International Journal of Computer Architecture and Mobility

(ISSN 2319-9229) Volume 1-Issue 8, June 2013

Analysis of Triple DES and RSA Algorithm in securing Image

Steganography
Megha Zodape Mrs. Pragya Shukla
(M.E. student) Associate Professor
IET,DAVV Indore IET,DAVV Indore
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract: information is hidden in the image in such a

Image Steganography is an art of hiding way that it does not make greater changes in
information in the image in such a way that the appearance of the image. The schematic
the attacker will not able to realize the diagram is shown in the fig1 and fig2
existence of data in the image. Image
steganography is being used widely after it Sender Side
has been introduced. The techniques used
for hiding information in the image is
common and is based on using Least
Significant Bit for storing information bit.
As the technique is known to all, the
attacker will be able to easily reveal the
information, this makes image
steganography unsecured. In order to
increase the security of image
steganography can be combined with
cryptography, so that even if the attacker
knows the hiding method will not able to
reveal the information. This paper presents
the performance analysis of two most Receiver Side
important cryptography algorithms, Triple
DES and RSA when used along with image
steganography.

Keywords: cryptography, steganography,

ciphertext, stego image,RSA,LSB,Triple
DES,steganalysis,cover image, Fig:2

Introduction:
In steganaography the information is hidden Fig:1 shows the sender side of a
in the media like text, image, audio and video. steganography technique,the information is
It is different from cryptography as it hidden in the cover image by using
conceals the existence of information whereas steganography technique
cryptography only changes the form of Fig:2 shows the receiver side where a stego
information making it unreadable for an image is taken and reverse steganography
attacker. In image steganography the technique is used to retrieve information .

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International Journal of Computer Architecture and Mobility
(ISSN 2319-9229) Volume 1-Issue 8, June 2013

The technique used for hiding the information Proposed Techniques:

is based on LSB method. In this method the This paper proposed two techniques, one is
LSB of each color of pixel is stored in a file. based on RSA algorithm and the other is
The file is then traversed to find the same based on Triple DES Algorithm. Both are
pattern as of information bit and the location explained below.
of the pattern is noted. If same pattern is not
found the best matched bit pattern of the file  RSA based Technique:
is searched and replaced with the information RSA is the most important public key
bit and location is stored in file. This makes encryption algorithm. It uses prime numbers
minimum changes in the cover image. to generate public and private key. It may be
used to provide both secrecy and digital
Given two identical image, if the least signature. It uses block size in which plaintext
significant bits of the pixel in one image are and cipher text are integers between 0 and n-1
changed ,then the two images still look for some n values .Size of n is considered
identical to human eye. This is because the 1024 bits or 309 decimal digits.Following
human eye is not sensitive enough to notice steps are involved in this algorithm.
the difference in color between pixels that are 1. Select p, q, two prime numbers
different from one unit.Thus steganography (private, chosen)
applications use LSB because attacker’s do 2. Calculate n = pq (public, calculated)
not notice anything odd or suspicious about 3. Calculate phi(n)=(p-1)(q-1)
an image if its LSB's are modified. 4. Select e, with gcd(phi(n), e) = 1; 1 < e
Unfortunately for every computer security < f(n) (public, chosen)
strategy ,there are attackers who develop 5. Calculate d = e-1 (mod phi(n))
countermeasures to defeat that security 6. Public key(e,n)
strategy. Attackers combat steganography 7. Private Key(d,n)
using steganalysis. Steganalysis is a process 8. Encryption:Calculate cipher
e
of where attackers analyze an image to text ,c=m mod(n)
determine whether it has hidden message .A 9. Decryption:Calculate Plaintext
d
common steganalysis approach is to graph the m=c mod(n)
pixel value of image, statistical analysis is In the proposed technique at the sender side,
then performed to find anomalies. These the information is first encrypted using RSA
anomalies may indicate that image contain algorithm and then embedded in the cover
hidden message. image to obtain stego image. At the receiver
In this paper a specific image based side the stego image is taken and embedded
steganographic model has been proposed information is extracted using steganographic
which uses a bit mapped image as a cover technique and than decrypted using RSA
image and the secret information is stored in method. Advantage of this algorithm is that
the cover image to form stego-image. Before there is no need to transfer key securely only
storing the information is encrypted using public elements are shared.
RSA or Triple DES algorithm so that it can
become more secure and than cipher text is
stored using steganographic techniques .This  Triple DES technique:
paper also gives analysis of these algorithm in
securing steganography based on factors like Triple DES algorithm uses DES three times
complexity ,changes, time and security. using three different key. Triple DES is

