Improved Secret Image Sharing Scheme

with Payload Optimization

Angelina Espejel-Trujillo, Ivan Castillo-Camacho, Mariko Nakano-Miyatake,
Gina Gallegos-Garcia and Hector Perez-Meana
Graduate Studies and Research Section
ESIME CULHUACAN-IPN
Mxico D.F, Mxico
mnakano@ipn.mx

Abstract This paper presents an improvement of
interpolation-based (k,n)-threshold secret image sharing (SIS)
scheme, where a secret data payload is optimized using
Lagrange Interpolation operated in GF(2
8
). A secret data can be
not only images but also any type of files, such as documents and
executable files, which is hidden using Least Significant Bit
(LSB) steganography into n innocent-looking images called
camouflage images. In order to recover the secret data, at least k
(n) camouflage images are required. The proposed scheme
provides an authentication mechanism by parity-bit checking
and lossless recovery of the secret data using GF(2
8
) operation.
Controlling the value of k, the size of camouflage images can be
controlled to avoid a pixel expansion occurred in conventional
SIS schemes.
I. INTRODUCTION
Steganography is a technique to establish subliminal
communication to transmit or store secret information.
Principal disadvantage of this technique is that once the
presence of secret information is suspicious or discovered, the
stegoimage will be eliminated or modified by third party, and
as consequence of that, the whole secret information may be
lost. Secret Image Sharing (SIS) scheme can provide a
solution of this inconvenience. SIS scheme is an application of
Shamirs secret sharing scheme [1] to share a secret image
among several parts, which are basically classified in three
categories [2]: Visual Cryptography (VC)-based SIS [3],
Variant Visual Secret Sharing (VVSS)-based SIS [4] and
Interpolation Method (IM)-based SIS [5]-[8]. To obtain a
high quality of the revealed secret image, IM-based SIS
scheme is considered as better option.
Until now several IM-based SIS schemes have been
proposed [5]-[8]. Thien and Lin proposed (k,n)-threshold SIS
scheme, in which k-1 degree polynomial is constructed using k
pixels of a gray-scale secret image [5]. The principal
disadvantage of this scheme is that the random-like share
images are stored or transmitted, which may be raised
suspicious of third party. In [6], authors proposed (k,n)-
threshold SIS scheme combined with LSB steganography, in
which operations of module-251 are employed in k-1 degree
polynomial to restrict the key values which must be within
range of [0, 250]. The obtained key values are hidden into n
camouflage images using LSB steganography. In this scheme
camouflage images are always four times bigger than the
secret image, and a quality loss of the revealed secret image
cannot be avoided due to truncation into the range [0,250].
Yang et al. [7], proposed an improvement of Lins method
[6], in which to authenticate camouflage images, Hash
authentication is implemented instead of parity-bit checking
used in [6]. Also module-251 operation is replaced by
operation in GF(2
8
) to obtain lossless revealed image.
However Hash-based authentication caused an increase of
hidden bit-length and as a consequence, the quality of
camouflage images is sacrificed. This method also produces
an expansion of camouflage images. Chang et al. [7] proposed
other improvement of Lins algorithm, replacing parity-bit
checking by the Chinese Remainder Theorem (CRT). In this
algorithm, also module-251 operation is used; therefore the
reveled secret image is a lossy version of the original one.
In this paper, we propose an IM-based (k,n)-threshold SIS
scheme, in which maximum payload of the secret data can be
controlled by k value. If k is larger than 4, the maximum size
of secret data can be larger than camouflage image, which
allows efficient transmission of secret data. In the proposed
algorithm, all operations are realized in GF(2
8
) using a
primitive polyminial, which gurantees a lossless revealed
secret image and higher quality of camouflage images. In
addition, the secret data can be any type of data, such as
document, sound, video and even executable file.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows:
Section II presents a briefly description of Shamir scheme and
in Section III, the proposed algorithm is described. Section IV
presents some experimental results and finally in Section V,
we conclude this paper.
II. SHAMIR SECRET SHARING SCHEME
The proposed scheme is based on the secret sharing (SS)
scheme proposed by Shamir [1], so firstly a brief review of
Shamirs SS is described. Suppose that S is a secret data, and
that Shamirs (k,n)-threshold scheme shares S in form of keys
among n participants, where if at least k or more participants
provide their keys, the secret value S can be revealed. The
confidentiality of the scheme is guaranteed, since even if (k-
1) participants provide their keys, the secret value S cannot be
recovered. In order to perform a (k, n)-threshold SS scheme, a
(k-1)-degree polynomial given by (1) is used.


