Secure LSB Steganography over Modified Vigenère-AES Cipher and Modified Interrupt Key-AES Cipher

Abstract

Steganography is the art of hiding the existence of a message between sender and intended recipient. Steganography has been used to hide secret messages in various types of files, including digital images, audio and video. In Image Steganography, secret communication is achieved through embedding a Message Image into a Cover Image. But some general Steganography techniques like LSB, Pixel value Differencing are prone to Information theft. In this paper, the LSB based Image Steganography is combined with two newly proposed Cryptography techniques. The two Cryptography techniques proposed are: Vigenère-AES Cipher and Modified Interrupt Key. Vigenère-AES Cipher Steganography performs a Vigenère Cipher on the Message Image followed by AES Cipher. This Cryptographed Image is then embedded inside the Cover Image using an LSB Lossless Steganographic technique. The Modified Interrupt Key Steganography performs an Interrupt Key based Cryptography on the Message Image. The Cryptographed image is then embedded inside the Cover Image using an LSB Lossless Steganographic technique. The results of these techniques are more secured form of Information hiding as they use Stego-Keys. The Stego-Keys are transmitted securely using a Diffie- Hellman Key Exchange technique.