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DOI 10.1007/s11277-016-3313-x
Abstract Steganography is the art of science of hiding information which is more useful in
many social networks, digital media, and printing material. Many hiding algorithms are used
to flourish the security level of the recent wireless multimedia system to protect the data from
an attacker. This paper describes about existing steganographic based hiding methods using
LSB techniques, RSA algorithm, DNA cryptography and DNA steganography, which is used
to prevent copying, forgery and unauthorized access of videos, audios and images. Existing
hiding methods had demerit of increased key size, computational cost, speed and size of the
input. Thus the DNA steganography based Hyperelliptic Curve Cryptography (HECC) is
proposed which provides a higher level of security to image file and also assure the digital
media security. The proposed HECC based DNA steganography is compared with traditional
cryptographic techniques results in 30 and 42 % increased processing time for encryption
process and decryption process respectively. Finally, the proposed scheme is compared with
other traditional steganographic technique in terms of Mean Square Error, Peak Signal to
Noise Ratio (PSNR), embedding capacity. From the simulation results, it is inferred that, the
proposed steganographic method has, the less embedding capacity, high MSR and PSNR
value compared with other steganographic methods.
& P. Vijayakumar
Vijayrgcet@gmail.com
V. Vijayalakshmi
vvijizai@pec.edu
G. Zayaraz
gzayaraz@pec.edu
1
Department of ECE, Pondicherry Engineering College, Pondicherry, India
2
Department of CSE, Pondicherry Engineering College, Pondicherry, India
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P. Vijayakumar et al.
1 Introduction
2 Related Works
Tawalbeh, L proved that Elliptic Curve Cryptography based encryption algorithm meet the
multimedia encryption requirement and does not affect the compression efficiency.
Selective encryption is performed on the transform coefficient and perceptual encryption is
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An Improved Level of Security for DNA Steganography Using
applied based on selective bit plane encryption. With the help of these two algorithms, he
improves the encryption efficiency, compression efficiency, code compliance and security
level [8]. But these algorithms require more computational time to obtain the improved
results. In order to overcome the above limitation, Hyperelliptic Curve Cryptography based
encryption algorithm is recommended, due to its short operand size compared with other
public key schemes [9]. These cryptographic techniques are combined with DNA com-
puting techniques, to improve the information storage capacity and security level. Gehani
[10] presented a procedure for DNA based one time pad encryption schemes, which enable
the user to store more information in a small amount of DNA. He also presented a novel
use of chip-based DNA micro-array technology for 2D data input and output to improve
the security level with less computational complexity. Beck described a method to insert
information into a DNA sequence for the purpose of data storage, watermarking, or
communication of secret messages known as DNA cryptography [11]. Here, information
are expressed as series of Adenine (A),Cytosine (C), Thyamine (T) and Guanine (G) in-
stead of zeros and ones. Guozhen et al. [12]. also summarized the progress of DNA
cryptographic research and introduced the biological background of DNA Cryptography.
He discussed about recent trends of DNA cryptography and compares the status, security,
application fields of DNA cryptographic techniques with other traditional cryptographic
techniques such as quantum cryptography etc.
With the increase in expertise level of the attackers in wireless system, a need for
securing large volumes of data is the need of the hour. DNA steganography is an inno-
vative and creative approach which has the combination of DNA computing technique and
steganography. Chakraborty et al. [13] presented a lossless image steganography approach
to hide a secret image in the cover image. DNA sequencing, Sudoku solution matrix and (t,
n) threshold sharing systems are used to accomplish the approach to represent the secret
image, cover image respectively. Camouflaging process is used to embed the secret image
into cover image and stego image is obtained. Balado [14] proposed a DNA based data
embedding technique using substitution mutation modelled. Kimura model from molecular
evolution studies are used to improve the capacity of DNA data. These substitution
techniques are vulnerable to many attacks due to its weakness of security. Das focused on
the concept of using single stranded DNA as primary cover and analyzed the security
loopholes of traditional algorithms against visual and statistical attacks. The simulated
results proved that the Dual cover steganography provides better security than existing
algorithm [15].
Many hiding algorithms are developed to improve the level of security for wireless mul-
timedia system. These algorithms were used to hide a data in an image, image within an
image, data in a video and these algorithms were famous because of their security features
and feasibility. Steganography is basically the technique of covered writing. Its origin can
be traced back to cryptographic technique. Both are same in the context of application, but
differ in the methodology. In cryptography, the data is hidden by encrypting it, whereas in
steganography the existence of information is hidden. Steganography can be performed
using various methods. One of the popular methods employed was LSB (Least Significant
Bit) method. In this LSB technique, each LSB pixel of the cover image is replaced with the
bits of secret message such that the difference is not noticed by the human eye and the
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P. Vijayakumar et al.
visual perception image is not altered by the hiding of the data. The major limitations of
the LSB steganographic method are vulnerable to various attacks because detection of data
is much easier and message integrity can be easily destroyed by the attacker [16].
