Secured and Advanced Image Steganography for Mobile Multimedia Security

Image steganography is an Android-based steganography system fortified with AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) and DES (Data Encryption Standard), designed to secure sensitive information during transmission. Through seamless integration of these encryption protocols using Android Studio and Java, users can securely hide text, images, and PDFs within images. Unlike existing methods, our unified platform eliminates the need for separate image and text/PDF encryption, enhancing convenience and security. The encryption keys are derived from user-supplied passwords using SHA-256 hashing, and ciphertext is Base64-encoded to ensure compatibility with the Least Significant Bit (LSB) embedding technique. Data management is facilitated via an online database integrated using Heidi SQL, ensuring efficient and secure storage of user data. Experimental results validate the system’s performance, highlighting its high usability, low computational overhead, and effective concealment for small-sized payloads. The system supports either AES or DES as selectable symmetric encryption options, enabling adaptable security based on user needs. AES ensures efficient byte-level encryption with high confidentiality, while DES offers backward-compatible encryption for lightweight use. LSB manipulation enables data hiding while preserving image quality. The adaptable architecture supports multiple data formats, making it a robust solution for secure and scalable mobile communication.