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International Journal of Computer Architecture and Mobility
(ISSN 2319-9229) Volume 1-Issue 8, June 2013
simply another mode of DES operation. It The paper compares the two algorithms based
takes three 64-bit keys, for an overall key on the following different criteria
length of 192 bits. The procedure for 1. Data size: The input size is taken in
encryption is exactly the same as regular DES, Kilobytes and execution time in
but it is repeated three times. Hence,the name millisecond
Triple DES. The data is encrypted with the
first key, decrypted with the second key, and Table1: Execution time of encryption
finally encrypted again with the third key. of different packet size.
This is shown in figure 3,
Input 3DES(in RSA(in
Size(KB) millisecond) millisecond)
45 50 55
55 44 46
96 76 89
560 171 169

The table shows that triple DES

execution time is less than the execution time
of RSA.

2. Security:
DES requires 16 rounds to encrypt the data RSA is a public key algorithm so it
block of 64 bit. The key used is of 56 bit. does not require the secure
Sixteen permuted 48 bit key will be used in transmission of key where as triple
each round. Consequently, Triple DES runs Des is a secret key algorithm so it
three times slower than standard DES, but is requires the secure transmission of
much more secure. In single round of DES, keys. than Triple DES .
the 64 bit input is divided into 32left-32 right
bit. The Right 32 bit is processed further ,first 3. Complexity:
it is expanded to 48 bit by using expansion Complexity of RSA algorithm:
table than 48 bit is XOR with key of 48 bit.  Let k be the length of n in bits
The output is fed into 8 S-boxes to produce K=[log2n]+1
32 bit output which is permuted by P-box and  Adding two k bits integer O(k)
than XOR with left 32 bit.  Multiplication of two k bits
The major O(k) x O(k)=O(k2)
advantage of Triple DES over simple DES is  Reduction modulo n of a 2k bit
that as the key size triples, the security also integer O(k2)
increases. Simple DES only uses 56 bit key  Modular multiplication of two
that makes it prone to brute force attack k bit integer O(k2)
whereas Triple DES make use of 168 bit key  Complexity of each step of
in total making brute force attack infeasible. Euclidian algorithm O(k2)
 No. of iterations in Euclidian
Results and Discussion: algorithm O(k)
 Complexity of calculating d=
O(k3)

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International Journal of Computer Architecture and Mobility
(ISSN 2319-9229) Volume 1-Issue 8, June 2013
 Overall complexity of RSA is Journal of Computer Applications
O(k3) (NCACSA 2012)
[3]Aman Kumar,Dr.Sudesh Jakhar ,
Complexity of Triple DES algorithm “Comparitive Analysis between DES
 Triple Des algorithm uses its own and RSA Algorithm’s,”International
input for calculation in each round, Journal of Advanced Research in
so the complexity is O(logn) computer science and software
engineering ,volume 2,Issue 7, July
4. Changes in bits: For a given input 2012.
“attack in morning” ,the no. of bits
changed in the images by using the
algorithms for encryption.

Image RSA 3DES

Algorithm Algorithm
(no. of bits (no. of bits
changed) changed)
Image1 43 14
Image2 53 20
Image3 57 30
Table 2: No. of bits changed in the real
image after steganography.

Conclusion:

The above results and discussion shows that

Triple DES can be used effectively for
securing Steganography because it takes less
time, less complex, more secure and the
changes in the image bit is less. The only
thing to be considered is the secure transfer of
the keys.

References:

[1]William Stalling ,Cryptography

and Network Security,fourth
edition,Prentice Hall.
[2] Jayeeta Majumder ,Sweta Mangal,
“An Overview of Image
Steganography using LSB
Technique”, National Conference on
Advances in Computer Science and
Applications with International

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