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SCReedSolo: A Secure and Robust LSB Image Steganography Framework with Randomized Symmetric Encryption and Reed-Solomon Coding

Syed Rifat Raiyan, Md. Hasanul Kabir

TL;DR

SCReedSolo tackles the challenge of securely embedding arbitrary binary data in images with high capacity and resilience. It integrates randomized text shuffling, Fernet symmetric encryption, and Reed–Solomon error correction, followed by LSB embedding to achieve up to $3$ bits per pixel on RGB covers, while preserving imperceptibility. The framework includes a formal analysis of error tolerance and demonstrates strong performance across text, audio, and image payloads, leveraging both passive steganalysis tests and active-noise scenarios. The methodology is evaluated on real-world payloads and public data, with code and data openly available for reproducibility and further development.

Abstract

Image steganography is an information-hiding technique that involves the surreptitious concealment of covert informational content within digital images. In this paper, we introduce ${\rm SCR{\small EED}S{\small OLO}}$, a novel framework for concealing arbitrary binary data within images. Our approach synergistically leverages Random Shuffling, Fernet Symmetric Encryption, and Reed-Solomon Error Correction Codes to encode the secret payload, which is then discretely embedded into the carrier image using LSB (Least Significant Bit) Steganography. The combination of these methods addresses the vulnerability vectors of both security and resilience against bit-level corruption in the resultant stego-images. We show that our framework achieves a data payload of 3 bits per pixel for an RGB image, and mathematically assess the probability of successful transmission for the amalgamated $n$ message bits and $k$ error correction bits. Additionally, we find that ${\rm SCR{\small EED}S{\small OLO}}$ yields good results upon being evaluated with multiple performance metrics, successfully eludes detection by various passive steganalysis tools, and is immune to simple active steganalysis attacks. Our code and data are available at https://github.com/Starscream-11813/SCReedSolo-Steganography.

SCReedSolo: A Secure and Robust LSB Image Steganography Framework with Randomized Symmetric Encryption and Reed-Solomon Coding

TL;DR

SCReedSolo tackles the challenge of securely embedding arbitrary binary data in images with high capacity and resilience. It integrates randomized text shuffling, Fernet symmetric encryption, and Reed–Solomon error correction, followed by LSB embedding to achieve up to bits per pixel on RGB covers, while preserving imperceptibility. The framework includes a formal analysis of error tolerance and demonstrates strong performance across text, audio, and image payloads, leveraging both passive steganalysis tests and active-noise scenarios. The methodology is evaluated on real-world payloads and public data, with code and data openly available for reproducibility and further development.

Abstract

Image steganography is an information-hiding technique that involves the surreptitious concealment of covert informational content within digital images. In this paper, we introduce , a novel framework for concealing arbitrary binary data within images. Our approach synergistically leverages Random Shuffling, Fernet Symmetric Encryption, and Reed-Solomon Error Correction Codes to encode the secret payload, which is then discretely embedded into the carrier image using LSB (Least Significant Bit) Steganography. The combination of these methods addresses the vulnerability vectors of both security and resilience against bit-level corruption in the resultant stego-images. We show that our framework achieves a data payload of 3 bits per pixel for an RGB image, and mathematically assess the probability of successful transmission for the amalgamated message bits and error correction bits. Additionally, we find that yields good results upon being evaluated with multiple performance metrics, successfully eludes detection by various passive steganalysis tools, and is immune to simple active steganalysis attacks. Our code and data are available at https://github.com/Starscream-11813/SCReedSolo-Steganography.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 24 sections, 3 theorems, 11 equations, 7 figures, 4 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Methodology
  3. Methodology
  4. Signal-to-Text Conversion
  5. SCReedSolo Text Encoding
  6. Pseudo-random Shuffling
  7. Fernet Symmetric Encryption
  8. Reed--Solomon Coding
  9. Forming the Binary Message
  10. LSB Steganography
  11. Experiment
  12. Text Hiding
  13. Text Corpus
  14. Cover Image
  15. Audio Hiding
  16. ...and 9 more sections

Key Result

Theorem 2.1

A polynomial $P_{d}(x) = a_0 + a_1x + a_2x^2+ \dots + a_dx^d$ of degree $d\leq n$ that passes through $n+1$ data points $(x_0,y_0),\dots,(x_n,y_n)$ is unique.

Figures (7)

  • Figure 1: General pipeline of a secure image steganography algorithm.
  • Figure 2: Overview of our proposed framework SCReedSolo. The workflow's upper part converts the image and audio to text, and the part beneath portrays SCReedSolo's encoding process.
  • Figure 3: Imperceptibility of LSB substitution.
  • Figure 4: Hiding The Complete Works of Shakespeare inside the Pillars of Creation.
  • Figure 5: Hiding the Moonlight Sonata inside the Moon.
  • ...and 2 more figures

Theorems & Definitions (3)

  • Theorem 2.1: Polynomial Uniqueness
  • Proposition 3.1: Parity Consistency
  • Theorem 3.2: Survival Probability