Statistically undetectable jpeg steganography: dead ends challenges, and opportunities

ABSTRACT

The goal of this paper is to determine the steganographic capacity of JPEG images (the largest payload that can be undetectably embedded) with respect to current best steganalytic methods. Additionally, by testing selected steganographic algorithms we evaluate the influence of specific design elements and principles, such as the choice of the JPEG compressor, matrix embedding, adaptive content-dependent selection channels, and minimal distortion steganography using side information at the sender. From our experiments, we conclude that the average steganographic capacity of grayscale JPEG images with quality factor 70 is approximately 0.05 bits per non-zero AC DCT coefficient.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.4 IMAGE PROCESSING AND COMPUTER VISION

General Terms:
Algorithms, Security, Theory

Keywords:
JPEG, blind steganalysis, capacity, steganalysis, steganography