AUDIO STEGANOGRAPHY USING

AMPLITUDE MODIFICATION IN BIT

ENCODING TECHNIQUE

Session (2013-2017)

Program:

Bachelors of Science in Telecommunication

Submitted By:

Alishba Murtaza 13-BS-TLC-F-HU-12

Iqra Sajid 13-BS-TLC-F-HU-42

Imran Khan 13-BS-TLC-F-HU-60

Shahid Anwar 13-BS-TLC-F-HU-101

Supervised By:

Engr. Syed Owais Shah

DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATION

HAZARA UNIVERSTY MANSEHRA

2017
 DEDICATION

This work is dedicated to our Parents and Teachers for their support and guidance at all
stages. We also dedicate this work to all class fellows.

This thesis is dedicated rst of all to our parents who have been very supportive and who
have provided us with all the support and facilities we require. Without their prayers, this
thesis would not have been successful. Secondly, we would like to dedicate our hard
work to our supervisor, Mr. Syed Owais Shah, who has been a tremendous guideline all
through the course of this thesis. We would also like to devote our heartiest appreciation
to the Head of Department Information Technology and Telecommunication and all the
faculty members who have made this day look brighter for us.

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 DECLARATION

We, hereby declare that this project neither as a whole nor as a part there of has been
copied out from any source. It is further declared that we have developed this project and
the accompanied report entirely on the basis of our personal eorts made under the
sincere guidance of our supervisor. No portion of the work presented in this report has
been submitted in the support of any other degree or qualication of this or any other
University or Institute of learning, if found we shall stand responsible.

Alishba Murtaza

Signature: ____________________

Iqra Sajid

Signature: ____________________

Imran Khan

Signature: ____________________

Shahid Anwar

Signature: ____________________

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We, the associate workers of the project report under study take an initiation with the
prestigious name of Almighty Allah, Lord of the worlds who gave us caliber, incentives
and courage to complete it with the required goals and within prescribed limit of time
factor. Major credit of appreciations along with deep sense of gratefulness goes
undoubtedly to our project advisor Engr. Syed Owais Shah of Telecommunication
Engineering who familiarized us with the initial stages of project at different occasions.
Resourcefulness of our advisor was one reason that led this project in nding the real
goals.

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 PROJECT IN BRIEF

Project Title: Audio Steganography Using Amplitude Modification in Bit

Encoding Technique

Objective: To encode the audio file with secrete data by altering

amplitude of the samples.

Undertaken By: Alishba Murtaza 32532

Iqra Sajid 32562

Imran Khan 32582

Shahid Anwar 32622

Supervised By: Engr. Syed Owais Shah

Starting Month: May/2017

Ending Month: July/2017

Software Used: Matlab

Environment Used: Windows Seven.

System Used: Dell Core i5.

DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATION

HAZARA UNIVERSTY MANSEHRA

2017

iv
 ABSTRACT

In present day to day life, effective data hiding methods are needed due to attack made on
data communication. This Project presents the technique for the above requirement. In
this proposed method, secret message is embedded within carrier audio file (.wav) .In the
transmitter end the output will be similar to the carrier with secret message embedded
inside. The hacker will be blinded by the transmitted signal. At the receiver end the
original message can be retrieved without any loss. The entire proposed system is
simulated and their corresponding waveforms prove the effectiveness of this method.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1 ............................................................................................................................. 1
INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1
1.1 Brief Introduction: ................................................................................................ 1
1.2 Overview of Audio Steganography ...................................................................... 2
1.3 Hardware Constraints: .......................................................................................... 2
1.3.1 Language Constraint: .................................................................................... 2
1.3.2 Communication constraints: ......................................................................... 3
1.4 Non Functional Requirements.............................................................................. 3
1.4.1 Start-up Time: ............................................................................................... 3
1.4.2 Response Time: ............................................................................................. 3
1.4.3 Search Strategy: ............................................................................................ 3
1.4.4 Graphics Decision: ........................................................................................ 3
1.4.5 Updating Time: ............................................................................................. 3
Chapter 2 ............................................................................................................................. 4
LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................... 4
2.1 Background .......................................................................................................... 4
2.2 Literature Review ................................................................................................. 4
2.3 Related Work: ...................................................................................................... 6
Chapter 3 ............................................................................................................................. 8
Approach ............................................................................................................................. 8
3.1 Software Approach:.............................................................................................. 8
3.2 Matlab................................................................................................................... 8
3.2.1 Programming in Matlab ................................................................................ 8
3.2.2 Where to find MATLAB? ............................................................................. 9
3.2.3 What is MATLAB?..................................................................................... 10
Chapter 4 ........................................................................................................................... 11
METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................... 11
4.1 Audio Watermarking Characteristic................................................................... 14

