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Optimized Visualization of Digital Image Steganography using Least Significant Bits and AES for Secret Key Encryption
Corresponding Author(s) : Cahaya Jatmoko
Kinetik: Game Technology, Information System, Computer Network, Computing, Electronics, and Control,
Vol. 10, No. 3, August 2025
Abstract
Data hiding is a technique used to embed secret information into a cover medium, such as an image, audio, or video, with minimal distortion, ensuring the hidden data remains imperceptible to an observer. The key challenge lies in embedding secret information securely while maintaining the original quality of the host medium. In image-based data hiding, this often means ensuring the hidden data cannot be easily detected or extracted, while still preserving the visual integrity of the host image. To overcome this, we propose a combination of AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption and Least Significant Bit (LSB) steganography. The AES encryption is used to protect the secret images, while the LSB technique is applied to embed the encrypted images into the host images, ensuring secure data transfer. The dataset includes grayscale 256x256 images, specifically "aerial.jpg," "airplane.jpg," and "boat.jpg" as host images, and "Secret1," "Secret2," and "Secret3" as the encrypted secret images. Evaluation metrics such as Mean Squared Error (MSE), Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR), Unified Average Changing Intensity (UACI), and Number of Pixels Changed Rate (NPCR) were used to assess both the image quality and security of the stego images. The results showed low MSE (0.0012 to 0.0013), high PSNR (58 dB), and consistent UACI and NPCR values, confirming both the preservation of image quality and the effectiveness of encryption for securing the secret data.
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- W. S. Admass, Y. Y. Munaye, and A. A. Diro, “Cyber security: State of the art, challenges and future directions,” Cyber Security and Applications, vol. 2, p. 100031, 2024, doi: 10.1016/j.csa.2023.100031.
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- F. A. Abella, M. B. Ghiffari, M. Johana, and S. Simanjuntak, “IMPLEMENTATION OF CRYPTOGRAPHY USING AES-128 ALGORITHM,” 2022.
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- E. J. G, H. M. A, and F. H. M. S, “Enhanced Security: Implementation of Hybrid Image Steganography Technique using Low-Contrast LSB and AES-CBC Cryptography,” International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, vol. 13, no. 8, p. 2022, 2022, doi: 10.14569/IJACSA.2022.01308104.
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- U. Sara, M. Akter, and M. S. Uddin, “Image Quality Assessment through FSIM, SSIM, MSE and PSNR—A Comparative Study,” Journal of Computer and Communications, vol. 07, no. 03, pp. 8–18, 2019, doi: 10.4236/jcc.2019.73002.
- D. Chicco, M. J. Warrens, and G. Jurman, “The coefficient of determination R-squared is more informative than SMAPE, MAE, MAPE, MSE and RMSE in regression analysis evaluation,” PeerJ Comput Sci, vol. 7, p. e623, Jul. 2021, doi: 10.7717/peerj-cs.623.
- M. R. Naufal, C. A. Sari, E. H. Rachmawanto, L. B. Handoko, F. O. Isinkaye, and W. S. T. Al-Dayyeni, “An Evaluation of Number of Pixels Change Rate (NPCR) in Symetric Cryptography Based on Data Encryption Standard (DES),” in 2023 International Seminar on Application for Technology of Information and Communication (iSemantic), 2023, pp. 490–495. doi: 10.1109/iSemantic59612.2023.10295300.
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- A. M. Duarte, F. Silva, F. R. Pinto, S. Barroso, and M. M. Gil, “Quality Assessment of Chilled and Frozen Fish—Mini Review,” Foods, vol. 9, no. 12, p. 1739, Nov. 2020, doi: 10.3390/foods9121739.
References
W. S. Admass, Y. Y. Munaye, and A. A. Diro, “Cyber security: State of the art, challenges and future directions,” Cyber Security and Applications, vol. 2, p. 100031, 2024, doi: 10.1016/j.csa.2023.100031.
R. Verma, A. Kumari, A. Anand, and V. S. S. Yadavalli, “Revisiting Shift Cipher Technique for Amplified Data Security,” Journal of Computational and Cognitive Engineering, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 8–14, Aug. 2022, doi: 10.47852/bonviewJCCE2202261.
