Secret key estimation in sequential steganography

We define sequential steganography as those class of embedding algorithms that hide messages in consecutive (time, spatial, or frequency domain) features of a host signal. This work presents a steganalysis method that estimates the secret key used in sequential embedding. Steganalysis is posed as the detection of abrupt jumps in the statistics of a stego signal. Stationary and nonstationary host signals with low, medium, and high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) embedding are considered. A locally most powerful steganalysis detector for the low SNR case is also derived. Several techniques to make the steganalysis algorithm work for nonstationary digital image steganalysis are also presented. Extensive experimental results are shown to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed steganalysis algorithm.

[1]  E. S. Page.  CONTINUOUS INSPECTION SCHEMES , 1954 .

[2]  Nasir D. Memon,et al.  Analysis of LSB based image steganography techniques , 2001, Proceedings 2001 International Conference on Image Processing (Cat. No.01CH37205).

[3]  Fernando Pérez-González,et al.  DCT-domain watermarking techniques for still images: detector performance analysis and a new structure , 2000, IEEE Trans. Image Process..

[4]  A. Shiryaev.  On Optimum Methods in Quickest Detection Problems , 1963 .

[5]  Rajarathnam Chandramouli,et al.  Active steganalysis of sequential steganography , 2003, IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging.

[6]  Michèle Basseville,et al.  Detection of abrupt changes , 1993 .

[7]  Mauro Barni,et al.  A new decoder for the optimum recovery of nonadditive watermarks , 2001, IEEE Trans. Image Process..

[8]  Andreas Pfitzmann,et al.  Attacks on Steganographic Systems , 1999, Information Hiding.

[9]  Thomas R. Fischer,et al.  Comparison of generalized Gaussian and Laplacian modeling in DCT image coding , 1995, IEEE Signal Processing Letters.

[10]  Lisa M. Marvel,et al.  Spread spectrum image steganography , 1999, IEEE Trans. Image Process..

[11]  N. D. Memon,et al.  Steganography capacity: a steganalysis perspective , 2003, IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging.

[12]  Rajarathnam Chandramouli,et al.  A mathematical framework for active steganalysis , 2003, Multimedia Systems.

[13]  Ingemar J. Cox,et al.  Secure spread spectrum watermarking for multimedia , 1997, IEEE Trans. Image Process..

[14]  Jessica J. Fridrich,et al.  Practical steganalysis of digital images: state of the art , 2002, IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging.