Reversible Data Hiding in Encrypted Images Based on the Mixed Multi-Bit Layer Embedding Strategy

Abstract

With the increasing requirements for the security of medical data, military data, and other data transmission, data hiding technology has gradually developed from only protecting the security of secret data to all transmission data. As a necessary technical means, reversible data hiding in encrypted images (RDH-EIs) provides superior performance in terms of security. To simultaneously improve the effectiveness of RDH-EIs, this work proposes a mixed multi-bit layer embedding strategy in encrypted images. The cover image is processed into two categories: available hidden blocks (AHBs) and unavailable hidden blocks (UHBs) at the sender. Then, all data are embedded in the multi-bit layer of the encrypted pixels in AHBs through two embedding strategies to obtain the transmission image. At the receiver, the user can extract the needed data separably according to different keys to achieve error-free extraction of the secret data and lossless recovery of the cover image. The experimental results show that the proposed scheme has the advantages of superior embedding capacity and high decryption quality over the current state-of-the-art works.

Separable Reversible Data Hiding in Encrypted Images for Remote Sensing Images

“…However, the decryption quality of the proposed algorithm is infinite, so the decryption performance is superior to that of other algorithms. The same conclusion could be obtained from the Baboon image, but the PSNR was lower than 30 dB at the maximum EC in some works [26,27]. Moreover, the EC of these schemes was lower than that of the proposed algorithm.…”

“…Therefore, compared with other algorithms, the proposed algorithm's performance has advantages in both EC and decryption quality. Yi(2018) [31] Ge(2019) [35] Li(2020) [29] Xu(2021) [15] Qiu(2021) [27] Liu(2023) [26] The proposed algorithm Yi(2018) [31] Ge(2019) [35] Li(2020) [29] Xu(2021) [15] Qiu(2021) [27] Liu(2023) [26] The proposed algorithm on quality/dB Although the EC varied across datasets, the performance in decryption recovery was consistent. PSNR can be obtained from Tables 3-6.…”

“…In most schemes, the map used to guide data embedding is usually embedded into the LSB bit of the encrypted cover image, resulting in the original LSB bit needing to be stored with the same length, such as in [26]. To reduce the cost of storing the original LSB bit, some works have also shifted the processing of the LSB to the MSB.…”

“…That is, the cover image's decryption and secret data extraction can be processed independently. This is very suitable for occasions with high confidentiality requirements, such as SRDH-EI works in [22][23][24][25][26][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35], etc. In general, data extraction can be completed in both ways.…”

“…This is also an advantage compared to other algorithms. For example, in works [11,15,22,[24][25][26]31,33], etc., three data recovery methods were generally designed for the receiver based on the type of keys they own. Only lossy cover images or secret data can be obtained if Ke or Kd is owned separately.…”