On the Design of Perceptual MPEG-Video Encryption Algorithms

TL;DR

This paper reviews existing MPEG-video perceptual encryption methods, identifies security flaws, and proposes a simpler, more flexible encryption scheme that enhances security, efficiency, and applicability across various applications.

Contribution

It introduces a new perceptual encryption design for MPEG videos that is simpler, more secure, and adaptable, addressing security issues of previous schemes.

Findings

Proposed encryption scheme offers strict size-preservation.

Supports on-the-fly encryption and multiple perceptibility levels.

Provides enhanced security measures against known and chosen-plaintext attacks.

Abstract

In this paper, some existing perceptual encryption algorithms of MPEG videos are reviewed and some problems, especially security defects of two recently proposed MPEG-video perceptual encryption schemes, are pointed out. Then, a simpler and more effective design is suggested, which selectively encrypts fixed-length codewords (FLC) in MPEG-video bitstreams under the control of three perceptibility factors. The proposed design is actually an encryption configuration that can work with any stream cipher or block cipher. Compared with the previously-proposed schemes, the new design provides more useful features, such as strict size-preservation, on-the-fly encryption and multiple perceptibility, which make it possible to support more applications with different requirements. In addition, four different measures are suggested to provide better security against known/chosen-plaintext attacks.