Synopsis

1. PROBLEM STATEMENT
This project attempts to make use of the standard steganographic tool and a modified version of
standard encryption algorithm to perform the task of data hiding for the purpose of observing
privacy. The user should be able to conceal a text message in an image file without any visible
alterations to the image as such i.e. there should not be any noticeable changes to the coloring or
the position of the various objects in the image.

2. INTRODUCTION
Since the rise of the Internet one of the most important factors of information technology and
communication has been the security of information. Cryptography was created as a technique
for securing the secrecy of communication and many different methods have been developed to
encrypt and decrypt data in order to keep the message secret. Unfortunately it is sometimes not
enough to keep the contents of a message secret, it may also be necessary to keep the existence
of the message secret. The technique used to implement this, is called steganography.

Steganography is the art and science of invisible communication. This is accomplished through
hiding information in other information, thus hiding the existence of the communicated
information. The word steganography is derived from the Greek words “stegos” meaning
“cover” and “grafia” meaning “writing” defining it as “covered writing”. In image
steganography the information is hidden exclusively in images.

Steganography differs from cryptography in the sense that where cryptography focuses on
keeping the contents of a message secret, steganography focuses on keeping the existence of a
message secret. Steganography and cryptography are both ways to protect information from
unwanted parties but neither technology alone is perfect and can be compromised. Once the
presence of hidden information is revealed or even suspected, the purpose of steganography is
partly defeated. The strength of steganography can thus be amplified by combining it with
cryptography.

Fig 1 : Context Diagram of Steganography

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3. LITERATURE SURVEY

 Piyush Marwaha, et al[2010][1], Visual steganography is one of the most secure forms of
steganography available today. It is most commonly implemented in image files.
However embedding data into image changes its color frequencies in a predictable way.
To overcome this predictability, we propose the concept of multiple cryptography where
the data will be encrypted into a cipher and the cipher will be hidden into a multimedia
image file in encrypted format. We shall use traditional cryptographic techniques to
achieve data encryption and visual steganography algorithms will be used to hide the
encrypted data.

 Amitabh Mishra, et al [2009][2], Steganography can be implemented using a new

technique. This technique uses LSB steganography as the basis and randomly disperses
the secret message over the entire image to ensure that the secret message cannot be
obtained easily from the image. Detailed visual and statistical analysis of the algorithm
reveals that it yields satisfactory results. When compared with other existing algorithms,
it is easy to prove that the difficulty of decoding the proposed algorithm is high.

 Ke ZHANG, et al[2009][3], As the extension of the least significant bits(LSB)

steganographic algorithm, steganographic algorithm embedding in two least-significant
bits (Two-LSBs for short) has some characteristics, such as visual imperceptibility,
higher capacity and easy realization. A new steganalysis method is introduced to detect
the existence of hidden message that are randomly embedded in LSB and the second
significant bits (second-LSBs)of image pixels. It is proposed based on investigating the
statistical characters of image data in LSB and the second significant bits with hidden
message.

 Mamta Juneja, et al [2009][4], A new approach has been proposed for the design of a
Robust image steganography which involves LSB (Least Significant Bit) insertion and
RSA encryption technique. Steganography is the term used to describe the hiding of data
in images to avoid detection by attackers. Steganalysis is the method used by attackers to
determine if images have hidden data and to recover that data. The application discussed
in this paper ranks images in a users library based on their suitability as cover objects for
some data. By matching data to an image, there is less chance of an attacker being able to
use steganalysis to recover the data. Before hiding the data in an image the application
first encrypts it. The steganography method proposed in
this paper and illustrated by the application is superior to that used by current
steganography tools.

 Venkatraman.S, et al [2004][5], With the ever increasing amount and variety of data to
be stored and transmitted in various mediums, the specification of security which has to
be established at various levels of medium access and the accompanying issues of
authentication and authorization has become a critical factor. Various steganographic,
watermarking and data-embedding algorithms have usually manipulated the actual data in

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order to either hide any coveted information or to provide some level of access control
over the medium. The mediums are usually images, video, audio etc., wherein specific
portions or the overall space is usually ‘corrupted’ with ‘significant’ data. This paper is
an attempt to bring out the significance of the steganographic techniques that are
employed in information processing algorithms for data security. It deals with the
problem of data security, focusing mainly on images, and tries to state the various
properties and characteristics that the steganographic algorithms should possess. The
paper also highlights the technique of masking used in the conventional steganographic
LSB algorithms and in its variants.

