Encrypted signal-based reversible data hiding with public key cryptosystem

Encrypted image-based reversible data hiding (EIRDH) is a well-known method allowing that (1) the image provider gives the data hider an encrypted image, (2) the data hider embeds the secret message into it to generate the encrypted image with the embedded secret message to the receiver, and (3) finally the receiver can extract the message and recover the original image without encryption. In the literature, the data hider and image provider must be specific parties who know the shared key with the receiver in traditional encrypted image-based reversible data hiding. In this paper, we propose an encrypted signal-based reversible data hiding (ESRDH) with public key cryptosystem, not only for images. The proposed scheme is secure based on Paillier homomorphic encryption. Finally, the experimental results show that the proposed scheme has much payload and high signal quality.     

Reversible data hiding in encrypted color images using cross-channel correlations

In recent years, the increasing requirements in cloud storage and cloud computing have made it necessary to encrypt digital images for privacy protection. Meanwhile, many reversible data hiding (RDH) algorithms in the encrypted domain have been proposed. However, most of these algorithms are for gray-level images, and the intrinsic cross-channel correlations of color images cannot be utilized to improve the embedding capacity. In this paper, we propose a novel data hiding method for encrypted color images. In the encryption stage, the homomorphic property of encryption is achieved by basic modular addition. During the data hiding process, the cross-channel correlations between R, G and B channels are generated in encrypted domain, and data hiding is performed by the difference histogram shifting. Analysis and experiments demonstrate that the proposed method is secure and the RDH performance is superior.     

Reversible data hiding using invariant pixel-value-ordering and prediction-error expansion

Recently, Li et al. proposed a reversible data hiding (RDH) method based on pixel-value-ordering (PVO) and prediction-error expansion. In their method, the maximum and the minimum of a pixel block are predicted and modified to embed data, and the reversibility is guaranteed by keeping PVO of each block invariant after embedding. In this paper, a novel RDH method is proposed by extending Li et al.׳s work. Instead of considering only a single pixel with maximum (or minimum) value of a block, all maximum-valued (or minimum-valued) pixels are taken as a unit to embed data. Specifically, the maximum-valued (or minimum-valued) pixels are first predicted and then modified together such that they are either unchanged or increased by 1 (or decreased by 1) in value at the same time. Comparing our method with Li et al.׳s, more blocks suitable for RDH are utilized and image redundancy is better exploited. Moreover, a mechanism of advisable payload partition and pixel-block-selection is adopted to optimize the embedding performance in terms of capacity-distortion behavior. Experimental results verify that our method outperforms Li et al.׳s and some other state-of-the-art works.     

Reversible data hiding in encrypted images with separability and high embedding capacity

In this paper, a high-capacity reversible data hiding (RDH) scheme for encrypted images with separability is proposed. The image is first divided into non-overlapping blocks, and each block is encrypted with the same random value. The advantage is that the correlation between adjacent pixels can be preserved. Utilizing the preserved correlation, the prediction difference in encrypted domain is exactly the same as that of plaintext domain, so that the separability can be achieved. Without accessing the original image content, the data-hider can embed additional data into encrypted image through histogram shifting and difference expansion. At the receiving end, the embedded additional data and the original image can be recovered without any error in separable manner. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed scheme.     

Reversible data hiding based on automatic contrast enhancement using histogram expansion

A lot of Reversible Data Hiding (RDH) methods aim to generate a stego image infinitely approaches the original image while the quality of the original image is leaved out of consideration. Juxtaposed with a plain image, a contrast enhanced version always improves the user experience significantly. Reversible Data Hiding with Contrast Enhancement (RDHCE) enhances the stego image contrast combined with its payloads and enables the cover image to be regained accurately after the payloads have been extracted. This study presents a novel RDHCE method using histogram expansion. First, a new local histogram selecting strategy is proposed to improve the contrast of the whole image. Meanwhile, the global average brightness is used as a reference to determine the shifting direction of the local histogram to prevent the image from being over-enhanced. Moreover, the contrast can be improved adaptively when a reasonable number of data is embedded at the selected embedding points. Experimental results show that, with a given payload, the proposed method achieves better contrast and maintains good visual quality compared with state-of-the-arts.     

Reversible data hiding for encrypted signals by homomorphic encryption and signal energy transfer

Reversible data hiding for encrypted signals with prefect reconstruction of directly decrypted signals is introduced in this paper. Each unit in the original image is separated into three components by energy transfer equation, and each component is encrypted by Paillier homomorphic encryption. Additional bits are concealed into the encrypted image by manipulating the encrypted signals. Finally, the original image can be perfectly recovered when direct decryption is applied. The embedded bits are lossless extracted as well. Optimal visual quality and improved embedding rate are obtained by the proposed approach, since the value of the directly decrypted unit is the same as the original one. Experimental results and comparisons are demonstrated to illustrate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed method. Moreover, the proposed method can be extended to deal with encoded multimedia, which further enriches the application scenarios.     