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 4.2 Transparency: ..................................................................................................... 14
4.3 Capacity:............................................................................................................. 14
4.4 Robustness:......................................................................................................... 14
4.5 Steganography Mechanism: ............................................................................... 15
4.6 Echo Hiding........................................................................................................ 16
4.7 Proposed Work: .................................................................................................. 16
4.7 Block Diagram ................................................................................................... 17
4.7.1 Encryption Diagram .................................................................................... 17
4.7.2 Decryption Key ........................................................................................... 18
Chapter 5 ........................................................................................................................... 19
Results AND Conclusion .................................................................................................. 19
5.1 Evaluation of Audio Steganography .................................................................. 19
5.1.1 Advantages:................................................................................................. 19
5.1.2 Disadvantages: ............................................................................................ 20
5.2 Conclusion.......................................................................................................... 21
5.3 Results ................................................................................................................ 21
5.3.1 Data hiding Select file ................................................................................. 21
5.3.2 Data hided: .................................................................................................. 22
5.3.3 Data Recovering: ........................................................................................ 23
References ..................................................................................................................... 24

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 LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 4.1: Flow Chart of Encoding/Encryption .............................................................. 17

Figure 4.2: Decryption Key .............................................................................................. 18

Figure 5.1: Data hiding Select file .................................................................................... 21

Figure 5.2: Data hided....................................................................................................... 22

Figure 5.3: Data Recovering ............................................................................................. 23

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Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION
1.1 Brief Introduction
Steganography, coming from the Greek words stegos, meaning roof or covered and
graphia which means writing. It is the art and science of hiding the fact that
communication is taking place. Using the steganography, we can embed a secret message
inside a piece of unsuspicious information and send it without anyone knowing of the
existence of the secret message. Steganography and cryptography are closely related.
Cryptography scrambles messages so they cannot be understood. Steganography on the
other hand, will hide the message so there is no knowledge of the existence of the
message in the first place. In some situations, sending an encrypted message will arouse
suspicion while an invisible message will not do so. Both sciences can be combined to
produce better protection of the message. The principle defined once by Kerckhoffs for
cryptography, also stands for steganography: the quality of a cryptographic system should
only depend on a small part of information, namely the secret key. The same is valid for
good steganographic systems: knowledge of the system that is used, should not give any
information about the existence of hidden messages. Finding a message should only be
possible with knowledge of the key that is required to uncover it. So, this method will be
more effective when compared to the cryptographic methods. In case of pervasive
hacking by rapid selection one cannot be able to retrieve its exact message format as the
inbuilt cryptography serves for this valuable purpose. Thus, a method called dual
steganography serves well for the digital communication fields. The name dual itself
retrieves its cause such that two methods both combination of cryptography and
steganography is used.In this project, a secret message of an audio file or a text file is
first encrypted and then it is embedded into a carrier audio file. Our assumptions are the
audio files are strictly in .wav format and the carrier audio file should be eight times
greater than the secret audio message file. The paper is organized as follows: In section 2
the existing audio steganography methods are discussed. Section 3 deals with the overall
system model with the proposed audio steganography technique.

1
1.2 Overview of Audio Steganography

The main goal of steganography is to communicate securely in a completely undetectable

manner and to avoid drawing suspicion to the transmission of a hidden data. It is not only
prevents others from knowing the hidden information, but it also prevents others from
thinking that the information even exists. If a steganography method causes someone to
suspect there is a secret information in a carrier medium, then the method has failed. The
basic model of Audio steganography consists of Carrier (Audio file). Carrier is also
known as a cover-file, which conceals the secret information. Message is the data that the
sender wishes to remain it confidential. Message can be plain text, image, audio or any
type of file.

