A novel hash based least significant bit (2-3-3) image steganography in spatial domain

TL;DR

This paper introduces a 2-3-3 LSB image steganography technique that leverages human eye limitations to embed secret images into cover images with minimal distortion, improving quality metrics over previous methods.

Contribution

It proposes a novel 2-3-3 LSB embedding method for color images, enhancing steganographic quality compared to existing hash-based 3-3-2 LSB techniques.

Findings

Improved MSE and PSNR values over previous methods

Effective embedding of secret images with minimal perceptible distortion

Enhanced image quality metrics demonstrate the method's superiority

Abstract

This paper presents a novel 2-3-3 LSB insertion method. The image steganography takes the advantage of human eye limitation. It uses color image as cover media for embedding secret message.The important quality of a steganographic system is to be less distortive while increasing the size of the secret message. In this paper a method is proposed to embed a color secret image into a color cover image. A 2-3-3 LSB insertion method has been used for image steganography. Experimental results show an improvement in the Mean squared error (MSE) and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) values of the proposed technique over the base technique of hash based 3-3-2 LSB insertion.