n i x a x a x a S x F
k
i k i i i
... 1 , ) (
1
1
2
2 1
= + + + + =

(1)


In (1), S is the secret integer value,
i
x with { } n i ,..., 1 = is any
integer value that satisfy
j i
x x = if ij. Then all F(
i
x ) are
computed, and all pairs (
i
x , F(
i
x )) are obtained and
distributed to n participants as a secret key. In order to
recover S, at least k pairs (
i
x ,F(
i
x )) are required and using
the Lagrange polynomial interpolation the secret S is
reconstructed. The coefficients
1 1
,..,
k
a a are randomly
chosen integers to generate F(x), which are not required to
recover S.
III. THE PROPOSED ALGORITHM

In the proposed algorithm, the secret data is any digital data,
including image, document and also executable file. In this
paper without any loss of generality, we assume that the
secret data is gray-scale or color image denoted by I. Secret
image I is shared among n participants in a form of stego-
image called camouflage image, using (k,n)-threshold SS
scheme and LSB steganography. In the decoding stage, at
least k camouflage images are required to reveal the secret
image using the Lagranges interpolation method.

A. Encoding Stage
Each pixel value of I is decomposed using Shamirs SS
scheme and hidden into n camouflage images (CI) using LSB
steganographic technique. Using (k,n)-threshold SS scheme, k
pixels of secret image I can be encrypted into a (k-1)-degree
polynomial as shown by (2).


1 2
3 2 1
) (

+ + + + =
k
k
x S x S x S S x F (2)

where S
1,
S
2
,, S
k
are k consecutive or randomly extracted
pixels from the secret image I. The n camouflage images are
divided into sub-blocks of 22 pixels as shown by Fig. 1.
Using one pixel value X
i,j
of j-th sub-block of i-th CI to
compute polynomial (2), it follows


1
,
2
, 3 , 2 1 ,
) (

+ + + + =
k
j i k j i j i j i
X S X S X S S X F (3)

Next the value ) (
, j i
X F is hidden into three pixels W
i,j
, V
i,j
and
U
i,j
of j-th sub-block of i-th CI using LSB steganography.
In the proposed scheme, k pixels S
1,
S
2
,,S
k
of the secret
image I and pixel X
i,j
of CI are 8-bits data within the range of
[0, 255]. Also the value ) (
, j i
X F must be within this range
to generate high quality CI. For this end, (k-1)-degree
polynomial given by (3) must be calculated in Galois Field
GF(2
8
), getting

) ( mod ) (
1
,
2
, 3 , 2 1 ,
x g X S X S X S S X F
k
j i k j i j i j i
|
.
|

\
|
+ + + + =


(4)
where g(x) is primitive polynomial with order 8. This
operation guaranties a lossless recovery of the secret image
and high quality of CIs.

Figure 1. 4 pixels of a sub-block of i-th Camouflage Image CI

For each sub-block of all CIs, we obtain pairs (X
i,j
, F(X
i,j
))
i=1..n, j=1..m, where n is number of CI and m is number of
sub-blocks of each CI. F(X
i,j
) is a value in the range [0, 255],
whose binary representation is denoted by

| | m j n i t t t X F T
j i j i j i
b
j i j i
.. 1 , .. 1 , , , ) (
) , (
8
) , (
2
) , (
1 , ,
= =
(