Steganography is the art and science of hiding the fact that communication is taking
place. Using the steganography, we can embed a secret message inside a piece of
unsuspicious information and send it without anyone knowing of the existence of the
secret message. Information security is essential for confidential data transfer.
Steganography is one of the ways used for secure transmission of confidential
information. Hiding information in audio is less suspicious than communicating an
encrypted file. The main purpose of steganography is to convey the information secretly
by concealing the very existence of information in some other medium such as image,
audio or video. This objects called cover object or carrier object of the steganographic
method. The secret message can also be of types like text, picture, image, audio or video.
These objects are called message object. After application of steganographic method the
produced output file is called stego-object.

1.3 Hardware Constraints

Design Constraint: Application is only designed in Matlab.

1.3.1 Language Constraint

We will use Matlab for this project.

2
1.3.2 Communication constraints

Communication and network error may cause the application to crash; application may
not deal with such problems.

1.4 Non Functional Requirements

1.4.1 Start-up Time

Application should be started within (1-3) seconds for saving the time of user.

1.4.2 Response Time

Application response time should be fast so that the information will be quickly seen with
a limited time.

1.4.3 Search Strategy

Searching time should be limited so that the user can view the information and it also
motivates the user.

1.4.4 Graphics Decision

It should take limited time to load notification.

1.4.5 Updating Time

Information will be updated with in mille second so that effect will not be noticed by the
user.

3
Chapter 2

LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Background

The first steganographic technique was developed in ancient Greece around 440 B.C. The
Greek ruler Histaeus employed an early version of steganography. He shaved the head of
a slave and then tattooed the message on the slaves scalp, waited for the hair to grow to
cover the secret message. Once the secret message is covered he sent the slave on his way
to deliver the message. The recipient shaves the slaves head to read the message. Null
ciphers were also used to send secret messages. Null ciphers are messages which contain
secret messages embedded in the current text. An example of null cipher is: Missing feel
mind and boat strength admit masterful transparent randomness side moment proposed
many step way. By taking the third letter in each word we get the secret message

2.2 Literature Review

Muhammad Asad, Junaid Gilani, Adnan Khalid proposed a three layered model for audio
steganography based on least significant bit replacement. The secret message to be
transmitted is passed through two layers before it is embedded within the cover message
in the third layer. The stego message is transmitted over the network to the receiver side
and the secret message is recovered by performing reverse operations in reverse order.
The objective of the paper is to make sure the confidentiality of the secret message. They
also discussed the implementation issues of the three layered model with respect to
different parameters like capacity, transparency and robustness. Experimental results
have shown that three layer model achieved a signal to noise ratio of 54.78dB in
comparison to 51.12 dB of conventional LSB method. 2. Lovey Rana, Saikat Banerjee
implemented an audio steganographic system that provides improved security. To
achieve this, dual layer randomization approach is used. First layer of randomization is
achieved by randomly selecting the byte number or samples. An additional layer of
security is provided by randomly selecting the bit position at which embedding is done in
the selected samples. Using this proposed algorithm the transparency and robustness of

4
the steganographic technique is increased. Kirti Gandhi, Gaurav Garg introduced a
method which is a variant of well-known LSB method. Due to less robustness and more
vulnerability to be attacked LSB method is not preferred. Instead two bits (2nd and 3rd
LSBs) are used for hiding message. This will increase the data hiding capacity also. A
filter is designed to minimize the changes occurred in stego file. The stego file along with
the filtered file thus obtained is used to generate a unique key. The filtered file and the
generated key will be transmitted to receiver. The key will derive to extract the correct
message at receivers end. Bankar Priyanka R., Katariya Vrushabh R., Patil Komal K.
presented a novel approach of submission technique of audio Steganography. Using
genetic algorithm, message bits are embedded into multiple and higher LSB layer values,
resulting in increased robustness. The robustness would be increased against those
intentional attacks which try to reveal the hidden message and also some unintentional
attacks like noise addition as well. Ashwini Mane, Gajanan Galshetwar, Amutha
Jeyakumar presented a method known as Least Significant Bit (LSB) method. In LSB
method consecutive LSBs in each sample of cover audio is replaced with secret message
bit. LSB method is very easy to implement but have low robustness. The details also
compares the spectra of original audio signal before embedding and audio signal after
embedding. S.S. Divya, M. Ram Mohan Reddy discussed a method of hiding text in
audio using multiple LSB steganography and provide security using cryptography. For 16
bit per sample audio sequences the maximum number of bits that can be altered for LSB
audio steganography without affecting the quality of host audio signal is 4 LSBs. The
research has proposed two novel approaches of substitution technique of audio
steganography that improves the capacity of cover audio for embedding additional data.
Here message bits are embedded into multiple and variable LSBs. These methods utilize
up to 7 LSBs for embedding data. From the results these methods improves the capacity
of data hiding of cover audio by 35% to 70% as compared to the standard LSB algorithm
which uses 4 LSBs for data embedding. Gunjan Nehru and Puja Dhar studied a detailed
look of audio steganography techniques using LSB and genetic algorithm approach. This
research has study of various techniques of audio steganography using different
algorithms like genetic algorithm approach and LSB approach. It has tried some
approaches that help in audio steganography. It has the art and science of writing hidden