Image steganography is another technique in which an image is embedded into another
image. A cover image is taken such that it has same pixel size as that of the secret image.
The cover image selected for this should have a larger capacity than the embedded image.
The LSB pixel values of cover image are replaced by the MSB value of secret. The major
drawback of this technique is that the carrier image undergoes changes which can grab the
attention of a hacker or an eavesdropper. Cryptography is a very old method of retaining
the secrecy of the message. This converts the data to some other form before transmission
and the message is retrieved at the receiving side by doing the reverse process. In DNA
cryptography, a DNA sequence is used to encrypt the message. Here the plain text is
converted to DNA nucleotide triplet using generalized characters to the nucleotide triplet
conversion table as shown in Table 1. This is again converted to binary number using
nucleotide to binary conversion table. This is then transmitted and the reverse operation is
performed at the receiver side [17].
AAA A 0 CAC
AAT B 1 TAC
ATT C 2 AGC
ATG D 3 CTT
ACT E 4 CGG
AGT F 5 GAC
GCT G 6 GAT
GGA H 7 TTA
ACG I 8 ATG
GAT J 9 TTA
GGC K
ACC L
AGA M
GGT N
GTA O
CTT P
AGT Q
GTG R
GCG S
GAG T
CCC U
AGG V
GGG W
GGT X
TCG Y
TTT Z
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An Improved Level of Security for DNA Steganography Using
Image hiding algorithm aims to hide a secret image in a larger carrier such that it does not
discern the presence of the hidden image. It employs the advantage of both DNA cryp-
tography and Steganography. It attempts to hide an image in another image by converting
it into DNA sequence using the nucleotide to binary conversion table. A cover image or a
container is selected which has the same pixel size as that of the image to be embedded.
The embedding process involves three steps as shown in Fig. 1. First, the pixel values of
both the cover and secret message are converted to their respective DNA triplet value using
characters to the DNA triplet conversion Table 1. Secondly, the triplet values are con-
verted to binary values using DNA triplet to the binary value conversion Table 2.
In the third and final stage, the two binary valued matrices corresponding to cover and
secret messages are XOR with each other. On the receiver side, the extraction process is
employed has three stages, and performs the reverse operation of the embedding process.
This regains the original secret image from the stego image. The 3 9 3 pixel size of an
image matrix is considered to explain the transmission and reception procedure.
Sender Side In the sender side, the cover image is used as a carrier to hide the secret
message image as shown in Fig. 2.
Step 1 The 3 9 3 pixel matrix of the cover image is taken
Step 2 The 3 9 3 pixel matrix is converted to DNA nucleotide triplet using character to
the nucleotide conversion table
Cover Image
Cover Image
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P. Vijayakumar et al.
Step 3 The DNA nucleotide triplet corresponding to each image pixel value is mapped to
binary digits using nucleotide to binary conversion table. The step 13 is repeated
for secret image
Step 4 XOR operation is performed between the compressed binary form of the cover
image and the secret image. The resultant image is called stego image. This is
then transmitted.
Receiver Side On the receiver side, the stego image and cover image are XORed to
recover the secret message image as shown in Fig. 3.
Step 1 The stego image is received
Step 2 The compressed binary form of the cover image and stego image are XORed. The
resultant is the binary form of the secret image
Step 3 The binary to the nucleotide conversion table is used to convert the binary form
to DNA triplet form
Step 4 The DNA nucleotide triplet is converted to a decimal pixel value using character
to the nucleotide conversion table. The actual message image is retrieved after
Step 4 using the proposed algorithm.
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An Improved Level of Security for DNA Steganography Using
The proposed algorithm describes a highly secured steganography technique using DNA
sequence combined with Hyperelliptic Curve Cryptography. It implements the advantage
of both DNA computing technique and Hyperelliptic Curve Cryptography to provide a
greater level of security. The first level of security is given by encrypting the original data
using HECC encryption algorithm. The ciphertext is hidden and the resultant image, is
known as stego image as shown in Fig. 4. Second level of security of data is provided by
employing DNA mapping, nucleotide conversion and XOR operation using stego and the
cover image.
Secret Key
Secret Image to be
communicated
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P. Vijayakumar et al.
