International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)

Volume 143 – No.4, June 2016

New Approaches to Encrypt and Decrypt Data in Image

using Cryptography and Steganography Algorithm
Ako Muhammad Abdullah Roza Hikmat Hama Aziz
MSc. Computer Science MSc. Computer Science
Faculty of Physical & Basic Education Faculty of Physical & Basic Education
Computer Science Department Computer Science Department
University of Sulaimani University of Sulaimani
Kurdistan Region-Iraq Kurdistan Region-Iraq

ABSTRACT In cryptography it’s always clear to intermediate person that

Nowadays, network has important roles for transferring data the message is encrypted form by an encryption key which is
accurately and fast from source to a destination. The data is known by sender and receiver only and without using
not secure enough to transfer highly confidential. The security encryption key the message could not be accessed. However,
of information has become one of the principle challenges of these methods are not enough to protect the contents of a
resource sharing with data communication over computer message secret due to another technique is used with
network. Cryptography and Steganography are two methods cryptography that is called steganography [3]. Steganography
for protecting data from intruders while transferring over an is the art and science of invisible communication of message
open channel network. Cryptography is a method to encrypt and the secret message is made to hide in cover image and
data and steganography is the art and science of hiding secret person cannot be seen any message hidden in the image [4].
message in a cover image. In this paper a Hash Least The cover image containing the secret data is then transferred
Significant Bit (H-LSB) with Affine cipher algorithm has to the recipient. The receiver is able to extract the message
been proposed for providing more security to data in a with the retrieving process and secret key provided by the
network environment. First we encrypt the data with the new sender.
cryptography algorithm and then embed in the image. Eight This paper proposes a new system to embed a secret message
bits of the secret message are divided into 3, 3, 2 and in a cover image using Hash based (3, 3, 2) LSB insertion
embedding into the RGB pixels values of the cover image method with Affine cipher algorithm. Our system is designed
respectively. A hash function is used to select the particular to encrypt data and hide all the data in patted within the
position of insertion in LSB bits. This system allows a message to keep the privacy of the data. Then, the system has
message sender to select keys to encrypt the secret message been developed based on the cryptography and steganography
before embedding into the image and a receiver is used the algorithm.
keys to decrypt the message. Receiver can be decrypted the
encrypt message with incorrect the keys but to a different The rest of the paper is organized as follows: reviews the
form from the original message. This system has the ability to related work is discussed in section 2. Section 3 descripting
provide better security while transferring the secret message the Cryptography and Steganography. Describe proposed
from one end to the other end in network environment. system architecture in section 4. Experimental results and
discussion is explained in section 5. Section 6 presents
Keywords conclusions the reserch.
Cryptography, steganography, secret message, Hash based
LSB, Affine Cipher, encryption, decryption and embedding 2. RELATED WORK
process. Steganography is a method of hiding secret message in a
cover image while communication takes place between sender
1. INTRODUCTION and receiver. Nowadays, communication is one of the most
With the growth different types of network digital images are important ways in our daily life for transferring and sharing
being exchanged over the networks. The basic need of every information by using telephonically or internet. To maintain
growing area today’s world is communication. Everyone the information from intruder many in secure path ways have
wants to protect the information of work to be secret and safe. been carried out on the information. Steganography and
The rise of the internet, the most important factors of Cryptography are two methods which could be used to keep
information technology and communication has been the the information.
security of information [1]. In our day life we have used many
Younes et al. [8] proposed a simple method to hide
insecure pathways for sharing and transferring information
information in the encrypted image then send the encrypted
using telephonically or internet. However at a certain level it’s
image to the receiver over the network. This technique that
not safe. Cryptography and steganography are two methods
have used by authors can prevent the unauthorized to access
that use information in order to cipher or cover their existence
the information inside the image. On the other hand, El-Emam
respectively which could be used to share and transfer
[9] to hide a large amount of data with high security, he
information in a concealed manner. Cryptography is a
proposed a steganography algorithm. In this research, the
technique includes modification of a message for security the
image has been segmented and filtered where bits replacement
secrecy communication [2]. Nowadays, to encrypt and
is used on the appropriate pixels. These pixels have selected
decrypt data in order to protect the message secret many
randomly rather than sequentially. Author a bitmap (bmp)
different methods have been developed.
image has been used to hide the data. Kumar et al. [10]
proposed a method in which a message hidden inside an

