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A double steganography model combining blockchain and IPFS

A double steganography model combining blockchain and IPFS

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Article
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The secret information may be compromised for the lack of security and concealment in conventional covert communication. Blockchain is a suitable platform for establishing covert channels to protect the secret information, due to its features of anti-tamper, anti-forgery, anonymity, and information synchronization. However, the cost of storing larg...

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... Meanwhile, each node participates the record, storage, transmission and verification of data. Decentralization that relies on peer-to-peer (P2P) network and consensus mechanism is a key feature for blockchain [23]. Blockchain technology can solve the user trust problem by providing a decentralized system structure that allows all users to trust each other. ...
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An authenticated reversible image hiding algorithm based on blockchain framework is presented in this paper. First, global eigenvalues of the plain image are extracted as plaintext keys. Meanwhile, a novel key transformation model is built, combining with public key cryptography RSA and random numbers to compute the initial values for Lorenz system. Thereby, chaotic sequences are produced. Secondly, a preprocessed model and an integer getting model are constructed to process these chaotic sequences and generate preprocessed sequences. The digital signature image and the plain image are then encrypted to obtain a cipher signature image and a cipher image. Thirdly, integer wavelet transform is executed on the carrier image to embed the cipher signature image and the cipher image in the frequency domain matrices by the least significant bit. Next, 2k2^{k} correction method is employed to correct these coefficient matrices. Finally, inverse integer wavelet transform is performed on the coefficient matrices to generate the carrier image containing secrets. Especially, cipher signature image is stored in an interplanetary file system, producing content identifier hash value. Then content identifier hash value is written into smart contract and saved on Ethereum blockchain. In the stages of decryption and authentication, the receiver inquires the corresponding transaction file from blockchain by the transaction address, obtaining content identifier hash value and downloading cipher signature image from interplanetary file system. Consequently, the receiver extracts cipher signature image from carrier image containing secrets to do decryption and authentication. Experimental results show that the proposed image hiding algorithm has strong sensitivity to both key and plaintext, can resist clipping attack, and etc.
... Zhang et al. [17] added specific noise to the carrier image to mislead the steganalysis classifier and enhance the security of the carrier image. She et al. [18] proposed a dual steganography model that combines blockchain and file storage based on the LSB algorithm Cover selection As for the cover selection steganography, similar to [4], a cover selection method based on a bag-ofwords model was proposed [19]. In this method, a group of subimages with visual words related to the textual information is found, and then, the parts of the image containing the subimages above are used as steganographic images for Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. ...
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In order to ensure the sustainable development of the Internet of Things (IoT), researchers have been exploring and making technological innovations in the fields of smart grid as well as green communication and green computing. In the new communication and computing paradigm, information security and privacy protection of communication is a key research area that is receiving more and more attention. In order to further enhance the covertness of communication methods and privacy protection of communication contents, this paper proposes a user communication scheme based on the digital steganography method, which creates an image to hide the existence of the information itself only according to the secret information to be delivered, and can effectively avoid the image distortion caused by the embedding method. In this scheme, according to the proposed algorithm of interconversion between information and pixels, the secret information is encoded into pixel format and mapped in a blank image, which is considered as a broken image to be repaired. The broken image is repaired by training the network to get the steganographic image. The receiver selects specific steganographic pixels from the received image and further converts them into secret messages. In addition, the proposed communication framework supports different generative network structures that can further improve the steganography resistance. The communication scheme is trained and tested on several datasets and qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated on steganographic images. The final experimental results show that the framework achieves satisfactory performance in terms of both steganography capacity and information recovery rate compared to other embedding-free methods.
... Some limitations include not being able to safely incorporate a large quantity of data in an image without raising suspicions that the image itself contains data and causing distortion. The LSB embedding technique is used for traditional image steganography [51][52][53][54][55]. ...
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Image steganography is a technique of concealing confidential information within an image without dramatically changing its outside look. Whereas vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), which enable vehicles to communicate with one another and with roadside infrastructure to enhance safety and traffic flow provide a range of value-added services, as they are an essential component of modern smart transportation systems. VANETs steganography has been suggested by many authors for secure, reliable message transfer between terminal/hope to terminal/hope and also to secure it from attack for privacy protection. This paper aims to determine whether using steganography is possible to improve data security and secrecy in VANET applications and to analyze effective steganography techniques for incorporating data into images while minimizing visual quality loss. According to simulations in literature and real-world studies, Image steganography proved to be an effective method for secure communication on VANETs, even in difficult network conditions. In this research, we also explore a variety of steganography approaches for vehicular ad-hoc network transportation systems like vector embedding, statistics, spatial domain (SD), transform domain (TD), distortion, masking, and filtering. This study possibly shall help researchers to improve vehicle networks’ ability to communicate securely and lay the door for innovative steganography methods.
... Zhang et al. [16] added specific noise to the carrier image to mislead the steganalysis classifier and enhance the security of the carrier image. Wei et al. [17] proposed a dual steganography model that combines blockchain and file storage based on the LSB algorithm Cover selection. As for the cover selection steganography, similar to [3], a cover selection method based on a bag-of-words model was proposed [18]. ...
