Image steganography algorithm based on cascaded chaotic map and low bits embedding

In order to ensure the security of some digital images with important value in untrusted channels, an image steganography algorithm based on cascaded chaotic map and low-bits embedding is proposed. The algorithm has a permutation-confusion-low bits embedding structure. In the permutation step, a novel chaotic map is firstly designed by cascade of two chaotic maps and used to generate a highly random sequence of random numbers, and then the random number sequence is used for scrambling digital images. In the confusion step, the confusion of the pixel values in the scrambling image is achieved by the XOR operation of the randomly selected cover image and the scrambling image. Finally, in the low bits embedding step, the image generated by the confusion step is split into four sub-images and embedded in the lowest two bits of the cover image. In the test of several chaotic map performance indicators, the cascaded chaotic map proposed in this paper is excellent. In the image security and performance analysis experiments, the image steganography algorithm proposed in this paper also shows high security and high execution efficiency.