 R.Chandramouli, et al [2001][6], there have been many techniques for hiding messages in
images in such a manner that the altercations made to the image are perceptually
indiscernible. However the question whether they result in images that are statistically
indistinguishable from untampered images has not been adequately explored.
In this paper we look at some specific inage based steganography techniques and show
that an observer can indeed distinguish between images carrying a hidden message and
images which do not carry a message.We derive a closed form expression of the
probability of detection and false alarm in terms of the number of bits that are hidden.
This lead us to the notion of steganographic capacity,that is, how many bits can we hide
in a message without causing statistically significant modification? Our results are able to
provide an upper bound on this capacity. Our ongoing work relates to adaptive
steganographic tecniques that take explicit steps to foil the detection mechanism.In this
case we hope to show that the number of bits that can be embeded increases significantly.

 K Suresh Babu, et al [2001][7], Steganography and Steganalysis are two important areas
of research that involve a number of applications. These two areas of research are
important especially when reliable and secure information exchange is required.
Steganography is an art of embedding information in a cover image without causing
statistically significant variations to the cover image. Steganalysis is the technology that
attempts to defeat Steganography by detecting the hidden information and extracting. In
this paper we propose an image Steganography that can verify the reliability of the
information being transmitted to the receiver. The method can verify whether the attacker
has tried to edit, delete or forge the secret information in the stego-image.

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4. PROPOSED METHOD

The Proposed method here is Object Oriented analysis. Object oriented analysis is basically
concerned with the decomposition of a problem into its component parts and establishing a
logical model to describe the system functions. We follow this analysis as for the project.

Object Oriented Analysis ( OOA ) approach consists of the following steps :

4.1 Understanding the problem :

This is the first step in the analysis process. The problem statement provides the basis for
drawing the requirements specification of both the user and the software .

4.2 Requirements Specifications :

Once the problem is clearly defined , the next step is to understand what the proposed to do.
Based on the user requirements , the specification for the software should be drawn . The
developer should state clearly

 What outputs are required ?

A set of screens displaying the output of data hiding and retrieval of hidden data .

 What inputs are necessary ?

Various interactive inputs that take the user through the different stages encountered
during the execution of the application .

 What processes are involved to produce these outputs ?

Entering the text , choosing the picture , encoding , decoding display .

4.3 Identification of objects :

Objects can often be identified in terms of the real world objects as well as the abstract objects.
Their applications can be best analyzed by using the data flow diagrams. Design is concerned
with the mapping of objects in the problem space into objects in the solution space and creating
an overall structure and computational models for the system. This stage normally uses the
bottom - up approach to build the structure of the system and the top- down functional
decomposition approach to design the class member functions that provides services. The
steganographic process basically involves encoding, decoding and checking if encodable. These
are the basic functions of the class codec and the pic codec class. The encryption process is
handled by the crypt and objects .The remaining objects are the various dialogs for display and
interaction with the user.

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Fig 2 : A Steganography System

The above diagram consists of the following parts :

 Message File: This is the file to be encrypted.
 Cover File: This is the image file that is used for encryption.
 Steg File: This is the result of encrypting message file with cover file.
 Steganography Tool: This tool allows users to insert and extract hidden data into and
from steg files.

5. APPLICATIONS

 Web based applications

 Steganographic Printers
 Intelligence Services
 Digital Watermarking
 Defence

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6. REFERENCES

1. Visual Cryptographic Steganography in Images, Piyush Marwaha1, Paresh Marwaha2,

Infosys Technologies Limited, India

2. Proposal of a New Steganographic Approach, Amitabh Mishra , Akshay Gupta, D.K.

Vishwakarma, Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering, ASET, Amity
University, India

3. Stegananlysis Method of Two Least-Significant Bits Steganography Ke ZHANG Hai-ying

GAO Wan-su BAO Zhengzhou Information Science and Technology Institute, Zhengzhou,
450004,China

4. Designing of Robust Image Steganography Technique Based on LSB Insertion and

Encryption Mamta Juneja, Parvinder Singh Sandhu, Department of Computer Science and
Engineering, Rayat and Bahra Institute of Engineering and Bio-Technology, Punjab
Technical University, Punjab, India

5. Significance of Steganography on Data Security Venkatraman.S, Ajith Abraham, Marcin

Paprzycki, Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Madras, India

6. Analysis of LSB Based Image Steganography Techniques, R Chandramouli, MSyNC Lab,

Stevens Institute Of Technology, Dept. Of Electrical And Computer Science, Hoboken, NJ
07030

7. Authentication of Secret Information in Image Steganography, K Suresh Babu, K B Raja,

Kiran Kumar K, Manjula Devi T H, Venugopal K R, L M Patnaik, Department of Computer
Science and Engineering, University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering, Bangalore
University,Bangalore 560 001