2019 IEEE Pune Section International Conference (PuneCon)
MIT World Peace University, Pune, India. Dec 18-20, 2019
Video Steganography: Using Scrambling- AES
Encryption and DCT, DST Steganography
Aayushi Ajmera Mrunal Divecha
B. Tech Computer Engg. Mukesh Patel B. Tech Computer Engg. Mukesh Patel
School of Technology School of Technology
Management and Engineering, NMIMS Management and Engineering, NMIMS
Mumbai, India Mumbai, India mrunaldivecha@gmail.com
aayuajmera@gmail.com
Ishita Raval
B. Tech Computer Engg.
Mukesh Patel School of Technology
Management and Engineering, NMIMS Mumbai, India
ishraval09@gmail.com
Abstract— Steganography is a creative work of concealing
secret data or message within an ordinary, non-secret file. This
helps to prevent detection of the existence secret data.
Steganography takes information hiding one step ahead than
data encryption. Data encryption hides the data, but
Steganography hides the existence of the data. In this paper, we
combine both Data Steganography and Data Encryption, thus
providing double layer security. The paper deals with
Multimedia Steganography which enables working successfully
with video files, without obscuring the quality of the resultant
video. The proposed technique deals with Steganography in
Transform domain, thus overcoming the drawbacks of the
spatial domain techniques. An important drawback of spatial
domain technique is that data is prone to different attacks,
whereas Transform domain provides a robust aftermath.
Applying the advantages of Transform domain, we have used
DCT and DST technique on the cover video whilst using
Encryption algorithm of Scrambling- AES on the message
image, ensuring double layer security.
Keywords—Advanced Encryption Standard, Scrambling
Encryption, Discrete Cosine Transform, Discrete Sine Transform
I. INTRODUCTION
Steganography is an age-old practice. Revolutionary war
spies writing in invisible ink or Da Vinci hiding secret
meanings in paintings was referred to as Steganography. T.
Morkel, J.H.P. Eloff, M. S. Oliver in [1] state that, currently,
applying this in the digital world, data can be encoded using
digital keys and decoded by the intended receiver with the
appropriate key. As explained by A. Shaw, S. Ballamudi in
[2], Multimedia Steganography deals with video, audio and
images all together. It enables hiding multiple messages
behind video frames in a random scheme.
In order to achieve privacy on another level,
Steganography is combined with Encryption. Thus, if
Steganography fails, and the message is detected, Encryption
will make sure that the message is unintelligible to the
attacker. The paper [3] identifies Scrambling Encryption
technique previously explained and understood by
P.Premaratne, M. Premaratne. Scramble based encryption
changes the message image by changing the pixel positions
978-1-7281-1924-3/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE
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Shiraz Saptarshi Ghosh
B. Tech Computer Engg.
Mukesh Patel School of Technology
Management and Engineering, NMIMS
Thane, India
shirazghosh@gmail.com
Ratnesh Chaturvedi
M. Tech Computer Engg
Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management and
Engineering, NMIMS
Mumbai, India
ratnesh.chaturvedi@nmims.edu
in the image in a random or a pre-defined order. The
scrambling order is important and acts like a private key.
As explained in [9] and [18], Spatial domain techniques
directly deal with pixels of images in order to get the desired
enhancement by altering them. These techniques work on the
entire image uniformly, thus producing unacceptable results.
Also, it denies selective enhancement of edges and other
specific details effectively. These shortcomings of Spatial
Domain techniques can be dealt by Transform techniques by
ensuring secure and desirable results. Paper [19] explains
that Transform techniques are based on manipulation of the
orthogonal transform of the image. They process image
according to frequency content. Transform or Frequency
domain techniques are majorly based on computing 2-D
discrete unitary transform such as DCT, DST, DWT, etc. on
the image. It consists of two components: Magnitude
(comprises of frequency content) and Phase (used to restore
image into spatial domain). These techniques ensure
enhancement of edges and specific information of an image.
In this paper, we focus on DCT and DST based
Steganography.
II. LITERATURE SURVEY
A. Scrambling based Encryption:
As explained in [3], Scrambling is a process of jumbling
the pixel values and then re-arranging the values in the
original form. This technique performs an acceptable
encryption on RGB images. The scrambling is performed on
all the three planes. Thus, an initiative of being robust.
Steps to perform Image Scrambling understood by
P.Premaratne and M. Premaratne [3] are as follows:
Step 1: Read the RGB message image
Step 2: Extract the dimensions of the image
Step 3: Decide on an order that is to be followed to
perform scrambling of the pixel values
Step 4: Extract the three planes of the RGB message
image and scramble the values in each plane according to the
order decided in the previous step
1
 Step 5: Recreate each of the RGB message image planes ሺଶ௡ାଵሻ௩గ
Cv(n)=  (v) cos ൫ ଶே
൯
Step 6: Combine the three planes and obtain the
encrypted image. ξଵ
݂‫ ݒݎ݋‬ൌ Ͳ
 (v)= ቐ ே
(1)
Step 7: Decryption is performed simply using the ξଶ
݂‫ݒݎ݋‬ ൌ ͳǡʹǡ Ǥ Ǥ ǡ ܰ െ ͳ
scrambling order. ே
DCT is a general orthogonal transform for image
This technique has a number of limitations: processing. It has a number of advantages over other
i. Vulnerable to attacks if the Scramble order is known transform techniques:
to the attacker i.High compression ratio
ii. Encrypted image may reveal some information if the
scramble order is not permuted appropriately ii.Less bit error rate