= = (5)

where [z]
b
is the binary representation of integer value z. The
8 bits of T
i,j
is split into three parts and embedded in the less
significant bits of three pixels
j i
W
,
,
j i
V
,

and
j i
U
,
as follows:
) , (
8
) , (
7
) , (
6
, ,
j i j i j i
w w w are replaced with
) , (
3
) , (
2
) , (
1
, ,
j i j i j i
t t t ,
) , (
8
) , (
7
) , (
6
, ,
j i j i j i
v v v are replaced with
) , (
6
) , (
5
) , (
4
, ,
j i j i j i
t t t , and
) , (
8
) , (
7
,
j i j i
u u are replaced with
) , (
8
) , (
7
,
j i j i
t t , respectively.
In order to authenticate each block of each camouflage
image, a parity bit
) , ( j i
p is obtained from 8 bits of F(X
i,j
) and
then this bit is used to replaced to
) , (
6
j i
u . These three pixels
j i j i j i
U V W
, , ,
~
,
~
,
~
with hidden data together with the pixel
j i
X
,

form sub-block with hidden data F(X
i,j
).
Above operation is repeated for all pixels of the secret
image, finally we obtain n camouflage images in which the
secret image is hidden in a sharing manner.

B. Decoding Stage
In the decoding stage of the proposed scheme, firstly all CIs
are divided into sub-blocks of 22 pixels, and then 8 bits
data
'
, j i
T and the parity bit p are extracted from three pixels
j i
X
,

) , (
8
) , (
2
) , (
1 ,
, , ,
j i j i j i
j i
x x x X =

j i
W
,

) , (
8
) , (
2
) , (
1 ,
, , ,
j i j i j i
j i
w w w W =

j i
V
,

) , (
8
) , (
2
) , (
1 ,
, , ,
j i j i j i
j i
v v v V =
j i
U
,

) , (
8
) , (
2
) , (
1 ,
, , ,
j i j i j i
j i
u u u U =
j i j i j i
U V W
, , ,
~
,
~
,
~
. Firstly the authenticity of
'
, j i
T must be
confirmed, if
'
, j i
T is determined as authentic, the secret data
will be extracted using Lagrange polynomial interpolation.
Processes that perform, if a sub-block is determined as
tampered, depend on kinds of secret data. If the secret data is
an executable file, once one sub-block is determined as
tampered one, the whole camouflage image to which belong
the tampered sub-block must be discarded. While if the
secret data is an image, only the tampered sub-block may be
discarded, and from other authentic sub-blocks the secret
image can be reconstructed.
In each sub-block, an integer value Y
i,j
, which is decimal
representation of
'
, j i
T , in the range [0, 255] is obtained.
Introducing k pairs (X
i,j
, Y
i,j
), obtained from j-th sub-block of
any k camouflage images, into Lagrange polynomial given by
(6), k secret data

j
k
j j
S S S , ,
2 1


encoded in j-th sub-block are
obtained performing (7)-(9).

) ( mod ) (
1 , 1
, ,
,
,
x g
X X
X x
Y x L
k
i
k
q i q
j q j i
j q
j i j
(
(

=
[
= = =
(6)

The first secret data S
1
is obtained as

) ( mod ) 1 ( ) 0 (
1 , 1
, ,
,
,
1
1
x g
X X
X
Y L S
k
i
k
q i q
j q j i
j q
j i
k
j
j
(
(
(

|
|
|
.
|

\
|

= =
[
= = =

(7)


The secret data
j
k
j j
S S S , , ,
3 2

are obtained applying
iteratively (9) using actualized
'
, j i
Y given by (8).


j i
j i
j i
X
S Y
Y
,
1 ,
'
,

= (8)

..k r
x g
X X
X
Y S
r k
i
r k
q i q
j q j i
j q
j i
r k
j
r
2
) ( mod ) 1 (
1
1
1
, 1
, ,
,
'
,
=
(
(
(

|
|
|
.
|

\
|

=
[
+
=
+
= =

(9)

In (6), (7) and (9), g(x) is the same primitive polynomial of
(4). The whole secret image is reconstructed applying above
operation to all sub-blocks.


IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
In this section the performance of the proposed algorithm
is evaluated using several gray-scale and color images as
secret data and camouflage images. In all evaluation, a
primitive polynomial ) 1 ( ) (
3 4 8
+ + + + = x x x x x g is used.
The performance of proposed algorithm is compared with
those of several algorithms proposed previously in literature
[6]-[8], because these algorithms have same purpose that the
proposed one.
TABLE I. DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL IM-BASED SIS SCHEMES
TOGETHER WITH THE PROPOSED ONE.


The brief descriptions of these algorithms are given in Table
I, in which SP:CP means a ratio of requiered number of
pixels between secret image and camouflage image. In the
proposed scheme, k pixeles of secrtet image are hidden into
sub-block with 4 pixeles of CIs, denoting k:4, while in Lins
and Yangs schemes, only one pixel is embedded into each
sub-block, independently of the value of k [6],[7]. In [6] and
[8], operations of finite fields are based on module-251,
because 251 is a maximum prime number in range of [0,
255]. Truncation of pixel values of camouflage images as
well as secret image is caused by this operation. While in
proposed scheme, encoding and decoding are performed in
Galois field GF(2
8
), avoiding the truncation of pixel values.
In this table A.M. means authentication mechanism used in
each scheme.



Figure 2. (a) Secret Image (b)-(f) Camouflage Images
Figure 2 shows an example of secret image and
camouflage images used for evaluations. And Figure 3 shows
a comparison among proposed algorithm and three previously
Scheme SP:CP
Finite
Fields
A.M. Secret Data
Lin-Tsai
[6]
1:4 mod 251
Parity
Checking
Image
Yang et al.
[7]
1:4 ) 2 (
8
GF

Hash Image
Chang et al.
[8]
k:4 mod 251 CRT Image
Proposed k:4 ) 2 (
8
GF

Parity
Checking
Image, text,
.pdf, .xls, etc
proposed algorithms [6]-[8] about the quality of camouflage
images with hidden shared data. Here (2,3)-threshold scheme
is used for all evaluated algorithms and PSNRs are average
values using several camouflage images. As shown in this
figure, the proposed algorithm shows better quality of
camouflage images compared with other algorithms.

Figure 3. Comparison of quality of camouflage images among proposed
algorithm and previously proposed algorithms.

Figure 4 shows the average PSNR of camouflage images
of the proposed algorithm using (k,7)-threshold scheme,
varying value of k. As shown in this figure, according to
increase of k, PSNR value is also increased. Here secret
image is gray-scale image for gray-scale camouflage images,
while for color camuflage images, color secret image is used.

Figure 4. Relationship between k-values of (k,7)-threshold scheme and
PSNR values.

Maximum payload of the secret data, that can be hidden
using proposed algorithm with (k,n)-threshold scheme is
given by

4
k NByte
Payload

= (10)
where NByte is number of bytes of the camouflage images.
As shown by (10), maximum payload of secret data is
proportional to camouflage image size and k value. For
example, if the proposed algorithm performes to share the
secret data into gray-scale camouflage images with size
100100 under (4,6)-threshold scheme, the maximum
payload of the secret data is equal to 10 Kbyte, which is same
size of camouflage images.
As mentioned above, the operations in GF(2
8
), given by
(4), (6)-(9) contribute lossless recuperation of secret data,
which enables the proposed algorithm to handle any digital
data, such as document, image, sound and also executable
file, as secret data to share among n participants.

V. CONCLUSIONS
In this work we present a secret image sharing algorithm
based on Shamirs Lagrange interpolation method, where a
shared secret data is hidden into n camouflage images using
LSB steganographic technique. The evaluation results show
that in the proposed algorithm, quality of the camouflage
images is higher than that obtained using previously proposed
algorithms [6]-[8]. The maximum payload of the secret data
can be controlled by k value of (k, n)-threshold scheme and
the size of camouflage images. If k is larger than 4, the
maximum size of secret data also can be larger than number
of pixels of the camouflage image, which allows an efficient
transmission and storage of secret data. Another advantage of
the proposed algorithm is lossless recuperation of the secret
data, due to use of operations in GF(2
8
), which allows that the
secret data can be any type of digital data, such as documents,
images, audio, video and also executable file.
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