Secure Image Steganography for Hidden Data

  • Unique Paper ID: 187525
  • PageNo: 5372-5375
  • Abstract:
  • The Greek terms “stegos” (meaning “covered” or “concealed”) and “graphia” (meaning “writing”) form the basis of the word steganography, which refers to the practice of hiding information in such a way that its very existence is concealed. In the context of image steganography, digital images are used as cover objects to embed secret data. Since images are widely used and commonly shared online, they serve as an ideal medium for hiding messages without arousing suspicion. In image steganography, a specific embedding algorithm is applied along with a secret key to insert the confidential message into the cover image, resulting in a stego-image. This stego-image appears visually identical or nearly identical to the original image, ensuring that no obvious signs of tampering are visible. The intended recipient, who possesses the same secret key, uses a corresponding extraction algorithm to retrieve the hidden message from the stego-image. To unauthorized viewers or attackers, the transmitted stego-image appears to be just a normal picture. Even if they intercept it, they cannot detect or decode the hidden message without the correct key and extraction method. Thus, the primary strength of steganography lies not only in protecting the content, but also in concealing the existence of communication itself, making it a powerful tool for secure data transmission.

Copyright & License

Copyright © 2026 Authors retain the copyright of this article. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

BibTeX

@article{187525,
        author = {Simran Verma and Minal Siddhesh Mahale},
        title = {Secure Image Steganography for Hidden Data},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2025},
        volume = {12},
        number = {6},
        pages = {5372-5375},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=187525},
        abstract = {The Greek terms “stegos” (meaning “covered” or “concealed”) and “graphia” (meaning “writing”) form the basis of the word steganography, which refers to the practice of hiding information in such a way that its very existence is concealed. In the context of image steganography, digital images are used as cover objects to embed secret data. Since images are widely used and commonly shared online, they serve as an ideal medium for hiding messages without arousing suspicion.
In image steganography, a specific embedding algorithm is applied along with a secret key to insert the confidential message into the cover image, resulting in a stego-image. This stego-image appears visually identical or nearly identical to the original image, ensuring that no obvious signs of tampering are visible. The intended recipient, who possesses the same secret key, uses a corresponding extraction algorithm to retrieve the hidden message from the stego-image.
To unauthorized viewers or attackers, the transmitted stego-image appears to be just a normal picture. Even if they intercept it, they cannot detect or decode the hidden message without the correct key and extraction method. Thus, the primary strength of steganography lies not only in protecting the content, but also in concealing the existence of communication itself, making it a powerful tool for secure data transmission.},
        keywords = {},
        month = {November},
        }

Cite This Article

Verma, S., & Mahale, M. S. (2025). Secure Image Steganography for Hidden Data. International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology (IJIRT), 12(6), 5372–5375.

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