M. S. Abdalzaher, M. M. Fouda, and M. I. Ibrahem, “Data Privacy Preservation and Security in Smart Metering Systems,” Oct. 01, 2022, MDPI. doi: 10.3390/en15197419.
M. Wazid, A. K. Das, V. Chamola, and Y. Park, “Uniting cyber security and machine learning: Advantages, challenges and future research,” Sep. 01, 2022, Korean Institute of Communication Sciences. doi: 10.1016/j.icte.2022.04.007.
H. N. Khalid, A. Hafizah, and M. Aman, “Digital Image Steganography in Spatial Domain: A Critical Study,” 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344421375
F. Varghese and P. Sasikala, “A Detailed Review Based on Secure Data Transmission Using Cryptography and Steganography,” Apr. 01, 2023, Springer. doi: 10.1007/s11277-023-10183-z.
Z. Halim, N. P. M. A. Durya, K. Kraugusteeliana, S. Suherlan, and A. L. Alfisyahrin, “Ethics-Based Leadership in Managing Information Security and Data Privacy,” Jurnal Minfo Polgan, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 1819–1828, Sep. 2023, doi: 10.33395/jmp.v12i2.13018.
E. Halboosa, “A systematic review: security information for agent approaches in networks - models and methods,” PRZEGLĄD ELEKTROTECHNICZNY, vol. 1, no. 5, pp. 262–271, May 2023, doi: 10.15199/48.2023.05.45.
M. S. Taha, M. S. Mohd Rahim, S. A. Lafta, M. M. Hashim, and H. M. Alzuabidi, “Combination of Steganography and Cryptography: A short Survey,” in IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, Institute of Physics Publishing, Jun. 2019. doi: 10.1088/1757-899X/518/5/052003.
P. Mathivanan and A. Balaji Ganesh, “ECG steganography using Base64 encoding and pixel swapping technique,” Multimed Tools Appl, vol. 82, no. 10, pp. 14945–14962, Apr. 2023, doi: 10.1007/s11042-022-14072-8.
I. P. Pujiono, E. H. Rachmawanto, and D. A. Nugroho, “The Implementation of Improved Advanced Encryption Standard and Least Significant Bit for Securing Messages in Images,” Journal of Applied Intelligent System, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 69–80, 2023.
E. A. Sofyan, C. A. Sari, H. Rachmawanto, and R. D. Cahyo, “High-Quality Evaluation for Invisible Watermarking Based on Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD),” Advance Sustainable Science, Engineering and Technology (ASSET), vol. 6, no. 1, 2024, doi: 10.26877/asset.v6i1.17186.
G. Ardiansyah, C. A. Sari, D. R. I. M. Setiadi, and E. H. Rachmawanto, “Hybrid method using 3-DES, DWT and LSB for secure image steganography algorithm,” in 2017 2nd International conferences on Information Technology, Information Systems and Electrical Engineering (ICITISEE), 2017, pp. 249–254. doi: 10.1109/ICITISEE.2017.8285505.
W. S. Sari, E. H. Rachmawanto, D. R. I. M. Setiadi, and C. A. Sari, “A Good Performance OTP encryption image based on DCT-DWT steganography,” Telkomnika (Telecommunication Computing Electronics and Control), vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 1987–1995, Dec. 2017, doi: 10.12928/TELKOMNIKA.v15i4.5883.
M. R. Islam, T. R. Tanni, S. Parvin, M. J. Sultana, and A. Siddiqa, “A modified LSB image steganography method using filtering algorithm and stream of password,” Information Security Journal: A Global Perspective, vol. 30, no. 6, pp. 359–370, Nov. 2021, doi: 10.1080/19393555.2020.1854902.
S. A. Mahdi, “An Improved Method for Combine (LSB and MSB) Based on Color Image RGB,” Engineering and Technology Journal, vol. 39, no. 1B, pp. 231–242, Mar. 2021, doi: 10.30684/etj.v39i1B.1574.
O. F. AbdelWahab, A. I. Hussein, H. F. A. Hamed, H. M. Kelash, A. A. M. Khalaf, and H. M. Ali, “Hiding data in images using steganography techniques with compression algorithms,” TELKOMNIKA (Telecommunication Computing Electronics and Control), vol. 17, no. 3, p. 1168, Jun. 2019, doi: 10.12928/telkomnika.v17i3.12230.