Improved joint reversible data hiding in encrypted images

This paper proposes an improved method of reversible data hiding in encrypted images (RDH-EI). Three parties constitute the proposed system: the image owner, the remote server and the recipient. To preserve privacy, an image owner encrypts the original image using a stream cipher algorithm and uploads the ciphertext to a remote server. On server side, a data-hider is allowed to embed additional message into the encrypted image using a swapping/shifting based algorithm. After downloading the marked encrypted image from the server and implementing the decryption, a recipient can extract the hidden messages and losslessly recover the original image. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves a larger payload than the related works. Meanwhile, a limitation in the related works that few bits can be embedded into the encrypted medical images is also eliminated in the proposed method.     

High-capacity reversible data hiding in encrypted image based on specific encryption process

This paper proposes a novel reversible data hiding method in encrypted images based on specific encryption process. In the proposed specific encryption algorithm, the stream cipher and prediction error are combined to vacate room for data embedding. After that, a permutation operation is performed on the encrypted image to improve the security. In the embedding process, we can embed a large amount of secret data in the encrypted image by pixel value expansion because most of the pixel values are less than 128 by the specific encryption process. At the receiver end, the encrypted image can be recovered from the marked encrypted image without knowing the secret data. Therefore, even if the recipient only has the encryption key, the original image will be perfectly recovered. If the recipient only has the data-hiding key, the secret data will be extracted. And if the recipient has both keys, the original image and the secret data are both available. The proposed method achieves a higher embedding capacity than that of methods based on vacating room after encryption. It does not require the image owner to perform reversible data hiding techniques on the original image, which is more convenient than methods based on reserving room before encryption. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms other state-of-the-art methods.     

Reversible data hiding using multi-pass pixel value ordering and prediction-error expansion

Pixel value ordering (PVO) prediction has become the most efficient method for high-fidelity reversible data hiding (RDH). In this approach, only the maximum and minimum of pixel block are predicted and modified to embed data and the preservation of pixel value order guarantees the reversibility. To achieve larger embedding capacity and superior performance, more blocks suitable for RDH are utilized in recent improved schemes. However, their performance is still unsatisfactory. In this paper, a novel RDH scheme is proposed by extending original PVO into multi-pass PVO embedding. Specially, the k largest or smallest pixels are taken as independent data bit carriers to fulfill k-pass PVO embedding. Although the pixel value order may change after data embedding, reversibility still can be guaranteed and image redundancy can be far better exploited. Moreover, embedding performance can be further enhanced by optimal combined embedding. Experimental results verify that the proposed scheme outperforms previous PVO-based schemes and some other state-of-the-art works.     

Reversible data hiding with automatic contrast enhancement using two-sided histogram expansion

Recently, reversible data hiding (RDH) has emerged into a new class of data hiding methods that enables exact retrieving of both embedded data and cover medium. In the present study, a novel automatic RDH method with contrast enhancement is proposed, in which the data is embedded through two-sided histogram expansion. Two-sided histogram shifting doubles the number of bits embedded at each iteration. Moreover, it preserves the mean brightness of the cover image and prevents it from over enhancement with less calculation. Experimental results on two sets of images show that the proposed method enhances the image contrast at an appropriate level without using a mean brightness controller during data embedding and provides higher information security compared to the existing RDH approaches.     

Robust and reversible image watermarking in homomorphic encrypted domain

This paper proposes a robust and reversible watermarking scheme for the encrypted image by using Paillier cryptosystem. In the proposed method, the original image is divided into a number of non-overlapping blocks sized by 8 × 8 and Paillier cryptosystem is applied to encrypt the pixels in each block. Firstly, a data hider can calculate the statistical values of encrypted blocks by employing modular multiplicative inverse (MMI) method and looking for a mapping table. Then a watermark sequence can be embedded into the encrypted image by shifting the histogram of the statistical values. On the receiver side, the shifted histogram can be obtained from both the encrypted image and the decrypted image. Furthermore, the embedded watermark can be extracted from the shifted histogram. The encrypted original image can be restored by employing inverse operations of histogram shifting. This is followed by a decryption operation to restore the original image. In the proposed method, the hidden bits can still be extracted correctly under some typical content-preserving operations, such as JPEG/JPEG2000 compression and additive Gaussian noise. Compared with the previous reversible watermarking methods in plaintext domain, the proposed method has satisfactory performance in image quality and robustness. Experimental results have shown the validity of the proposed method.     

Reversible data hiding in JPEG bitstream using optimal VLC mapping

The traditional RDH method for JPEG bitstream is conducted by building the mapping between the variable length codes (VLC). However, the capacity is limited, and the file size may not be well preserved as the capacity is increased. This is because that the trade-off between the capacity and the file size has not been deeply investigated, neither explicitly formulated nor appropriately optimized. In this paper, we propose to take the file size preservation into consideration and minimize the file size increase for a given capacity. We use the value transfer matrix to simulate a theoretical model and then design some optimization rules to reach the reversible solution. Consequently, a better reversible VLC mapping can be obtained in terms of both the capacity and the file size preservation. The experimental results show that the proposed method can increase the capacity with a relatively low cost of file size increase.     