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 International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 143 – No.4, June 2016

image by using Hash-LSB with RSA algorithm for providing message with cryptography so that the information is doubly
more security to data inside an image. In this paper, hash protected [7]. Steganography hiding information within an
function have used to generate a pattern for hiding data bits image so it appears that no information is hiding inside an
into LSB of RGB pixel values of the cover image. image. Thus, users can be transmitted the sensitive
information over unsecured channel such as the internet.
Ibrahim et al. [11] proposed a method to hide data inside There are various methods of steganography are used. In this
image by using steganography technique. In this method paper we have used Least Significant Bit (LSB) method to
binary codes and pixels inside an image proposed. The zipped embed the secret message within an image.
file is used before it is converted to binary codes to maximize
the storage of data inside the image. The paper [12], [13], 4. PROPOSED SYSTEM
[14], and [15] provides an overview of image steganography,
its analysis and uses of various steganography methods to ARCHITECTURE
embed data inside an image. Dasgupta et al. [16] proposed a In this paper, we have proposed new security techniques
technique for video steganography by using a hash based least through using cryptography and steganography for providing
significant bit. The authors hash function is used to select the better security to maintain the privacy, accuracy and
position of insertion in LSB bits where the secret data is confidentiality of the data while transferring from one end to
embedded in the LSB of the cover frames. Roza [17] the other end over the network. The main objective of the
proposed a new method to improve courier service online system is to hide the message or a secret message into an
system by using Cryptography and Steganography techniques. image before transmitting to the destination node on the
The author used these techniques to encrypt detail information network without any modification of the data inside an image.
about the items, ATM card, collection and destination The proposed techniques data steganography using Hash
address. In addition, the administrator on the system can based Least Significant Bit (H-LSB) is used to hide secret
decrypt easily the detail information. In this paper LSB message in image file (bmp).
method used to embed data inside image. Yuan et al. [18] The system was run and compiled on windows 10 and tested
proposed a new stenographic technique for data hiding in on University of Sulaimani, Faculty of Physical & Basic
Microsoft Word documents by a change tracking technique. Education-Computer Science Department. This system can be
used by users without knowledge of programming in C#
3. BACKGROUND because the Graphic User Interface (GUI) is designed to be
3.1 Cryptography user friendly. This proposed system to input image provides
Cryptography is a mechanism to encode and decode secret an image platform and different text box to insert data and
messages for protecting message from unauthorized users to showing the encrypt data before embedding the image. We
access the messages. In a network environment cryptography have used three phases to apply new proposed techniques:
is playing a main role in data protection in applications
running. In Greek, cryptography means “hidden Secret”. 4.1 Encryption Phase
Moreover, in the past cryptography was used by the political At the first step to access into the system for hiding the data,
sectors of intelligence and military but presently it is the users are needed a user name and password. After login
commonly utilized in the ATM cards, e-commerce, e-mail, the system, user can write the message to encrypt the data
computer password, and other application. Over the years with the secret keys before embedding the data into an image
there are different algorithm have available to modify of a as demonstrate in figure 1. In our system the proposed scheme
message by an encrypting key which is known by sender and uses Affine algorithm to encrypt secret information. Affine
receiver [19]. The message could not be decrypted without cipher is one of the algorithms that have used to encrypt data.
using encrypting key. One of the issue is appeared with In this process wherein each letter in an alphabet is mapped to
cryptography is that the message always clear to intermediate its numeric equivalent, encrypted using a mathematical
person that the message is encrypted form. This means that function, and converted back to a letter. The formula used
the sender of the message does not want it to be read by means that each letter encrypts to one other letter, and back
unauthorized person. Today, there are many cryptography again, meaning the cipher is essentially a standard substitution
techniques which are capable of encrypting data, one of the cipher with a rule governing which letter goes to which. This
most widely technique is Affine algorithm. Affine has the technique provides better security to protect the data user
ability to convert the information to a form not understandable from the unauthorized access over a network due to which
by the intruder. will not be easy to retrieve the data without the recipient key.
After converting the plain text into cipher text by using Affine
3.2 Steganography algorithm we have taken cipher text and converting each letter
Nowadays, various types of networks are used to exchange into ASCII codes then the ASCII codes have converted into a
digital image among users. With the growth of types of series of binary codes to provide higher security. This
computer network a large amount of digital data has been proposed technique is used to prevent the intruders to get the
exchanged over the network due to many of data must be real data when they try to retrieve the data. This encrypt data
confidential, private or both. To protect this data from will be embedded inside the image with almost zero distortion
intruder, the demand for stronger encryption techniques are of the original image.
increased [5]. Steganography is one of the most important
techniques are used to embed the secret message within an
image [6]. This technique is the perfect supplement for
encryption that permits a user to hide information inside an
image. As mention at the previous section in cryptography,
the problem with cryptography is that the encrypted message
is obvious and everyone known that the messages are
encrypted. To solve this problem, steganography techniques
can be able to provide more additional protection on a secret