5
messages in such a way that only the sender and intended recipient suspects the existence
of the message. Ajay.B.Gadicha explored a new 4th bit rate LSB audio Steganography
method that reduces embedding distortion of the host audio. Using the proposed
algorithm, Message bits are embedded into 4th LSB layers, resulting in increased
robustness against noise addition. Hearing tests showed that perceptual quality of audio is
higher in the case of the proposed method than in the standard LSB method. Mazdak
Zamani et.al described the problems faced by substitution technique and solution to the
problems.

2.3 Related Work

There are many papers proposed in this audio steganography with most of the papers
embed secret audio file in a carrier audio file. Some of them used cryptography for
additional security. The authors are mainly concerned with the security of the embedded
message. To achieve high robustness and capacity of our steganalysis various
methodologies have been implemented and verified their approach. In [1]
kaliappangopalan proposed a steganalysis in audio file with an encryption key for the
embedded secret audio file. In [2] M Asad, JGilani & A Khalid proposed a audio
steganography with an encrypted audio file using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).
In [3] Mazdak Zaman, Azizah Bt Abdul Manaf, Rabiah Bt Ahmad, Farhang Jaryani,
Hamed Taherdoost, Akram M. Zeki proposed a genetic algorithm for the embedding
secret audio files for achieving higher robustness and capacity. In [4] kaliappangopalan
embed the information of secret message in spectral domain of a cover audio or image
files. In [5] K.B.Raja, C.R.Chowdary, Venugopal K R,& L.M. Patnaik proposed a work
on image steganography where a LSB embedding is used and then DCT is performed
followed by a compression technique to provide high security in the hidden data. In [6]
Hossein Malekmohamadi and Shahrokh Ghaemmaghami proposed an enhancement in
image steganalysis of LSB matching by reducing the complexity using gober filter co-
officients. In [7] R Balagi& G Naveen extended their work towards video steganography
by embedding the secret information in some particular frames. In [8] Data hiding
technique: Audio steganography using LSB technique (Ashwini Mane, Gajanan
Galshetwar, Amutha Jeyakumar): In this era of emerging technologies, electronic

6
communication has become an integral and significant part of everyones life because it
is simpler, faster and more secure. The objective of this paper is to come up with a
technique hiding the presence of secret message. Least Significant Bit (LSB)
modification technique is the most simple and efficient technique used for audio
steganography. Proposed technique has been tested successfully on a .wav file at a
sampling frequency of 3000 samples/second with each sample containing 8 bits.

7
Chapter 3

APPROACH
3.1 Software Approach:
The project is mainly dependent on software Tools used in developing of this project are

Matlab

3.2 Matlab

Matlab (Matrix laboratory) is an interactive software system for numerical computations

and graphics. As the name suggests, Matlab is especially designed for matrix
computations: solving systems of linear equations, computing eigenvalues and
eigenvectors, factoring matrices, and so forth. In addition, it has a variety of graphical
capabilities, and can be extended through programs written in its own programming
language. Many such programs come with the system; a number of these extend Matlab's
capabilities to nonlinear problems, such as the solution of initial value problems for
ordinary differential equations.

Matlab is designed to solve problems numerically, that is, in finite-precision arithmetic.

Therefore it produces approximate rather than exact solutions, and should not be
confused with a symbolic computation system (SCS) such as Mathematical or Maple. It
should be understood that this does not make Matlab better or worse than an SCS; it is a
tool designed for different tasks and is therefore not directly comparable.

