Enhancing Biometric Fingerprint Security Through Integrated Watermarking and Cipher Block Chaining Techniques

Abstract

This study presents a combined watermarking-cryptography approach to bolster the security of biometric fingerprint data. In the initial stage, a digital watermark is embedded within the host image (fingerprint scan) using the Least Significant Bit (LSB) technique. Upon completion of the embedding process, the watermarked image undergoes encryption using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) in Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) mode, increasing complexity and ensuring secure communication. Conversely, the extraction procedure involves reversing the embedding steps by first decrypting the received image and subsequently applying the extraction algorithm to the unencrypted image to recover the embedded watermark. The proposed method demonstrates significant imperceptibility, as measured by the Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Normalized Correlation (NCC) metrics. Furthermore, the watermark exhibits resilience against signal processing attacks, including noise and filtering. The heightened key sensitivity of the CBC cryptosystem renders the proposed scheme more resistant to statistical attacks compared to existing methods in the literature.