A Bitwise Operations-Based Image Steganography Technique for LSB Replacement

Steganography is widely used in highly confidential data protection systems. Steganography aims to provide a private and secure channel between the sender and recipient. Steganography is essentially utilized using many types of data, such as images and videos. In addition to the rapid growth of digital systems, particularly image technologies, there is a growing volume of photographs and sensitive information being transferred. Generally, an image might be stegano graphically processed using two domains: the space domain plus the domain of transforms, such as Fourier. This preliminary study provides an image steganography method. The embedded messaging injection having less of an impact on the image quality because steganography uses the bits with low importance values. The most popular and frequently used spatial domain technique for image steganography is called Least Significant Bit Replacement owing to its effectiveness and simplicity of use. Many methods for data concealment in the spatial domain have been previously proposed and are ongoing. The LSB replacement method is the most popular and straightforward of them. However, while the LSB replacement technique is simpler than the other methods, certain risk hazards related to it remain to be addressed. A very dependable information-hiding technique for spatial image steganography is presented in this study. For every RGB component, the proposed approach takes the message bit and performs an XOR operation on the seventh bit. Following that, every RGB component's eighth bit receives the resulting output. The embedding process is done with no the need for an external key and in a way that prevents the original message from being viewed inside the protective object. Similarly, to improve security and avoid data loss within the image throughout the encryption process, the LSB uses the AND operation to encrypt and decrypt information taken from the cover picture. We provide a complete analysis of the proposed LSB replacing algorithm, including assessments according to PSNR and MSE. The high peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and mean square error (MSE) value in the results of the experiment indicate a decrease in imperceptibility and an increase in security. The comparison findings show that the suggested strategy provides greater safety for exchanging sensitive information when compared to other comparable approaches.