An improved hybrid image steganography method using AES algorithm

Image steganography is the process of hiding information, which can be text, image, or video inside a cover image. Recent steganography literature hasn't addressed the problem of loss of secret information during extraction and reliability. Hence, to reduce information loss and provide reliability between in the basic criteria, Herein, we proposed a hybrid method that utilizes the least significant bit (LSB) substitution, transppsition, magic matrix, key and Advance Encrytion Standard (AES) algorithm. The LSB method decreases embedding errors by implementing a new value difference algorithm. In addition, to improves the reliability between the basic criterion for image steganography we used transposition, magic matrix, key and AES. The proposed method ensures a high-quality image format in the RGB color model to conceal the hidden message within the cover image which is jpeg. The proposed hybrid method performed several experiments and these are mainly based on quality assessment metrics such as PSNR, SSIM, RMSE, NCC, etc. which showed better results. The proposed method also analyzed with different perspectives in terms of different dimensions of images and different sizes of message text which showed better results. In addition, the performance of the proposed method showed better results based on (regular and singular) steganalysis, noise, and cropping attacks. The security analyses such as key space, differential, and statistical attacks show that the proposed scheme is secure and robust against channel noise and JPEG compression.