Reversible data hiding based on prediction-error histogram shifting and EMD mechanism

This paper proposes a reversible data hiding scheme for gray-level images. The scheme exploits the similarity among adjacent pixels and uses the side-match predictors to obtain prediction-error histogram. Then secret bits are embedded by using histogram shifting method. To achieve high capacity, nonary Exploiting Modification Direction (EMD) algorithm and multi-layer embedding mechanism are used when embedding the secret bits. Additionally, we improve the method of preventing overflow and underflow problems which enhances the compression ability of location map. In the extraction process, we use the same predictors to generate the error histogram, then we can extract the secret bits and recover the original cover image. Experimental results show that our algorithm can achieve better performance compared with the previous related algorithms.     

High-fidelity reversible data hiding based on pixel-value-ordering and pairwise prediction-error expansion

Pixel-value-ordering (PVO) technique refers to the process of first ranking the pixels in a block and then modifying the maximum/minimum for reversible data hiding (RDH). This paper discusses the PVO embedding in two-dimensional (2D) space and utilizes the prediction-error pair within a block for data embedding. We focus on not only the exploitation of conventional PVO embedding but also its effective implementation in 2D form. The PVO embedding is extended into a 2D form by integrating the pairwise prediction-error expansion, and a reversible 2D mapping adapted to the special distribution of prediction-error pairs is proposed. Moreover, an adaptive mapping selection mechanism is proposed to treat separately rough and smooth prediction-error pairs to further optimize the embedding performance. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the previous PVO-based methods.     

基于编码压缩和加密的图像可逆信息隐藏算法

提出一种编码压缩和加密的图像可逆信息隐藏算 法。计算载体像素预测值与其像素值的差值, 对差值进行哈夫曼编码压缩,通过压缩数据和随机数据加密重构图像,得到载体数据。将哈 夫曼编码的码 表和秘密信息隐藏在载体数据中,实现信息隐藏。在载密数据中提取码表数据和秘密信息, 对加密压缩数 据进行解密,结合码表和预测方法恢复原始图像。实验结果表明,本文算法具有较大的隐藏 容量,不仅能 正确提取秘密信息,还能无损恢复原始图像。     

Controlling hiding capacity using image characteristics with a 2D-DE data hiding scheme

Reversible data hiding techniques have gained much attention during the last few years because of the losslessness requirements of critical applications in military and medical fields. Among the various reversible data hiding techniques, difference expansion (DE) technique is one of the most popular techniques. The most common thing between DE-based schemes is their dependence on one or more thresholds. The threshold is used in order to control the hiding capacity aiming at keeping high visual quality of the embedded image. However, there is no such automatic way to predict or determine those thresholds as they are usually predefined. In this paper, we study the possibility of utilizing image characteristics as thresholds with a block based two-dimensional difference expansion scheme (2D-DE). The experimental results show that a threshold based on standard deviation may be used to control the hiding capacity and this leads to enhance the visual quality.     

Reversible data hiding with contrast enhancement using adaptive histogram shifting and pixel value ordering

Existing image-based reversible data hiding (RDH) methods tend to focus on increasing embedding capacity, but few consider keeping or improving visual image quality. Wu et al. proposed a new RDH method with contrast enhancement (RDH-CE) by pair-wisely expanding the histogram to the lower end and upper end. RDH-CE is especially valuable in exploiting the details of poorly illustrated images for which the visibility of image details is more important than just keeping PSNR high. However, obvious visual image distortion appears when embedding level gets high, and embedding capacity is relatively low when embedding level is small. In this paper, Wu et al.'s work is improved from three perspectives, namely image contrast enhancement, visual distortion reduction, and embedding capacity increment. The image contrast is improved by making the histogram shifting process adaptive to the histogram distribution characteristics, the image visual distortion is reduced by cutting off half the modification range of pixels induced in histogram pre-shifting, and the embedding capacity is increased by exploiting the pixel value ordering technique at the early stage of data embedment. Experimental result proves that the proposed work is effective in improving image contrast, reducing visual image distortion, and increasing embedding capacity.     

Reversible data hiding scheme for high dynamic range images based on multiple prediction error expansion

For sensitive areas that even the slight distortion in images is not tolerated, we propose a prediction error expansion-based reversible data hiding algorithm which can embed reversible watermark in high dynamic range (HDR) image with low distortion. On the one hand, considering unique floating-point storage format and perceptual characteristics of HDR image, the multiple carriers are generated with low distortion and various characteristics to improve the embedding capacity. On the other hand, multi-model predictor and multi-level embedding strength are adopted adaptively to realize multi-level reversible HDR image information hiding based on prediction error expansion. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has good invisibility by making full use of HDR image characteristics. Meanwhile, the multiple strategies of multiple carriers, multi-model predictor and multi-level embedding strength, which further improve the embedding capacity and security of the algorithm, can meet the needs of sensitive areas such as medical processing, judicial authentication, and so on.