A Coverless Information Hiding Approach using the Most Significant Bit

Demands for information hiding technology are high in the area of information security, as it enables secretive communication of confidential data. Traditionally, information hiding methods have relied on designating an original image and embedding the secret information into it to create a stego-image. However, this approach leaves behind modification traces in the cover image, making it susceptible to detection by steganalysis tools. A new method for coverless information hiding has been proposed to tackle this issue. Coverless information hiding eliminates the need for a specific cover image by choosing suitable original images from an established database that already contains the secret data. The proposed method extracts the hash sequence from the most significant bit (MSB) of the average of image blocks. The original image without modification is treated as stego image where hash sequences express the secret data. The proposed approach has proven effective in resisting steganalysis tools and demonstrating robustness against various image processing attacks, indicating potential for secure data transmission. The ultimate objectives of the proposed method are undetectability, robustness, and the hiding capacity of hidden data. The experimental results show that the proposed approach outperforms over the other existing state-of-the-art coverless information hiding methods in terms of robustness and accuracy.