In the following sections, I give an introduction to some of the most useful features of
Matlab. I include plenty of examples; the best way to learn to use Matlab is to read this
while running Matlab, trying the examples and experimenting.

3.2.1 Programming in Matlab

The capabilities of Matlab can be extended through programs written in its own
programming language. It provides the standard constructs, such as loops and
conditionals; these constructs can be used interactively to reduce the tedium of repetitive
tasks, or collected in programs stored in ``m-files'' (nothing more than a text file with

8
extension ``.m''). I will first discuss the programming mechanisms and then explain how
to write programs.

MATLAB, short for MATrix LABoratory is a programming package specifically

designed for quick and easy scientific calculations and I/O. It has literally hundreds of
built-in functions for a wide variety of computations and many toolboxes designed for
specific research disciplines, including statistics, optimization, solution of partial
differential equations, data analysis. For CME200, you need a solid knowledge of basic
MATLAB commands and several more advanced features including two- and three-
dimensional graphics, solution of algebraic equations, solution of ordinary differential
equations, calculations with matrices and solutions of linear systems of equations. Most
of what you need is discussed here, but most importantly, after this tutorial you should be
able to find your way around the MATLAB help function and browser functions to find
any additional features you may need or want to use. General directions This is a hands-
on tutorial. MATLAB commands for you to type are printed in bold letters. Bold letters
are also used to make MATLAB expressions that are in lower case more visible when
found in a sentence.

3.2.2 Where to find MATLAB?

For those who own a PC, the cheap student edition of MATLAB is available at the
bookstore. We recommend you buy a copy of this version because you will likely use it
throughout your Stanford career and beyond. If you do not have your own PC, you will
find that MATLAB is available on a wide variety of platforms around campus. This
tutorial assumes you can open the MATLAB GUI. If you are running on a UNIX
machine, you can also run MATLAB in any xterm window, but you will miss the
advanced interface options that makes the new versions of MATLAB such a pleasure to
deal with. This MATLAB tutorial is based on version 6x (from 2001). The latest version
of MATLAB has a slightly different interface, and additional features. However, the
basic commands and workings of MATLAB discussed in this tutorial are still the same.

9
3.2.3 What is MATLAB?

MATLAB is widely used in all areas of applied mathematics, in education and research
at universities, and in the industry. MATLAB stands for MATrix LABoratory and the
software is built up around vectors and matrices. This makes the software particularly
useful for linear algebra but MATLAB is also a great tool for solving algebraic and
differential equations and for numerical integration. MATLAB has powerful graphic
tools and can produce nice pictures in both 2D and 3D. It is also a programming
language, and is one of the easiest programming languages for writing mathematical
programs. MATLAB also has some tool boxes useful for signal processing, image
processing, optimization, etc.

10
Chapter 4

METHODOLOGY
Todays large demand of internet applications requires data to be transmitted in a secure
manner. Data transmission in public communication system is not secure because of
interception and improper manipulation by eavesdropper. So the attractive solution for
this problem is Steganography, which is the art and science of writing hidden messages in
such a way that no one, apart from the sender and intend recipient, suspects the existence
of the message, a form of security through obscurity. Audio steganography is the scheme
of hiding the existence of secret information by concealing it into another medium such
as audio file.

Audio watermarking is a technique to hide the message into an audio to protect from
unauthorized sources. If any information is delivered to another place, then to protect this
information from illegal copying, it should be watermarked to provide security for
information. In militaries, wireless communication which requires secret communication
between sender and receiver point. Now a day because the growth of internet growing is
very fast, there may be possibility to unauthorized distribution of digital data. As
compared to image and video watermarking, audio watermarking methods are not easy
due to Human Auditory System (HAS) is more sensitive than Human Visual System
(HVS) . Due to low sampling frequency [3], a small amount of noise in HAS system can
be detected by ear. It is a very popular research area in digital media data hiding. There
are many challenges to data hiding in audio. The watermark does not have any distortion;
it should be audible, must be robust to signal processing and not removed by attacks. A
digital watermark is invisible information inserted into image, audio or video. This
watermark usually carries copyright information of the file. Digital watermarking takes
its name from watermarking of paper or money. Digital watermarks are the signals hided
into the digital data. These watermarks can be extracted or detected later. Watermarks
may be visible or invisible. Digital watermark could also be robust or fragile depending
of the requirements of the application. Robustness defines the ability to detect the
watermark after some signal processing manipulations are applied. Robust watermarks
are those designed to withstand attacks such as content alteration, compression, filtering,

