Steganographic methods in vector graphics

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30837/rt.2021.2.205.03

Keywords:

information concealing, vector graphics, steganography, affine transformations

Abstract

Various steganographic techniques are used to hide information. Usually, information is hidden in images, audio and video files, text documents, and the like. The article deals with vector images consisting of various mathematical objects (points, lines, curves of the first and second order, Bezier curves, nodes, tangents, base points, etc.). Information hiding techniques alter these mathematical objects, for example, by encoding the coordinates of the base points. The most successful for carrying out steganographic transformations is the SVG vector graphics format, which, due to its structure, makes it easy to manipulate the objects of which it consists. Its broad support across platforms also allows for increased secrecy when transferring sensitive data by sending seemingly ordinary media files. The article discusses two methods (bitwise and the method of patterns) of hiding information in vector images, studied their features, advantages and disadvantages. Various affine transformations that can be used to disrupt the operation of the steganosystem were also investigated. The most common types of affine transformations are the operations of transfer, rotation, shift and scaling with possible variations (offsets along the abscissa and ordinate axes, proportional and non-proportional scaling, with compression and expansion). Most of the methods for embedding information into vector images provide a one-time resistance to affine transformations, while the repeated imposition of operations for changing the position of objects may destroy the message altogether. The methods investigated in the work (bitwise and the method of patterns) implement a higher level of resistance to various kinds of transformations when they are repeated many times, and the conducted experiments clearly demonstrate this. The results obtained show that vector images can indeed be used to hide information, but the resistance against certain affine attacks is not always high.

References

Fridrich J. Steganography in Digital Media: Principles, Algorithms, and Applications. Illustrated Edition. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 466 p.

Yahya A. Steganography Techniques // Steganography Techniques for Digital Images / ed. Yahya A. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019. P. 9–42.

Yahya A. Introduction to Steganography // Steganography Techniques for Digital Images / ed. Yahya A. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019. P. 1–7.

Manoj I.V.S. Cryptography and Steganography // IJCA. 2010. Vol. 1, № 12. P. 63–68.

Menon N., Vaithiyanathan. A survey on image steganography // 2017 International Conference on Technological Advancements in Power and Energy ( TAP Energy). 2017. P. 1–5.

Basic Shapes – SVG 1.1 (Second Edition) [Electronic resource]. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/shapes.html (accessed: 12.05.2021).

Doncel V.R., Nikolaidis N., Pitas I. An Optimal Detector Structure for the Fourier Descriptors Domain Watermarking of 2D Vector Graphics // IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics. 2007. Vol. 13, № 5. P. 851–863.

Wang X. et al. Reversible Data-Hiding Scheme for 2-D Vector Maps Based on Difference Expansion // IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security. 2007. Vol. 2, № 3. P. 311–320.

Wu D., Wang G., Gao X. Reversible Watermarking of SVG Graphics // 2009 WRI International Conference on Communications and Mobile Computing. 2009. Vol. 3. P. 385–390.

Peng F. et al. Reversible Data Hiding in Encrypted 2D Vector Graphics Based on Reversible Mapping Model for Real Numbers // IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security. 2019. Vol. 14, № 9. P. 2400–2411.

Kinzeryavyy O. et al. Steganographic Method of Bitwise Information Hiding in Point-Defined Curves of Vector Images // Advances in Computer Science for Engineering and Education / ed. Hu Z. et al. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019. P. 478–486.

Kinzeryavyy O. Steganographic methods for hiding data into vector images that are resistant to active attacks based on affine transformations: Thesis. 2015.

Coste A. Image Processing : Affine Transformation, Landmarks registration, Non linear Warping. 2012.

Weisstein E.W. Affine Transformation [Electronic resource]: Text. Wolfram Research, Inc. URL: https://mathworld.wolfram.com/AffineTransformation.html (accessed: 24.05.2021).

Published

2021-07-02

How to Cite

Kuznetsov, A. ., & Kononchenko , G. . (2021). Steganographic methods in vector graphics. Radiotekhnika, 2(205), 32–41. https://doi.org/10.30837/rt.2021.2.205.03

Issue

Section

Articles