Sender Side The mapping of pixel values of cover and secret image with DNA
nucleotide, conversion of DNA nucleotide into numbers, numbers into binary digits and
encryption of image file using HECC is demonstrated in the block diagram in Fig. 5. The
following steps are followed to obtain the ciphertext points:
Step 1 Get an image file of known size
Step 2 Convert the pixel values into DNA nucleotide using Table 1
Step 3 Convert the DNA nucleotide into binary digits as shown in Table 2
Step 4 Binary digits of stego and cover image subject to XOR operation
Step 5 Convert XOR values into a decimal value
Step 6 Convert the decimal numbers into HEC points using Koblitz method
Step 7 These points are encrypted using HECC encryption algorithm and obtain the
ciphertext points.
Receiver Side The decryption of ciphertext points, conversion of points into decimal,
decimal into binary digit, XOR operation, mapping of binary digit with DNA nucleotide,
mapping of nucleotide with plaintext is demonstrated in the Fig. 6. The following steps are
followed to obtain the plaintext points.
Step 1 Decrypt the ciphertext points using HECC
Pixel values
mapped with Pixel values
DNA Nucleotide mapped with
DNA Nucleotide
DNA
Nucleotides DNA
mapped with Nucleotides
Binary Digits mapped with
Binary Digits
Ex-OR operation
Binary Digits
converted into points HECC Ciphertext
using Koblitz method Encryption points
Secret Key
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An Improved Level of Security for DNA Steganography Using
Step 2 Convert the points on the Hyperelliptic curve into a decimal value
Step 3 Convert the decimal number into binary digits
Step 4 Compute the XOR operation using binary values of stego and cover image
Step 5 Convert resultant binary number into DNA nucleotide using Table 2
Step 6 Map these DNA nucleotides into alphabets using Table 1
Step 7 Recover the original plaintext.
The existing and proposed hiding techniques were simulated and tabulated as shown
below.
Cover image is the carrier into which the secret message is embedded. The stego image is
the cover image with a secret message embedded within it by LSB technique. The message
used for hiding is Hi Welcome you All and the cover image used for hiding the data is
shown in Fig. 7. The resultant stego image is shown in Fig. 8.
Ciphertext HECC
Plaintext points
points Decryption
DNA Nucleotides mapped with Binary Digits Decimal values converted into Binary Digits
Ex-OR operation
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P. Vijayakumar et al.
MATLAB is used for simulation of embedding an image within an image. A cover image
is the container into which the secret image is embedded. The stego image is the cover
image with embedded secret message inside it. The cover image with pixel size 284 9 177
is read at the input as shown in Fig. 10. The secret image used has a pixel size of
284 9 177 as shown in Fig. 9. The cover image is chosen so as to match this pixel size.
The secret image is converted into four bit image which is suitable for hiding as shown in
Fig. 11. The stego image obtained as the result of the simulation is shown in Fig. 12.
The cover and secret image, taken for DNA mapping is shown in the Fig. 13 and Fig. 14
respectively. DNA mapped images are shown in Fig. 15 for cover image and Fig. 16 for
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An Improved Level of Security for DNA Steganography Using
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P. Vijayakumar et al.
secret image. These images are converted into binary image for the XOR operation to hide
an image within another image as shown in Figs. 17 and 18. The XORed image is shown in
Fig. 19. The XORed image is encrypted with the HECC encryption algorithm and resultant
encrypted image is shown in Fig. 20. The reverse process is carried out to recover the
original image from the XORed image as shown in Fig. 21.
Table 3 shows the comparison of embedding capacity for different size of images such as
N = 256, 512, 1024 and 2048 for different Hiding Techniques. Embedding capacity is the
size of the secret data that can be embedded into a cover image without weakening the
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An Improved Level of Security for DNA Steganography Using
integrity of the cover image represented by bits per pixel (bpp). It depends upon the
characteristics of the cover image and the embedding algorithm used for steganography.
From the simulation result as shown in Fig. 22, it is inferred that embedding capacity of
LSB technique is very less compared with the proposed DNA computing based
steganography using HECC. However, the embedding capacity varies with respect to
characteristics of the cover image.
Mean Square Error is defined as the square of the error between cover image and stego-
image. The distortion in the image can be measured using MSE and is calculated using
Eq. (1)
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P. Vijayakumar et al.
2 X
M XN 2
1
MSE Xij X0ij 1
M N i1 j1
where Xij : the intensity value of the pixel in the cover image. X0ij : the intensity value of the
pixel in the stego image. M * N: size of an Image.
