Message steganography using separate locations and blocks

Abstract

A novel method of message steganography is introduced to solve the disadvantages of traditional least significant bit (LSB) based methods by dividing the covering-stego image into a secret number of blocks. A chaotic logistic map model was performed using the chaotic parameters and the number of image blocks for generating a chaotic key. This key was then sorted, and the locations of blocks 1 to 8 were used to select the required blocks to be used as covering-stego blocks. The introduced method simplifies the process of message bits hiding and extracting by adopting a batch method of bits hiding and extracting. A comparative analysis was conducted between the outcomes of proposed method and those of prevalent approaches to outline the enhancements in both speed and quality of message steganography.