11
analog to digital, digital to analog conversion and cropping. Invisible watermarks: An
invisible watermark is a hidden massage which cannot be perceived with human. Special
software is used to extract the hidden information to identify the copyright owner.
Invisible watermarks are used to mark a digital content (text, images or audio) to prove
its authenticity. Visible watermarks: A visible watermark is a visible text or image
overlaid on the original signal. Visible watermarks are more robust against
transformation. Time domain (Spatial domain) watermarking: According to this method
the watermark is embedded into original audio signal using PN sequence noise generation
which is added to audio . This watermarking scheme is easy to implement as compared to
transform domain schemes. Least Significant Bit (LSB) technique is easy to implement to
embedding watermark. In LSB watermark is embedded into the audio by changing the
least significant bits of the audio samples. Watermark can be easily damaged. Its capacity
is low. In phase coding technique the watermark is embedded having phase shift into
phase spectrum of audio. This type of technique is more effective because phase shift
cannot be audible by ear. In echo-hiding technique, the watermark is embedded into
audio signal by introducing an echo.

Spread-spectrum technique is a technique in which a signal is transmitted on a bandwidth

considerably larger than the frequency of the original information. In this technique, the
bit of secret information spreads over the audio frequency spectrum. It requires different
code for encoding as well as decoding of hidden information. It is more immune to noise.
It also has improved BER (Bit Error Rate). Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS),
Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum and Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS) techniques are
used in this. CSS technique is most advantageous in terms of power consumption, speed,
security and robustness. Patchwork is a data hiding technique developed by Bender etalii
and published on IBM Systems Journal, 1996. It is based on a pseudorandom, statistical
model. It works by invisibly embedding a specific statistic, with a Gaussian distribution,
into the host audio. Two sets of patches, of the audio. Patchwork has an extremely low bit
rate. Patchwork is its resistance to cropping. Transform domain uses several frequency
transforms i.e. Fast Frequency Transform (FFT), Discrete Cosine Transforms and
Discrete Wavelet Transforms and others. In transform domain watermarking information
(watermark) embedded into the coefficients of audio signal. It is more robust against

12
signal processing operations (Low pass filtering, sampling, quantization, compression).
Transform domain technique has large capacity for watermark insertion. In contrast of
robustness DWT technique is most effective. Compressed domain watermarking a type of
lossy or lossless compression in which the amount of data in a recorded waveform is
reduced to differing extents for transmission respectively with or without some loss of
quality, used in CD and wav encoding, Internet radio, and the like. In this technique the
watermark is embedded into bit steam of host audio. No coding and decoding is required.
The distortion becomes inaudible to ear.

Spread spectrum systems encode data as a binary sequence which sounds like noise but
which can be recognised by a receiver with the correct key. The technique has been used
by the military since the 1940s because the signals are hard to jam or intercept as they are
lost in the background noise. Spread spectrum techniques can be used for watermarking
by matching the narrow bandwidth of the embedded data to the large bandwidth of the
medium.

Two versions of SS can be used in audio Steganography: the direct-sequence and

frequency-hopping schemes. In direct-sequence SS, the secret message is spread out by a
constant called the chip rate and then modulated with a pseudorandom signal. It is then
interleaved with the cover-signal. In frequency-hopping SS, the audio file's frequency
spectrum is altered so that it hops rapidly between frequencies.

Spread Spectrum Steganography has significant potential in secure communications

commercial and military. Audio Steganography in conjunction with Spread Spectrum
may provide added layers of security.

Spread spectrum encoding techniques are the most secure means by which to send hidden
messages in audio, but it can introduce random noise to the audio thus creating the
chance of data loss. They have the potential to perform better in some areas than LSB
coding, parity coding, and phase coding techniques in that it offers a moderate data
transmission rate while also maintaining a high level of robustness against removal
techniques.

13
4.1 Audio Watermarking Characteristic

Robustness: Robustness defines the ability of hided information against attacks. Common
attacks include A/D conversion, D/A conversion, sampling, quantization, cropping low
pass filtering. Capacity: It measures the amount of watermark information to which the
watermark is embedded without distortion. Perceptual Transparency: This characteristics
defines the similarity between original and extracted message during signal processing
and attacks.