B. Advanced Encryption Standard iii.Ability to integrate information

Authors of the papers [4,5] state AES to be a symmetric
key block cipher, based on Substitution-Permutation scheme.
It performs operations on bytes rather than bits.
A block based DCT technique divides the image into
non-overlapping blocks and performs DCT on each block.
This technique provides three frequency bands: Low, Mid
and High.
The DCT frequency bands are divided as follows:

Fig. 1. AES round operations Fig. 2. DCT frequqncy bands

Description of the steps recognized in [6] in each round A standard DCT Steganography in [12-15] depends on
are as follows: the following characteristics:

1) Substitution Bytes: i. Low frequency sub band accommodates the

The 16 bytes of Input are substituted by looking up the S-
box table. This results in a 4*4 matrix.
2) Shift Rows:
In this step, each row of the matrix is shifted to left. The
shift operation is performed in the following steps: a) First
row not shifted, second row is shifted by one position to the
left, Third row is shifted by two positions to the left, Fourth
position is shifted by three positions to the left. Performing
these steps results in a new shifted matrix
3) Mixing Columns:
The four bytes of each column are transformed using
some special mathematical function. The old byte values are
replaced with the new ones, resulting in a new 4*4 matrix.
4) Add round Key:
The 16 bytes i.e. 128 bits of matrix XORed with 128 bits
round key. The output of the last round is considered as
cipher text.
A major advantage of AES is that till date, no
cryptanalytic attacks against AES are discovered.
C. Discrete Cosine Transform and Steganography:
An overall explanation of papers [7,8] states that, DCT is
a technique for transforming a signal into frequency-based
components. The DCT matrix Cv(n) is an important element
in this transform. The matrix for image ‘x’ of size N x N is
calculated using the formula:
essential visual part of the image
ii. High frequency components of the image are
resistant to any kinds of noise attacks
iii. DCT Steganography in [9] is performed as follows:
iv. Select the RGB message image and the RGB cover
image
v. The cover image has to be a 2n image as DCT works
only on 2n sized images.
vi. Convert the cover image into DCT by applying the
formula: D * CoverImage * D’, where D is the DCT
matrix for n calculated using the above formula, D’
is inverse DCT
vii. Replace the values in the HH frequency band of the
DCT cover image by the values of the message
image
viii. Perform inverse DCT by applying the formula:
D’ * CoverImage * D
ix. Result is the DCT- Steganographed image
D. Discrete Sine Transform Steganography:
[20,21] explains DST to be a finite discrete transform. It
is quite similar to DFT but is different in case of operations
performed. It is also known a Fourier related Transform.
This transform expresses discrete time function in terms of
sine waves. Uses only trigonometric functions. This
transform is invertible in nature. This transform entails
distinguishing boundary conditions as compared to other
transforms.

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 III. PROPOSED MODEL

(2)
A. Image Scrambling-AES Encryption:
By referring paper [3] based on Image Scrambling and
DST Steganography is performed as follows: paper [6] based on AES, a new technique that is a
i. Select the RGB message image and the RGB cover combination of the two is proposed. Image Scrambling
image Encryption technique is vulnerable to information theft.
Thus, combining the Image scrambling with AES will
ii. The cover image has to be a 2n image as DST works
overcome this disadvantage. In this procedure, initially the
only on 2n sized images.
three planes of the RGB message image are scrambled
iii. Convert the cover image into DST by applying the according to a Scramble order. The scrambled image then
formula: D * CoverImage * D’, where D is the DST undergoes AES encryption, where ‘n’ rounds are performed
matrix for n calculated using the above formula, D’ on the message image. The sub steps in each AES round are
is inverse DST explained previously.
iv. Replace the values in the HH frequency band of the
DST cover image by the values of the message
image
v. Perform inverse DST by applying the formula:
D’ * CoverImage * D
E. Diffie-Hellman Key exchange technique:
Articles [10, 11] state a technique that ensures secure
transmission of private keys between the sender and the
receiver. Most practical and reliable approach. Transfers keys
over a hostile network in a suspicious manner.
Consider the following example in terms of keys.
x The sender and receiver will have a common public
key that can be known to all.
x The sender performs some calculations using this
public key and its own private key and sends the
results to the receiver.
x The receiver performs some calculations using the
same public key and its own private key and
transfers results to the sender.
x Sender uses the newly obtained value and performs
calculations again using its own private key.
x Receiver does the same with its own private key.
x The final resultant value is then the actual agreed
upon private key between the sender and the
receiver.

