Chinese Journal of Computers   Full Text
Title	Recent Advances in Image-Based Steganalysis Research
Authors	WANG Shuo-Zhong1) ZHANG Xin-Peng1) ZHANG Wei-Ming1),2)
Address	1)(School of Communication and Information Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200072) 2)(Department of Information Research, University of Information Engineering, Zhengzhou 450002)
Year	2009
Issue	No.7(1247—1263)
Abstract &   Background	Abstract Battles between steganography and counter-measures has become an important issue in information security. Aimed at a commonly used cover media, i.e., digital image, this article reviews the recent advances on the frontier of anti-steganography research. Regarding the major challenges posed by the rapid developments of steganographic techniques, the authors outline some typical methods and summarize the technological progress in steganalysis to provide useful information to the researchers on both sides of the cyber warfare. Emphases are laid on three challenging problems, which until a few years ago had been hard to tackle. First, combat the LSB matching steganography that avoids the statistic abnormality existing in the early simple LSB replacement method, either revealing the existence of secret information in a suspected image or estimating the length of the embedded data. Second, detect stego-images that only contain a very small amount of secret data. Third, develop universal detectors or classifiers to carry out steganalysis independent of the steganographic scheme. Some new trends and problems faced by the steganalysts are also discussed. Keywords steganography; steganalysis; LSB matching; embedding rate; universal steganalysis Background Steganography aims to embed secret data into a cover media, in particular, digital image, for hidden communication. It can be used to transmit confidential information and, if used improperly, threat the security of our information infrastructure, and of the society as a whole. Since the late 1990s, researchers have been making great efforts to combat hostile steganography. The most important technique for defeating staganography, termed steganalysis, is to detect the existence of hidden data and estimate related parameters such as length of the data and the secret key. Authors of this article have been active in the areas of steganography and steganalysis. They have done considerable research in the past ten years, completed many research projects funded by the NSFC, the 863 Program and other government organizations, and published a large number of papers, among which more than 20 appear in influential international journals indexed by SCI. This article provides a comprehensive review of the recent advances in the anit-steganography research. Emphases are laid on three major aspects: steganalysis of LSB match embedding, detection of small payload, and universal detectors independent of the embedding method.