An Attack to BPCS-Steganography Using Complexity Histogram and Countermeasure (MP-L5)

Author(s) : Michiharu Niimi (Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan) Tomohito Ei (Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan) Hideki Noda (Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan) Eiji Kawaguchi (Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan) Bruce Segee (University of Maine, USA)

Abstract : This paper discusses an attack to BPCS-Steganography and shows a countermeasure. BPCS is a steganographic method that hides the secret data into digital images. BPCS embeds the secret data by replacing the blocks which look noise-like on bit-planes. Blocks on bit-planes are categorized as ``noise-like region'' and ``informative region'' by means of the binary-image feature called complexity. When the complexity distribution of noise-like blocks and that of secret data are different, we can see an unusual shape in the form of a valley on complexity histogram that represents the relative frequency of occurrence of the various complexities. This would be a signature of BPCS. Because steganography must hide the existence of secret message, the signature should be removed from stego images. We show a method for making embedded binary patterns that quasi-preserves the complexity distribution.

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