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 International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 143 – No.4, June 2016

Now, take each value of x, and solve the first part of the
equation, (3x + 6). After finding the value of (3x + 6) for each
character, take the remainder when dividing the result of (3x +
6) by 26. The following table shows the first four steps of the
encrypting process:
Table 2 Convert Plain Text into Cipher Text
Plaintext K u r d i s t a n

X 10 20 17 3 8 18 19 0 13

(3x + 6) 36 66 57 12 30 60 63 6 45

(3x+6)mode 26 10 14 5 12 4 8 11 6 19

Cipher Text K o f m e i l g t

Convert Encrypt Text into ASCII Code: 75 111 119 109

101 105 108 103 116
ASCII Code to Binary Conversion: 01001011 01101111
01110111 01101101 01100101 01101001 01101100
01100111 01110100

4.2 Embedding Phase

After encrypting the secret message we have proposed a
method to embedding a encrypt message into the image. This
process is done by using Hash based Least Significant Bit (H-
LSB) which replaces the least significant bit. LSB is the most
popular steganography method to embedding data in an image
Figur 1: A flow chart illustrating the encryption phase
file. This method has applied to hide the encrypt message in
Encryption Process the image and then send the image to the intended receiver. In
Step One: Choose the secret message this paper cryptography and steganography methods have
been proposed to provide better security to protect data from
Step Two: Encrypt the message using Affine Cipher intruders by using multi-layer of security techniques. The
Algorithm combination of these two methods will enhance the security
Step Three: Convert the encrypt message into ASCII code of data embedding due to some important data that users want
to secure from others when data transmission over an open
Step Four: Convert ASCII code into binary channel. At the start of this process we take encrypt message
For Example: to be embedded in the cover image, which will be difficult for
any intruder to decrypt it without the recipient private key
Input Text: Kurdistan then hash function has used to select the positions and the
proposed technique takes eight bits of secret data at a time
Encrypt Text: Kofmeilgt
will be embedded in LSB of RGB (Red, Green and Blue)
In this process, the alphabet is going to be the letters A pixel value in the order of 3, 3, 2 respectively. According to
through Z. the techniques that we have used to embed the secret data into
the image three bits are embedded in Red pixel LSB, three
In this encrypting example, the plaintext to be encrypted is bits are embedded in Green pixels and 2 bits are embedded in
“Kurdistan”. For the numeric values of each letter the blue pixels LSB. These eight bits are inserted in this order
following function have been used to encrypt each letter: because the chromatic influence of blue color to the human
eye is more than red and green colors. Therefore the
E(x) = (ax + b) mod m distribution pattern chooses the 2 bits to be hidden in blue
pixel. Thus, the quality of the image will be not sacrificed.
Where: This process is continued till entire message of bits will got
embedded into the cover image. To detect the positions to
x: is the numerical value of the letter in the plaintext.
hide data in LSB of each RGB pixels of the cover image the
m: is the number of letters in the plaintext alphabet. following formula is used:

a and b are the secret numbers between sender and receiver. K= p % n ………. (1)

E(x): is the result of transformation. Where, K is the LSB bit position within the pixel, P represents
Table 1 Detect X value the position of each hidden image pixels and n is number of
bits of LSB which is 4 for the present case.
Plaintext K u r d i s t a n

X 10 20 17 3 8 18 19 0 13

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 International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 143 – No.4, June 2016

