Sequence-Based Bit-Cycling in Double Layer Message Security

This paper proposes two different implementations of a double-layer message security scheme. In both schemes, the first layer is of a cryptographic nature, employing the AES-256, while the second layer is of a steganographic nature, employing a number of mathematical sequences that determine the color-plane cycling for least significant bit (LSB) embedding. Arithmetic and geometric sequences are employed for the first and the second schemes, respectively, to determine the location of embedding, whereas the specific color plane where the embedding occurs in the RGB pixel is based on a derived form of the Rudin-Shapiro sequence. Performance is measured in terms of the mean squared error (MSE), the peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR), histogram analysis and entropy values. Numerical results show that the proposed techniques are superior to some of the recurring approaches in the literature.