Elevating Image Steganography:A Fusion of MSB Matching and LSB Substitution for Enhanced Concealment Capabilities  

作　　者：Muhammad Zaman Ali Omer Riaz Hafiz Muhammad Hasnain Waqas Sharif Tenvir Ali Gyu Sang Choi 

机构地区：[1]Department of Information Technology,The Islamia University of Bahawalpur,Bahawalpur,63100,Pakistan [2]Department of Computer Science,The Islamia University of Bahawalpur,Bahawalpur,63100,Pakistan [3]School of Computer Science and Engineering,Yeungnam University,Gyeongbuk,38541,Korea

出　　处：《Computers, Materials & Continua》2024年第5期2923-2943,共21页计算机、材料和连续体（英文）

基　　金：in part by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF)funded by the Ministry of Education(NRF-2021R1A6A1A03039493);by the 2024 Yeungnam University Research Grant.

摘　　要：In today’s rapidly evolving landscape of communication technologies,ensuring the secure delivery of sensitive data has become an essential priority.To overcome these difficulties,different steganography and data encryption methods have been proposed by researchers to secure communications.Most of the proposed steganography techniques achieve higher embedding capacities without compromising visual imperceptibility using LSB substitution.In this work,we have an approach that utilizes a combinationofMost SignificantBit(MSB)matching andLeast Significant Bit(LSB)substitution.The proposed algorithm divides confidential messages into pairs of bits and connects them with the MSBs of individual pixels using pair matching,enabling the storage of 6 bits in one pixel by modifying a maximum of three bits.The proposed technique is evaluated using embedding capacity and Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio(PSNR)score,we compared our work with the Zakariya scheme the results showed a significant increase in data concealment capacity.The achieved results of ourwork showthat our algorithmdemonstrates an improvement in hiding capacity from11%to 22%for different data samples while maintaining a minimumPeak Signal-to-Noise Ratio(PSNR)of 37 dB.These findings highlight the effectiveness and trustworthiness of the proposed algorithm in securing the communication process and maintaining visual integrity.

关 键 词：STEGANOGRAPHY most significant bit(MSB) least significant bit(LSB) peak signal-to-noise ratio(PSNR) 

分 类 号：TP391.41[自动化与计算机技术—计算机应用技术]