Steganographic algorithm: It can be characterized by a number of defining properties.

Three of them, are most important for audio steganographic algorithms, are introduced
below:

4.2 Transparency

It evaluates the audible distortion due to signal modifications like message embedding or
attacking. In order to meet fidelity constraint of the embedded information, the perceptual
distortion introduced due to embedding should be below the masking threshold estimated
based on the HAS/HVS and the host media.

4.3 Capacity

The Capacity of an information hiding scheme refers to the amount of information that a
data hiding scheme can successfully embed without introducing perceptual distortion in
the marked media.

4.4 Robustness

It measures the ability of embedded data or watermark to withstand against intentional

and unintentional attacks. Unintentional attacks generally include common data
manipulations such as lossy compression, digital-to-analog conversion, re-sampling,
quantization, etc. whereas intentional attacks cover a broad range of media degradations

14
which include addition white and colour noise, rescaling, rotation (for image and video
steganography schemes), resizing, cropping, random chopping, and filtering attacks.

4.5 Steganography Mechanism:

Steganography is the technique of hiding the message in a chosen carrier such that no one
except the intended recipient is aware of its existence.. Here a secret data is being
embedded inside a cover image to produce the stego image. A key is often needed in the
embedding process. The proper stego key is used by the sender for the embedding
procedure. The same key is used by the recipient to extract the stego cover image in order
to view the secret data. The stego image should look almost identical to the cover image.

The following formula provides a very generic description of the pieces of the
steganographic process: cover medium + hidden data + encryption = stegomedium Inthis
context, the cover medium is the file in which we will hide the hidden data, which may
also be encrypted. The resultant file is the stegomedium (which will, of course. be the
same type of file as the cover medium). The cover medium (and, thus, the
stego_medium) are typically image or audio files. In this article, I will focus on image
files and will, therefore, refer to the cover image and stegoimage. Before discussing how
information is hidden in an image file, it is worth a fast review of how images are stored
in the first place. An image file is merely a binary file containing a binary representation
of the color or light intensity of each picture element (pixel) comprising the image.
Images typically use either 8-bit or 24-bit color.

When using 8-bit color, there is a definition of up to 256 colors forming a palette for this
image, each color denoted by an 8-bit value. A 24-bit color scheme, as the term suggests,
uses 24 bits per pixel and provides a much better set of colors. In this case, each pix is
represented by three bytes, each byte representing the intensity of the three primary
colors red, green, and blue (RGB), respectively. The Hypertext Markup Language
(HTML) format for indicating colors in a Web page often uses a 24-bit format employing
six hexadecimal digits, each pair representing the amount of red, blue, and green,
respectively. The color orange, for example, would be displayed with red set to 100%
(decimal 255, hex FF), green set to 50% (decimal 127, hex 7F), and no blue , so we

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would use #FF7F00 in the HTML code. The size of an image file, then, is directly
related to the number.

4.6 Echo Hiding

Echo hiding embeds its data by creating an echo to the source audio. Three parameters of
this Artificial echo are used to hide the embedded data, the delay, the decay rate and the
initial amplitude. As the delay between the original source audio and the echo decrease it
becomes harder for the human ear to distinguish between the two signals until eventually
a created carrier sounds echo is just heard as extra resonance.

In addition, offset is varied to represent the binary message to be encoded. One offset
value represents a binary one, and a second offset value represents a binary zero. If only
one echo was produced from the original signal, only one bit of information could be
encoded. Therefore, the original signal is broken down into blocks before the encoding
process begins. Once the encoding process is completed, the blocks are concatenated
back together to create the final signal.

4.7 Proposed Work

Here we will discuss the disadvantages of the previous procedure and how those are
different with present method. The main disadvantages associated with the use of existing
methods like echo hiding, spread spectrum and parity coding are, human ear is very
sensitive to noise and it can often detect even the slightest bit of noise introduced into a
sound file and another problem is robustness. Phase coding has main disadvantage of low
data transmission rate because of the fact that the secret message is encoded only in the
first signal segment. Hence this method is used only when a small amount of data needs
to be transferred. Among different information hiding techniques proposed to embed
secret information within audio file, Least Significant Bit (LSB) coding method is the
simplest way to embed secret information in a digital audio file by replacing the least
significant bit of audio file with a binary message. Hence LSB method allows large
amount of secret information to be encoded in an audio file. Steps to hide secret
information using LSB are:

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a. Covert the audio file into bit stream.

b. Convert each character in the secret information into bit stream.

c. Replace the LSB bit of audio file with the LSB bit of character in the secret
information.