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Digital image steganography is a technique for hiding information in an image with the aim of hiding the presence of the information itself. A new steganography without embedding scheme is proposed in this paper to create stego images based only on secret information, in order to avoid image distortion caused by pixel modification-based embedding methods. In this scheme, according to the proposed interconversion algorithm between messages and pixels, the secret message is encoded into pixel format and placed in a blank image in a specified way, which is considered a broken image to be restored. The broken image is repaired by the training network to obtain the stego image. The receiver selects specific stego pixels from the received image and restores them to the delivered secret message according to the inverse of the transformation. In addition, the proposed communication framework supports the choice of different generative network structures, further improving the resistance to steganalysis. The basic generation model was trained and tested on the collected cat face images and bedroom images from the LSUN dataset, respectively, and the steganographic images were evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively. The final experimental results verify that the framework achieves satisfactory performance in steganography capacity and information recovery rate compared with other methods without embedding.
... A novel coverless image steganography algorithm based on image retrieval of DenseNet features and DWT sequence mapping is proposed by Liu et al. [9]. The other is steganography based on the spatial domain [10][11][12][13], which can directly use the pixel of the carrier image to embed secret information and is very popular. For example, A. Hamza et al. [14] propose a new compressed encrypted data embedding method. ...
... The amount of embedding is an important reference index to evaluate a steganography algorithm and the embedding amount can be calculated by Eq. (12). Table 4 shows the variation of the embedding amount and image quality evaluation metrics of the proposed steganography algorithm when the input parameter BitNum is different. ...
Article
This paper proposes a novel color image steganography scheme using a compound sinusoidal discrete memristor map and bit counting method. Firstly, a new 2D compound sinusoidal discrete memristor map is designed to generate chaotic sequences with good randomness. Secondly, a new steganography algorithm combining bit counting and multiple-base system is proposed to reduce the distortion of the stego image. Finally, a new steganography framework based on the HSV model is designed to improve the security of the steganography scheme. Experimental and test results show that the proposed algorithm has good imperceptibility and can embed a large number of secret information.
... Zhang et al. [24] used the intelligent contract of voting and bidding to transmit secret information, used an encryption algorithm and two rounds of protocols to ensure data privacy, and designed corresponding information embedding and transmission methods for different scenarios, which is a new covert communication scheme. She et al. [25] put forward a double steganography model which combines blockchain and Interplanetary File System (IPFS). e model consists of image steganography and plain text steganography. ...
Article
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Due to the unique characteristics of blockchain, such as decentralization, anonymity, high credibility, and nontampering, blockchain technologies have become an integral part of public data platforms and public infrastructure. The communication between the stakeholders of a given blockchain can be used as a carrier for covert communication under cover of legal transactions, which has become a promising research direction of blockchain technology. Due to the special mechanism of blockchain, some traditional blockchain covert communication schemes are not mature enough. They suffer from various drawbacks, such as weak concealment of secret information, cumbersome identification and screening of special transactions, poor availability, and low comprehensive performance. Therefore, this paper designs a scheme of covert communication in the Bitcoin blockchain, which takes normal transactions as a mask and leverages the Bitcoin transaction mechanism to embed secret information in the public key hash field. Specifically, we propose a novel key update mechanism combined with the hash algorithm to construct a covert channel. It ensures security and can update the channel to prevent the related problems caused by address reuse. We are taking advantage of the feature of Bitcoin that cannot be double-spent to solve the problem of burning bitcoin when paying bitcoin to a fake public key hash. In our scheme, both parties to the communication are anonymous, and the attacker cannot detect the covert data or track the transaction and address. Our proposed scheme was tested in real Bitcoin blockchain network, and the experimental results were analyzed to verify its security, availability, and efficiency.
... Several works combine the concepts of steganography and blockchain. For instance, in [49] secrets are embedded in images which are later shared through a blockchain and a file system. On the other hand, in [50] each transaction is divided in two parts which are hidden in videos. ...
Article
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Permanent availability makes blockchain technologies a suitable alternative for building a covert channel. Previous works have analysed its feasibility in a particular blockchain technology called Bitcoin. However, Ethereum cryptocurrency is gaining momentum as a means to build distributed apps. The novelty of this paper relies on the use of Ethereum to establish a covert channel considering all transaction fields and smart contracts. No previous work has explored this issue. Thus, a mechanism called Zephyrus, an information hiding mechanism based on steganography, is developed. Moreover, its capacity, cost and stealthiness are assessed both theoretically, and empirically through a prototype implementation that is publicly released. Disregarding the time taken to send the transaction to the blockchain, its retrieval and the mining time, experimental results show that, in the best case, 40 Kbits can be embedded in 0.57 s. for US$ 1.64, and retrieved in 2.8 s.
Article
The rapid development of Internet of things (IoT) and edge computing technologies has brought forth numerous possibilities for the intelligent and digital future. The frequent communication and interaction between devices inevitably generate a large amount of sensitive information. Deploying a blockchain network to store sensitive data is crucial for ensuring privacy and security. The openness and synchronicity of blockchain networks give rise to challenges such as transaction privacy and storage capacity issues, significantly impeding their development in the context of edge computing and IoT. This paper proposes a reliable fog computing service solution based on a blockchain fog architecture. This paper stores data files in the inter planetary file system (IPFS) and encrypts the file hash values used for retrieving data files with stream cipher encryption. It employs a steganographic transmission technique leveraging AlphaZero's Gomoku algorithm to discretely transmit the stream cipher key across the blockchain network without a carrier, thus achieving dual encryption. This approach aims to mitigate the storage burden on the blockchain network while ensuring the security of transaction data. Experimental results demonstrate that the model enhances the transmission capacity of confidential information from kilobytes (KB) to megabytes (MB) and exhibits high levels of covert and security features.