. The field of deep learning-based image steganography has relatively scarce effective steganalysis methods, particularly those designed to extract hidden information. This paper introduces an innovative image steganalysis method based on generative adaptive Gabor residual networks with density-peak guidance (SG-ResNet). SG-ResNet employs a dual-stream collaborative architecture to achieve precise detection and reconstruction of steganographic information. The classification subnet utilizes dual-frequency adaptive Gabor convolutional kernels to decouple high-frequency texture and low-frequency contour components in images. It combines a density peak clustering with three quantization and transformation-enhanced convolutional blocks to generate steganographic covariance matrices, enhancing the weak steganographic signals. The reconstruction subnet synchronously constructs multi-scale features, preserves steganographic spatial fingerprints with channel-separated residual spatial rich model and pixel reorganization operators, and achieves sub-pixel-level steganographic localization via iterative optimization mechanism of feedback residual modules. Experimental results obtained with datasets generated by several public steganography algorithms demonstrate that SG-ResNet achieves State-of-the-Art results in terms of detection accuracy, with 0.94, and with a PSNR of 29 between reconstructed and original secret images. Full article

Image steganalysis has been a key technology in information security in recent years. However, existing methods are mostly limited to the binary classification for detecting steganographic images used in digital watermarking, privacy protection, illicit data concealment, and security images, such as unaltered cover images or surveillance images. They cannot identify the steganography algorithms used in steganographic images, which restricts their practicality. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a general steganography algorithms recognition scheme based on image big data matching with improved ResNet50. The scheme first intercepts the image region with the highest complexity and focuses on the key features to improve the analysis efficiency; subsequently, the original image of the image to be detected is accurately located by the image big data matching technique and the steganographic difference feature image is generated; finally, the ResNet50 is improved by combining the pyramid attention mechanism and the joint loss function, which achieves the efficient recognition of the steganography algorithm. To verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the scheme, three experiments are designed in this paper: verification of the selection of the core analysis region, verification of the image similarity evaluation based on Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio ($PSNR$), and performance verification of the improved ResNet50 model. The experimental results show that the scheme proposed in this paper outperforms the existing mainstream steganalysis models, such as ZhuNet and YeNet, with a detection accuracy of 96.11%, supports the recognition of six adaptive steganography algorithms, and adapts to the needs of analysis of multiple sizes and image formats, demonstrating excellent versatility and application value. Full article

This paper presents an extensive investigation into the application of artificial intelligence, specifically Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), in image steganography detection. We initially evaluated the state-of-the-art steganalysis model, SRNet, on various image steganography techniques, including WOW, HILL, S-UNIWARD, and the innovative Spread Spectrum Image Steganography (SSIS). We found SRNet’s performance on SSIS detection to be lower compared to other methods, prompting us to fine-tune the model using SSIS datasets. Subsequent experiments showed significant improvement in SSIS detection, albeit at the cost of minor performance degradation as to other techniques. Our findings underscore the potential and adaptability of AI-based steganalysis models. However, they also highlight the need for a delicate balance in model adaptation to maintain effectiveness across various steganography techniques. We suggest future research directions, including multi-task learning strategies and other machine learning techniques, to further improve the robustness and versatility of steganalysis models. Full article

This article presents an innovative approach to video steganography called Stego-STFAN, as by using a cheap model process to use the temporal and spatial domains together, they end up presenting fine adjustments in each frame, the Stego-STFAN had a $PSN{R}_c$ metric of 27.03 and $PSN{R}_S$ of 23.09, which is close to the state-of-art. Steganography is the ability to hide a message so that third parties cannot perceive communication between them. Thus, one of the precautions in steganography is the size of the message you want to hide, as the security of the message is inversely proportional to its size. Inspired by this principle, video steganography appears to expand channels further and incorporate data into a message. To improve the construction of better stego-frames and recovered secrets, we propose a new architecture for video steganography derived from the Spatial-Temporal Adaptive Filter Network (STFAN) in conjunction with the Attention mechanism, which together generates filters and maps dynamic frames to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of frame processing, exploiting the redundancy present in the temporal dimension of the video, as well as fine details such as edges, fast-moving pixels and the context of secret and cover frames and by using the DWT method as another feature extraction level, having the same characteristics as when applied to an image file. Full article

Digital images cannot be excluded as part of a popular choice of information representation. Covert information can be easily hidden using images. Several schemes are available to hide covert information and are known as steganography schemes. Steganalysis schemes are applied on stego-images to assess the strength of steganography schemes. In this paper, a new steganalysis scheme is presented to detect stego-images. Predefined kernels guide the set of a conventional convolutional layer, and the tight cohesion provides completely guided training. The learning rate of convolutional layers with predefined kernels is higher than the global learning rate. The higher learning rate of the convolutional layers with predefined kernels assures adaptability according to network training, while still maintaining the basic attributes of high-pass kernels. The Leaky ReLU layer is exploited against the ReLU layer to boost the detection performance. Transfer learning is applied to enhance detection performance. The deep network weights are initialized using the weights of the trained network from high-payload stego-images. The strength of the proposed scheme is verified on the HILL, Mi-POD, S-UNIWARD, and WOW content-adaptive steganography schemes. The results are overwhelming and better than the existing steganalysis schemes. Full article