Fig. 4. Image Scrambling- AES based Encryption

B. Video Steganography using Image Scrambling- AES

Encryption and DCT, DST technique:
[16, 17] deals with video-based steganography for hiding
data behind the video as the cover. By understanding these
models, the proposed model is put forward with more
security, robustness, precise results.
Proposed model: A Multimedia Steganography where the
cover is a video file and message is a large sized image.
Both the message and cover can be an RBG or a
Grayscale file.

Fig. 3. Diffie Hellman key exchange illustration

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 The proposed algorithm combines all the above- Transmission:
mentioned techniques to provide high security.
Step 15: The video is then sent to the receiver.
The model follows the following steps:
Step 16: The key for identifying random frames
Embedding: containing message image is then sent to the receiver using
Step 1: Select a cover Video behind which the message is Deffie-Hellman Key exchange
to be hidden
Extraction:
Step 2: Select the message image that is to be hidden
Step 17: On the receiver’s side, decryption is performed
Step 3: Extract each frame of the cover video and store by initially extracting the video frames
them in a cell.
Step 18: The key identifying the random frames with
Step 4: Extract the size of the frame images message is used for extracting the required frames.
Step 5: Crop the image in a 2n size because both DCT and Step 19: DCT/ DST is performed on each frame
DST can be performed only on 2n sized images. sequentially and then the message image part for each frame
Step 6: For each cropped frame, divide the image into 4 will be visible in the bottom right of the DCT/ DST image
parts and identify the bottom right part of the division. Step 20: These parts are then initially decrypted using the
Step 7: The bottom right part is selected because, as we AES decryption key and then again decrypted using the
are performing DCT and DST Steganography, the bottom Scrambling order as the key
right part contains High frequency components with minimal Step 21: Original message image part is obtained
information. Thus, this band ensures that a message can be
hidden without being suspected. Step 22: All the image parts are combined and the entire
message image is obtained successfully.
Step 8: Now, divide the message image into parts
depending on the size of the bottom right band. i.e. if the size IV. INFERENCES
of the bottom right part is 512*512, divide the message The proposed model enables efficient hiding of the
image into parts, each of size 512(Add padding if size is message image behind a cover video.
less).
The message image is divided into parts and each part is
Step 9: Now concentrating on the message image, encrypted twice and then hidden using DCT steganography.
perform Image Scrambling-AES encryption algorithm as This ensures multi layered security on the message to be
explained earlier on each part of the message image. shared.
Step 10: Obtain the encrypted message image parts.
TABLE I. KEY FEATURES OF THE MODEL
Step 11: Now, using a random function, choose the
frames in which the message parts are to be hidden, one part Entity Description
in each frame. Encryption Image Scrambling and Advanced
Step 12: For each selected frame and message parts, techniques Encryption Standard
perform the following steps- No. of keys 1 for AES encryption + 1 for Scrambling
used based encryption + 1 for selecting random
a) Convert the frame into DCT/ DST and obtain the
frames = 3 keys in total.
Transform image by using the formulae mentioned
above Steganography Discrete Cosine Transform and Discrete
technique Sine Transform where image is hidden in
b) Select the lower right part of the frame and replace bottom right part of cover
its values with the first part of the message image
divided by 255(for normalization) Key sensitivity Low for all
c) After storing the message parts in each frame, Image handling Handles all types of images- RGB, Black
convert the frames back to the Spatial Domain by and white, Grayscale
performing Inverse of the respective DCT/ DST Video format .avi format
d) The result is the DCT-Steganographed/ DST- after
Steganographed frames where the message image embedding
cannot be detected
Step 13: Now, combine all the frames sequentially and “Fig. 5” shows the RGB color image that is divided into
obtain the Steganographed Cover video. parts and then the parts are hidden behind the cover video
Step 14: The resultant video now contains the message frames. Number of parts are decided according the cover
parts that are initially encrypted using Scrambling-AES frames’ size. The message image is quite greater in size.
technique and then hidden behind the cover frame using
DCT/ DST technique

