Image Steganography using image channels slicing technique and multiple random keys

الملخص

Nowadays, the use of technology has become an integral part of our daily lives, especially when exchanging information over the Internet. The transmission of sensitive data requires more secure methods to ensure proper data protection. The common most widely used method is information hiding. which plays a major role in protecting information by hiding it in a secure cover such as images, audio, video, or any digital medium that does not raise suspicion. In this work, we propose a new method to hide information in digital images using the least significant bit (LSB). The proposed method uses random keys generated via the SHA-256 hashing algorithm and random identifying for data hiding locations in a nonlinear manner. The method treats the RGB color channels of the cover image as a single continuous layer. For each image row, the pixel values are concatenated in the following strict order: first the Red channel values of the row, then the Green channel values, and finally the Blue channel values. This process is repeated sequentially for all rows across the image. The continuous layer is then divided into 32×32 blocks, which are then divided into smaller subblocks (16×16 and then 8×8). The location and direction for data embedding are determined based on hash keys. The proposed method performance was evaluated using benchmarks such as mean square error (MSE), peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), and structural similarity index (SSIM). The performance results demonstrated high efficiency, and the stego images maintained their visual and structural quality even with large amounts of embedded data.