Q. S. Alsaffar, H. N. Mohaisen, and F. N. Almashhdini, “An encryption based on DNA and AES algorithms for hiding a compressed text in colored Image,” IOP Conf Ser Mater Sci Eng, vol. 1058, no. 1, p. 012048, Feb. 2021, doi: 10.1088/1757-899x/1058/1/012048.
M. Kumar, A. Soni, A. R. S. Shekhawat, and A. Rawat, “Enhanced Digital Image and Text Data Security Using Hybrid Model of LSB Steganography and AES Cryptography Technique,” in 2022 Second International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Smart Energy (ICAIS), IEEE, Feb. 2022, pp. 1453–1457. doi: 10.1109/ICAIS53314.2022.9742942.
F. A. Abella, M. B. Ghiffari, M. Johana, and S. Simanjuntak, “IMPLEMENTATION OF CRYPTOGRAPHY USING AES-128 ALGORITHM,” 2022.
M. Sulaman et al., “A Novel Approach for Medical Image Security Using the Radon Transform and AES-CBC Algorithm,” 2023, doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3175303/v1.
E. J. G, H. M. A, and F. H. M. S, “Enhanced Security: Implementation of Hybrid Image Steganography Technique using Low-Contrast LSB and AES-CBC Cryptography,” International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, vol. 13, no. 8, p. 2022, 2022, doi: 10.14569/IJACSA.2022.01308104.
A. Susanto, I. Utomo, W. Mulyono, M. Rizky, F. Febrian, and G. A. Rosyida, “A Combination of Hill Cipher and LSB for Image Security,” Scientific Journal of Informatics, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 2407–7658, 2019, [Online]. Available: http://journal.unnes.ac.id/nju/index.php/sji
M. Rohini, M. A. Srikanth, M. Prajwal, P. R. Kumar, M. Basavaraj, and M. U. Vinay, “Advanced Data Security Using Modulo Operator And LSB Method,” Journal of Scholastic Engineering Science and Management, vol. 2023, no. 5, pp. 26–37, 2023, doi: 10.5281/zenodo.7890771ï.
J. Shankar and C. Nandini, “Hybrid Hyper Chaotic Map with LSB for Image Encryption and Decryption,” Scalable Computing: Practice and Experience, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 181–192, Dec. 2022, doi: 10.12694/scpe.v23i4.2018.
U. Sara, M. Akter, and M. S. Uddin, “Image Quality Assessment through FSIM, SSIM, MSE and PSNR—A Comparative Study,” Journal of Computer and Communications, vol. 07, no. 03, pp. 8–18, 2019, doi: 10.4236/jcc.2019.73002.
D. Chicco, M. J. Warrens, and G. Jurman, “The coefficient of determination R-squared is more informative than SMAPE, MAE, MAPE, MSE and RMSE in regression analysis evaluation,” PeerJ Comput Sci, vol. 7, p. e623, Jul. 2021, doi: 10.7717/peerj-cs.623.
M. R. Naufal, C. A. Sari, E. H. Rachmawanto, L. B. Handoko, F. O. Isinkaye, and W. S. T. Al-Dayyeni, “An Evaluation of Number of Pixels Change Rate (NPCR) in Symetric Cryptography Based on Data Encryption Standard (DES),” in 2023 International Seminar on Application for Technology of Information and Communication (iSemantic), 2023, pp. 490–495. doi: 10.1109/iSemantic59612.2023.10295300.
C. A. Sari et al., “A Chaotic Image Encryption Based on Random Noise and Arnold Cat Maps,” in 2024 International Seminar on Application for Technology of Information and Communication (iSemantic), 2024, pp. 347–352. doi: 10.1109/iSemantic63362.2024.10762216.
A. M. Duarte, F. Silva, F. R. Pinto, S. Barroso, and M. M. Gil, “Quality Assessment of Chilled and Frozen Fish—Mini Review,” Foods, vol. 9, no. 12, p. 1739, Nov. 2020, doi: 10.3390/foods9121739.