Figure 2 (a) & (b) Hash process to find LSB of RGB pixels
value
Embedding proposed algorithm
Step One: Take encrypt the message Figure 3: A flow chart illustrating the decryption phase
Step Two: Choose the cover image “sulaimani Decryption Process
university.bmp” Step one: Obtain stego_image

Step Three: Take 4 LSB bits of each RGB pixels (Red, Step Two: Detect 4 LSB bits of each RGB pixels from
Green, and Blue) of the cover image. stego_image.
Step Three: Apply hash function to obtain the position of
Step Four: Embed 8 bits of the encrypt message into 4 bits of LSB with hidden data.
LSB of RGB pixels of cover image in the order of 3, 3, and 2
respectively using the position obtained from hash function in Step Four: Retrieve the bits in order of 3, 3, and 2
equation 1. respectively.

4.3 Decryption Phase Step Five: Convert the bits into ASCII code
In the decrypt phase to detect the positions of the LSB’s Step Six: Convert ASCII code into letter “Encrypt data”.
where the data bits had been embedded we have again used
the hash function. In the same order as they are embedded, the Step Seven: Apply Affine cipher algorithm to decrypt the
bits are extracted from the position when the position of the retrieve data.
bits had been specified. At the end of this phase we will Step Eight: Finally read the secret message.
obtain the secret message in binary form which gain
converted into ASCII code form then the ASCII code form 5. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
will be converted into cipher text, finally the receiver will Based on the proposed algorithm, we have developed a
decrypt secret message by using Affine cipher keys. system, which implements the algorithms. At the first step in
our system users must create account to obtain user name and
password to login the system as shown in figure 4. Users must
fill all field to create account.

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 International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 143 – No.4, June 2016

into ASCII code before embedding in the image. In addition,

to hide the encrypt message inside the image, a password is
required for the purpose of security reason. The password is
required to enter twice for the verification purposes. For the
password, users must be used six characters. This password
with data is also embedded inside the image. To encrypt the
secret message users must be selected Affine cipher key.
Figure 7 shows the main interface for encrypting and
embedding secret message inside image.

Figure 4 Creating User Account

After creating account on the system users can use the user
name and password to login the system as shown in figure 5

Figure 5 Login System

With login the system users can see two tab options one is
Encoding Data for encryption and embedding encryption data Figure 7 Main Interface for Encoding Data
into image and another is Decoding Data for retrieving data After embedding the encrypt data users get a message box to
inside image. The information about the image such as verify the encrypt data was embedded successfully as shown
account number of words, maximum size which can be in figure 8.
encoding inside the image, size of image, height and width
is displays in right top panel. In addition, in top panel in the
encoding tab we have one text box and button is used to
loading image from any location in computer. The file open
dialog box is displays as follows, user should be selected the
image file to hide secret image and click on Open button as
shown in figure 6.

Figure 8 Embedding Data

When the encrypt data embedded successfully, the new
stego_image have saved into a database. Moreover, users can
send the stego_image directly via internet or email to target
users without revealing the secret data inside the image.
In this system a second tab is used to decrypt or retrieve data.
The panel for this tab consists of two text boxes, image view,
two combo boxes and buttons. The receiver uses the text box
one to enter the password to request for the image from the
database. After enter the correct password and click on Return
Figure 6 Select Image Image button the image is directly return to the decrypt panel
but receivers cannot retrieve and decrypt the data that have
Furthermore, in the encoding tab has three text boxes first is been embedded inside the image until correct selecting affine
Secret Message for writing secret message that users want to cipher keys through using two combo boxes for instance a= 3
be encoded in the image, second text box is Encrypt Message. and b= 6. This is to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of
In this text box user can see directly the encrypt message and the data as shown in figure 9. For any select of wrong secret
third textbox is used to display the convert encrypt message key, the receiver will return a meaningless message as shown

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 International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 143 – No.4, June 2016

in figure 10. This ensures the data is secured against intruders LSB) technique has been implemented for embedding encrypt
within the network environment. message into cover images. To evaluate this system we tested
a number of images with various sizes of data to be hidden
with the proposed algorithms. According to the tested we
found that the system has the ability to provide a better
security and easy way to encrypt, embedding and decrypt
secret message without the quality of image is decreased as
seen by the naked eyes. Hence this system is very efficient to
hide the data inside the image.

7. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank University of Sulaimani for all help
and support in the implementation of our research.

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