Open Access

ARTICLE

Constructive Robust Steganography Algorithm Based on Style Transfer

Xiong Zhang^1,2, Minqing Zhang^1,2,3,*, Xu’an Wang^1,2,3,*, Siyuan Huang^1,2, Fuqiang Di^1,2

1 College of Cryptography Engineering, Engineering University of People’s Armed Police, Xi’an, 710086, China
2 Key Laboratory of People’s Armed Police for Cryptology and Information Security, Engineering University of People’s Armed Police, Xi’an, 710086, China
3 Key Laboratory of CTC & Information Engineering, Ministry of Education, Engineering University of People’s Armed Police, Xi’an, 710086, China

* Corresponding Authors: Minqing Zhang. Email: ; Xu’an Wang. Email:

Computers, Materials & Continua 2024, 81(1), 1433-1448. https://doi.org/10.32604/cmc.2024.056742

Received 29 July 2024; Accepted 18 September 2024; Issue published 15 October 2024

Abstract

Traditional information hiding techniques achieve information hiding by modifying carrier data, which can easily leave detectable traces that may be detected by steganalysis tools. Especially in image transmission, both geometric and non-geometric attacks can cause subtle changes in the pixels of the image during transmission. To overcome these challenges, we propose a constructive robust image steganography technique based on style transformation. Unlike traditional steganography, our algorithm does not involve any direct modifications to the carrier data. In this study, we constructed a mapping dictionary by setting the correspondence between binary codes and image categories and then used the mapping dictionary to map secret information to secret images. Through image semantic segmentation and style transfer techniques, we combined the style of secret images with the content of public images to generate stego images. This type of stego image can resist interference during public channel transmission, ensuring the secure transmission of information. At the receiving end, we input the stego image into a trained secret image reconstruction network, which can effectively reconstruct the original secret image and further recover the secret information through a mapping dictionary to ensure the security, accuracy, and efficient decoding of the information. The experimental results show that this constructive information hiding method based on style transfer improves the security of information hiding, enhances the robustness of the algorithm to various attacks, and ensures information security.

---

Keywords

---