High-Security Image Steganography Technique using XNOR Operation and Fibonacci Algorithm

Since the number of internet users is increasing and sensitive information is exchanging continuously, data security has become a problem. Image steganography is one of the ways to exchange secret data securely using images. However, several issues need to be mitigated, especially in the imperceptibility (security) aspect, which is the process of embedding secret data in the images that can be vulnerable to attacks. This paper focuses on developing a secure method for hiding secret messages in an image, based on the standard Least Significant Bit (LSB). Before proceeding with the embedding stage, the secret message's size is reduced by compression using the Huffman algorithm, followed by two operations, which are the Boolean operation Exclusive-NOR (XNOR) operation and the Fibonacci algorithm when selecting pixels to embed the secret message. As a result of these processes, a stego-image is created with two secret keys. We obtained promising results against standard images with higher Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) values of 66.6170, 65.8928, and 65.9386 dB for Lena.bmp, Baboon.bmp, and Pepper.bmp, respectively, as compared to other state-of-the-art schemes. The evaluation stage proves the increasing level of security as well as imperceptibility.

@article{Almayyahi2020,
  title     = {High-Security Image Steganography Technique using XNOR Operation and Fibonacci Algorithm},
  journal   = {International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications},
  volume    = {11},
  number    = {10},
  year      = {2020},
  publisher = {The Science and Information Organization},
  author    = {Ali Abdulzahra Almayyahi and Rossilawati Sulaiman and Faizan Qamar and Abdulwahhab Essa Hamzah},
  doi       = {10.14569/IJACSA.2020.0111064},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.14569/IJACSA.2020.0111064}
}