Table 4 shows a comparison of Mean Square Error for different hiding techniques with
respect to different image sizes. Figure 23 shows that the MSE values for LSB technique is
very less than that of DNA computing based steganography using HECC technique. In case
of the proposed scheme, DNA mapping is performed along with number mapping in the
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An Improved Level of Security for DNA Steganography Using
embedding process and hence very large MSE is obtained with degrade on the cover image
quality.
Peak Signal to Noise Ratio is defined as the ratio of peak square value of pixels by MSE
and is expressed in decibel. PSNR measures the statistical difference between the cover
and stego-image, is calculated using Eq. (2)
2552
PSNR 10log10 db 2
MSE
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P. Vijayakumar et al.
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An Improved Level of Security for DNA Steganography Using
Embedding Capacity
1800000
Embedding Capacity in bits per
1600000
1400000 LSB technique
1200000
Image hidden within
1000000
pixel
another Image
800000 DNA Cryptography
600000
400000 DNA Steganography
200000
0 Proposed Steganographic
N = 256 N = 512 N = 1024 N = 2048 Method
Image size in bits
PSNR is the measure of the quality of the image by comparing the cover image with the
stego-image. The high value of PSNR indicates the good perceptual quality of stego-
image. The results of PSNR for all the techniques are shown in the Table 5. From the
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P. Vijayakumar et al.
Comparison of PSNR
180
160
140
LSB technique
120
PSNR in dB
20 Proposed Steganographic
Method
0
N = 256 N = 512 N = 1024 N = 2048
Image size in bits
simulation result shown in Fig. 24, it is inferred that the proposed steganographic method
has high PSNR value compared with other hiding techniques.
6 Performance Analysis
Table 6 tabulated the comparative results for computational time of the different hiding
techniques using ECC and HECC for key size of 82 bits. Figure 25 shows the comparison
result of ECC and HECC in terms of processing time for data size of 1024 bits and key size
of 82 bits. From the simulation results, it is inferred that ECC takes 30 % more processing
time for the encryption algorithm than HECC and 42 % increased processing time for the
decryption algorithm due to its larger key size.
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An Improved Level of Security for DNA Steganography Using
1 DNA mapping 35 23
2 Binary mapping 12 08
3 XOR operation 44 32
4 Encryption 502 356
5 Decryption 452 273
600
ECC
500
HECC
400
300
200
100
0
DNA Binary XOR Encryption Decryption
Mapping Mapping operation
Operations
Discrete Logarithm Problem (HECDLP). In HECC, public and private key pairs are
generated by using scalar multiplication operation (i.e. repeated addition of points). For
example, the computation of public key Q with the help of private key d is given by
Q = d 9 P. Computing the value of Q is computationally feasible by knowing the value
of d and P. But the computation of d is infeasible inspite of knowing the value of Q
and P. This is termed as Hyperelliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm Problem. In addition to
HECDLP, the following security analyses are offered by HECC.
Hyperelliptic Curve cryptosystem provides the same security level as Elliptic Curve
Cryptosystem with smaller key size. The key size of 80 bits length of HECC provides an
equivalent security level as that of 160 bit key size of ECC and it is more secure than RSA
with 1024 bits key size.
In ciphertext only attack, challenger tries to decrypt the chosen ciphertext using some
unknown key to the known encryption algorithm. Challenger also uses the previous result
to select the ciphertext with a secret key. As the secret key is not transmitted, the chal-
lenger cannot retrieve the original message from the ciphertext. Even if the challenger
knows the secret key, the challenger cannot produce the original plaintext as the resulting
cipher text consists of DNA nucleotide and binary digit mapping. Challenger finds it
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P. Vijayakumar et al.
difficult to decrypt the ciphertext due to Hyperelliptic Curve Discrete Logarithmic Problem
(HECDLP).
In a dictionary attack, the challenger pretends to be a genuine user and attempts to login by
guessing different DNA nucleotide from a dictionary. As this is very difficult as huge
amount of DNA nucleotide is involved to make an encoded message. HECC protocol is
based on a DNA based HECC cryptosystem, so this type of attack is not applicable.
7 Conclusion
The proposed work is an attempt to suggest a highly secured data transmission using DNA
steganography. This has been proposed by showing the simulation results for image into
image steganography using DNA sequence. The immense storage capability of DNA
molecule makes it eligible to be utilized in wireless security application. From the simu-
lated results, it is inferred that the proposed method can encrypt and decrypt image files in
an efficient way. The reduced key size and limited cost, enhances its capability to be
implemented and efficient algorithm for image encryption.
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