As internet traffic grows daily, so does the need to protect it. Network security protects data from unauthorized access and ensures their confidentiality and integrity. Steganography is the practice and study of concealing communications by inserting them into seemingly unrelated data streams (cover media). Investigating and adapting machine learning models in digital image steganalysis is becoming more popular. It has been demonstrated that steganography techniques used within such a framework perform more securely than do techniques using hand-crafted pieces. This work was carried out to investigate and examine machine learning methods’ critical contributions and beneficial roles. Machine learning is a field of artificial intelligence (AI) that provides the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed. Steganalysis is considered a classification problem that can be addressed by employing machine learning techniques and recent deep learning tools. The proposed ensemble model had four models (convolution neural networks (CNNs), Inception, AlexNet, and Resnet50), and after evaluating each model, the system voted on the best model for detecting stego images. Since active steganalysis is a classification problem that may be solved using active deep learning tools and modern machine learning methods, this paper’s major goal was to analyze deep learning algorithms’ vital roles and main contributions. The evaluation shows how to successfully detect images that contain a steganography algorithm that hides data in images. Thus, it suggests which algorithms work best, which need improvement, and which are easier to identify. Full article

The main goal of this paper is the proposal of a key-based steganographic system in which the ratio of capacity and image quality metrics that represents the stego object while reducing the detectability of hidden content was improved. The main contribution of the proposed steganographic system is a new algorithm for selecting stego areas. The area selection algorithm is based on clustering the pixels of the cover object into a predetermined number of clusters. The goal of this selection of areas (clusters) is to group as many homogeneous parts of the image as possible in order to cover these areas with as few rectangular shapes as possible. Since the data on the defined rectangles represent the key of the system, the capacity of the additional secret channel is minimized in this way. On the obtained stego-carriers, an embedding of test random content is performed in order to estimate its detectability. By combining the proposed area selection method with the Minimal Decimal Difference steganographic method, a system was created with an optimal trade-off between detectability of secret content, quality and capacity of the carrier, and the length of the stego-key. Finally, a comparison of the obtained results with relevant adaptive steganographic methods is presented. The proposed concept obtains its verification in one practical system for secure file transfer of controlled cryptographic strength. Full article

Image coding technology has become an indispensable technology in the field of modern information. With the vigorous development of the big data era, information security has received more attention. Image steganography is an important method of image encoding and hiding, and how to protect information security with this technology is worth studying. Using a basis of mathematical modeling, this paper makes innovations not only in improving the theoretical system of kernel function but also in constructing a random matrix to establish an information-hiding scheme. By using the random matrix as the reference matrix for secret-information steganography, due to the characteristics of the random matrix, the secret information set to be retrieved is very small, reducing the modification range of the steganography image and improving the steganography image quality and efficiency. This scheme can maintain the steganography image quality with a PSNR of 49.95 dB and steganography of 1.5 bits per pixel and can ensure that the steganography efficiency is improved by reducing the steganography set. In order to adapt to different steganography requirements and improve the steganography ability of the steganography schemes, this paper also proposes an adaptive large-capacity information-hiding scheme based on the random matrix. In this scheme, a method of expanding the random matrix is proposed, which can generate a corresponding random matrix according to different steganography capacity requirements to achieve the corresponding secret-information steganography. Two schemes are demonstrated through simulation experiments as well as an analysis of the steganography efficiency, steganography image quality, and steganography capacity and security. The experimental results show that the latter two schemes are better than the first two in terms of steganography capacity and steganography image quality. Full article

Digital images are very popular and commonly used for hiding crucial data. In a few instances, image steganography is misused for communicating with improper data. In this paper, a robust deep neural network is proposed for the identification of content-adaptive image steganography schemes. Multiple novel strategies are applied to improve detection performance. Two non-trainable convolutional layers is used to guide the proposed CNN with fixed kernels. Thirty-one kernels are used in both non-trainable layers, of which thirty are high-pass kernels and one is the neutral kernel. The layer-specific learning rate is applied for each layer. ReLU with customized thresholding is applied to achieve better performance. In the proposed method, image down-sampling is not performed; only the global average pooling layer is considered in the last part of the network. The experimental results are verified on BOWS2 and BOSSBase image sets. Content-adaptive steganography schemes, such as HILL, Mi-POD, S-UNIWARD, and WOW, are considered for generating the stego images with different payloads. In experimental analysis, the proposed scheme is compared with some of the latest schemes, where the proposed scheme outperforms other state-of-the-art techniques in the most cases. Full article

Deep learning has become an essential technique in image steganography. Most of the current deep-learning-based steganographic methods process digital images in the spatial domain. There are problems such as limited embedding capacity and unsatisfactory visual quality. To improve capacity-distortion performance, we develop a steganographic method from the frequency-domain perspective. We propose a module called the adaptive frequency-domain channel attention network (AFcaNet), which makes full use of the frequency features in each channel by a fine-grained manner of assigning weights. We apply this module to the state-of-the-art SteganoGAN, forming an Adaptive Frequency High-capacity Steganography Generative Adversarial Network (AFHS-GAN). The proposed neural network enhances the ability of high-dimensional feature extraction through overlaying densely connected convolutional blocks. In addition to this, a low-frequency loss function is introduced as an evaluation metric to guide the training of the network and thus reduces the modification of low-frequency regions of the image. Experimental results on the Div2K dataset show that our method has a better generalization capability compared to the SteganoGAN, with substantial improvement in both embedding capacity and stego-image quality. Furthermore, the embedding distribution of our method in the DCT domain is more similar to that of the traditional method, which is consistent with the prior knowledge of image steganography. Full article