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Fig. 5. RGB 2000*2662 sized Message image
“Fig. 6” shows a part of the message image on which
further operations are performed. Similar operations are
performed on each part of the message image.
Fig. 6. One part out of 24 other parts of the message image
“Fig. 7” is the encrypted result of the message part in
Fig.6. Scrambling encryption is performed on the message
part. The algorithm for scrambling encryption is as discussed
earlier
Fig. 7. Image scrambling based encrypted image part
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“Fig.8” shows AES encryption performed over the
Scrambled-encrypted image. AES algorithms and rounds are
explained previously in this paper.
Fig. 8. AES performed over Scrambling encrypted image
“Fig. 9” shows the ith frame of the cover video. The cover
video selected is a shorter one in order to reduce processing
time. The video has frame rate of 25 frames per second.
Fig. 9. ith frame of the cover video file selected randomly using
random_func
“Fig. 10” shows the steganographed ith frame of the
video. The message part is hidden using DCT steganography
as discussed above. There is negligible difference between
the original and steganographed video. Thus, the video
completely avoids suspiciousness.
Fig. 10. Steganographed ith frame. Message part hidden using DCT
Steganography
 “Fig. 11” shows the steganographed ith frame of the V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
video. The message part is hidden using DST steganography
as discussed above. There is negligible difference between TABLE II. EXPERIMENTAL OBSERVATIONS
the original and steganographed video. Thus, the video Results for message image of size 4000*2662 RGB image and
completely avoids suspiciousness.
cover video of size 3.87 MB, 7 seconds video, 25 FPS

Time taken in milliseconds

Experimental setup Embedding Extraction

Workbench 1 (Low 525570 ms 503156 ms

powered GPU)

Workbench 2 (High 412442 ms 402003 ms

powered GPU)

Fig. 11. Steganographed ith frame. Message part hidden using DCT
Steganography
“Fig. 12” shows the DCT decrypted image which is
obtained after reversing the hiding operations. The resultant
image as compared with the original message image contains
noise. But there is negligible data loss.
“Fig. 13” shows the DST decrypted image which is
obtained after reversing the hiding operations. The resultant
image as compared with the original message image contains
noise. There is more Data loss as compared to the DCT
decrypted image.
Table II is the evaluation of performance and execution
time for the embedding and extraction process of the
message image. Less difference in embedding and extraction
prove the process execution under the same time frame.
Workbench 1 works on a system with clock speed of 2.5
Gigahertz, whereas workbench 2 works on a system with
clock speed of 3.5 Gigahertz. The difference in clock speed
of the systems affects model performance to a high extent.
Majority of the processing time is occupied by the AES
encryption technique since multiple rounds of encryption
process are performed on each message part.
TABLE III. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION FOR DECRYPTED MESSAGE
OBTAINED

Performance DCT DST

Measures

Visual Quality Better than DST Not better than DCT

after decryption

Mean Square 6.190976221825694 8.383863265401952e+

error e+02 02

PSNR 20.21321224881127 18.896361741917204

4

SSIM 0.614689945596264 0.567800793832367

Fig. 12. Message image obtained at receiver's end after DCT decryption.
The Mean Square Error: A performance evaluation
metric used to determine the error rate between original and
decrypted image. Should be as minimum as possible.
The PSNR: Computes the peak signal-to-noise ratio
between two images. Often used as a quality measurement
metric between the original and a compressed image. Should
be as high as possible
Structural Similarity Index (SSIM) is another metric
for measuring image quality. It should be near to 1 for best
results
Thus, considering the above measures, the DCT
Steganography is considered to be better than the DST
Steganography.

Fig. 13. Message image obtained at receiver's end after DST decryption. VI. CONCLUSION
The proposed model is a research based on data hiding.
The proposed model deals with hiding a message image

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behind a video, thus providing a secured data transfer
between the sender and the receiver. Also, this message is
first encrypted twice and then hidden behind the cover video.
The encryption is performed using Scrambling technique and
then performing AES encryption over the Scrambled image.
Thus, 2 keys are used: one for Scrambling based encryption
and one for AES encryption This overlapping of techniques
ensures that even if the existence of data is known after
attacking, the attacker will receive only the encrypted data
that is difficult to be predicted or recognized.
The encrypted message image parts are then hidden
behind the cover video frames. The frames which are
steganographed are chosen randomly using the inbuilt
function in MATLAB. These random frames act as a key for
knowing the steganographed frames.
Steganography is performed using Discrete Cosine
Transform or Discrete Sine Transform based Steganography
techniques. DCT and DST both deal with hiding message
image in the High frequency part of the cover image. The
high frequency band of the cover image contains minimum
information about the respective image.
Diffie Hellman key exchange technique is used for
transferring of the three keys between the sender and the
receiver.
VII. FUTURE WORK
The noise contained in the extracted image is planned to
be removed and obtain more precise results. Other different
and more efficient techniques for steganography can be
performed. Reduction of processing time is a factor to be
worked on. Exchanging of keys has to be made more secure
and efficient.
The video obtained after embedding is in .avi format,
supporting only 8-bit images to form a video. We plan on
improving the performance by using .mj2 video format,
supporting 16-bit images for viewing and creation of the
video
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