This proposed method provides greater security and it is an efficient method for hiding
the secret information from hackers and sent to the destination in a safe and undetectable
manner. This proposed system also ensures that the size of the file is not changed even
after encoding and it is also suitable for any type of audio file format.

4.7 Block Diagram

4.7.1 Encryption Diagram

Figure 4.1: Flow Chart of Encoding/Encryption

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4.7.2 Decryption Key

Figure 4.2: Decryption Key

18
Chapter 5

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

5.1 Evaluation of Audio Steganography

5.1.1 Advantages

1. Audio based Steganography has the potential to conceal more information:

Audio files are generally larger than images
Our hearing can be easily fooled
Slight changes in amplitude can store vast amounts of information
2. The flexibility of audio Steganography is makes it very potentially powerful :
The methods discussed provide users with a large amount of
choice and makes the technology more accessible to everyone. A
party that wishes to communicate can rank the importance of
factors such as data transmission rate, bandwidth, robustness, and
noise audibility and then select the method that best fits their
specifications.
For example, two individuals who just want to send the occasional
secret message back and forth might use the LSB coding method
that is easily implemented. On the other hand, a large corporation
wishing to protect its intellectual property from "digital pirates"
may consider a more sophisticated method such as phase coding,
SS, or echo hiding.
3. Another aspect of audio Steganography that makes it so attractive is its ability to
combine with existing cryptography technologies.
Users no longer have to rely on one method alone. Not only can
information be encrypted, it can be hidden altogether.
4. Many sources and types makes statistical analysis more difficult :
Greater amounts of information can be embedded without audible
degradation.

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 5. Security:
Many attacks that are malicious against image Steganography
algorithms (e.g. geometrical distortions, spatial scaling, etc.)
cannot be implemented against audio Steganography schemes.
Consequently, embedding information into audio seems more
secure due to less steganalysis techniques for attacking to audio.
As emphasis placed on the areas of copyright protection, privacy
protection, and surveillance increases, Steganography will continue
to grow in importance as a protection mechanism.
Audio Steganography in particular addresses key issues brought
about by the MP3 format, P2P software, and the need for a secure
broadcasting scheme that can maintain the secrecy of the
transmitted information, even when passing through insecure
channels.

5.1.2 Disadvantages

1. Embedding additional information into audio sequences is a more tedious task

than that of images, due to dynamic supremacy of the HAS over human visual
system.
2. Robustness: Copyright marks hidden in audio samples using substitution could be
easily manipulated or destroyed if a miscreant comes to know that information is
hidden this way.
3. Commercialized audio Steganography have disadvantages that the existence of
hidden messages can be easily recognized visually and only certain sized data can
be hidden.
4. Compressing an audio file with lossy compression will result in loss of the hidden
message as it will change the whole structure of a file. Also, several lossy
compression schemes use the limits of the human ear to their advantage by
removing all frequencies that cannot be heard. This will also remove any
frequencies that are used by a Steganography system which hides information in
that part of the spectrum.

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5.2 Conclusion

The steganography is one of the safest forms of data transmissions in this digital world.
In our proposed method, audio steganography is enhanced more by means of
cryptographic key algorithms. The message signal is transmitted with utmost security and
can be retrieved without any loss in transmission in this method. Apart from lossless
transmission this method easily blinds the hackers securing from data piracy. The key can
be both public and private depending upon the user and serves better in both aspects. The
output waveforms show that the recovered message resembles exactly as that of the
transmitted message. Similarly, the carrier and transmitted signal resembles the same.
These results shows that this method is lesser prone to error while transmission. Hence,
this method is well suited for digital data transmission through internet and other
communication systems.

5.3 Results

5.3.1 Data hiding Select file

Figure 5.1: Data hiding Select file

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5.3.2 Data hided

Figure 5.2: Data hided

22
5.3.3 Data Recovering

Figure 5.3: Data Recovering

23
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