Hiding Image in Image Using LSB Insertion Method with Improved Security and Quality

The information hiding techniques arose to satisfy the need for covert communication. Steganography is an extremely useful method for covert information transmission. Steganography is the data hiding technique which allows hiding secret message or image within a larger image or message such that the hidden message or an image is undetectable. This paper proposes an image hiding steganographic method, of hiding an image within a cover image. This steganographic method aims to minimize the visually apparent and statistical differences between the cover image and a stego image with increase in the size of the payload. The proposed algorithm uses the binary codes which is the binary representation of pixels inside the image. This algorithm make use of least significant bit (LSB) technique, which is a popular technique in steganography, in which least significant bits of cover are altered by secret data bits. The proposed method incorporate randomization algorithm which improve the security of LSB scheme. The bits of the secret image are embedded in random pixels of the cover image and these random pixels are generated by RC4 algorithm. The system enhances the security of the LSB technique by randomly dispersing the bits of secret image in the cover image which makes it harder for unauthorized people to extract the original image. Since all the secret image bits are embedded in the cover image the exact secret image can be regenerated from the stego-image and thereby the image quality is preserved by the system. Thus the proposed system implements steganography for images, with an improvement in both security and image quality.