A multi-image steganography: ISS

Abstract Unlike single-image steganography, the scheme of payload distribution on different images plays a pivotal role in the security performance of multi-image steganography. In this paper, a novel multi-image steganography scheme: image stitching sender (ISS) is proposed, which achieves optimal payload distribution by optimizing the stitching scheme of multi-cover-images. In the ISS scheme, we employ peak signal-to-noise ratio as the similarity evaluation metric for the stitched cover image and stego image. Besides, genetic algorithm is used to find the local optimal solution for the similarity, corresponding to a locally optimal multi-image steganographic stitching scheme. The experiment demonstrates that ISS exhibits enhanced anti-detection capabilities in comparison to other multi-image steganography schemes. Furthermore, when combined with non-additive embedding methods, the ISS can achieve a more substantial improvement in security compared to additive embedding methods.