Private key and password protection by steganographic image encryption

TL;DR

This paper introduces a steganographic method to securely embed encrypted QR codes containing private keys into color images, enabling safe storage and retrieval of sensitive information.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach combining steganography and QR code encryption for private key protection using seed images for key generation.

Findings

Feasibility demonstrated with real-life images and private key data.

Secure recovery of private keys from stego images.

Robustness against active modifications of seed images.

Abstract

We propose a technique to protect and preserve a private key or a passcode in an encrypted two-dimensional graphical image. The plaintext private key or the passcode is converted into an encrypted QR code and embedded into a real-life color image with a steganographic scheme. The private key or the passcode is recovered from the stego color image by first extracting the encrypted QR code from the color image, followed by decryption of the QR code. The cryptographic key for encryption of the QR code is generated from the output of a Linear Feedback Shift Register (LFSR), initialized by a seed image chosen by the user. The user can store the seed image securely, without the knowledge of an attacker. Even if an active attacker modifies the seed image (without knowledge of the fact that it is the seed image), the user can easily restore it if he/she keeps multiple copies of it, so that the encryption key can be regenerated easily. Our experiments prove the feasibility of the technique using sample private key data and real-life color images.