2 \section{The $\mathcal{CIW}_1$ Chaotic Iteration based Watermarking Process}
4 \subsection{Using chaotic iterations as information hiding schemes}
5 \label{sec:data-hiding-algo-chaotic iterations}
7 \subsubsection{Presentation of the dhCI process}
9 We have proposed in~\cite{gfb10:ip,bcg11b:ip} a data hiding protocol based
10 on chaotic iterations. The process, referred as dhCI, consisted in
11 iterating $\mathcal{G}_{f_0}$ on least significant coefficients of a cover medium.
12 Each property exhibited by
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13 the dynamical system will then be possessed too by the watermarking scheme.
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17 The same original image was supposed to be shared by the sender and
18 the receiver, the sender either iterates or not CIs on these coefficients,
19 depending on whether the binary information to transfer was 0 or 1, while
20 the receiver computed the differences between its stored image and the
22 For further explanations, see~\cite{gfb10:ip,bcg11b:ip}.
24 The first deepened study of such a dhCI algorithm was published
25 in~\cite{guyeux10ter}. The aims were to
26 prove that a particular instance of the dhCI algorithm, called the
27 $\mathcal{CIW}_1$ process, is stego-secure and topologically secure, to study its
28 qualitative and quantitative properties of unpredictability, and then to compare
29 it with Natural Watermarking: the topological study has been realized in~\cite{Guyeux2012}
30 while the stego-security has been proven later in~\cite{gfb10:ip}).
31 To be able to recall the $\mathcal{CIW}_1$ scheme, we must firstly define the
32 significance of a given coefficient.
35 \subsubsection{Most and least significant coefficients}\label{sec:msc-lsc}
37 We first notice that terms of the original content $x$ that may be replaced by terms taken
38 from the watermark $y$ are less important than other: they could be changed
39 without be perceived as such. More generally, a
40 \emph{signification function}
41 attaches a weight to each term defining a digital media,
42 depending on its position $t$.
44 \begin{Def}%[Signification function]
45 A \emph{signification function} is a real sequence
46 $(u^k)^{k \in \mathds{N}}$. % with a limit equal to 0.
50 \begin{Ex}\label{Exemple LSC}
51 Let us consider a set of
52 grayscale images stored into portable graymap format (P3-PGM):
53 each pixel ranges between 256 gray levels, \textit{i.e.},
54 is memorized with eight bits.
55 In that context, we consider
56 $u^k = 8 - (k \mod 8)$ to be the $k$-th term of a signification function
57 $(u^k)^{k \in \mathds{N}}$.
58 Intuitively, in each group of eight bits (\textit{i.e.}, for each pixel)
59 the first bit has an importance equal to 8, whereas the last bit has an
60 importance equal to 1. This is compliant with the idea that
61 changing the first bit affects more the image than changing the last one.
64 \begin{Def}%[Significance of coefficients]
66 Let $(u^k)^{k \in \mathds{N}}$ be a signification function,
67 $m$ and $M$ be two reals s.t. $m < M$.
69 \item The \emph{most significant coefficients (MSCs)} of $x$ is the finite
70 vector $$u_M = \left( k ~ \big|~ k \in \mathds{N} \textrm{ and } u^k
71 \geqslant M \textrm{ and } k \le \mid x \mid \right);$$
72 \item The \emph{least significant coefficients (LSCs)} of $x$ is the
74 $$u_m = \left( k ~ \big|~ k \in \mathds{N} \textrm{ and } u^k
75 \le m \textrm{ and } k \le \mid x \mid \right);$$
76 \item The \emph{passive coefficients} of $x$ is the finite vector
77 $$u_p = \left( k ~ \big|~ k \in \mathds{N} \textrm{ and }
78 u^k \in ]m;M[ \textrm{ and } k \le \mid x \mid \right).$$
82 For a given host content $x$,
83 MSCs are then ranks of $x$ that describe the relevant part
84 of the image, whereas LSCs translate its less significant parts.
85 These two definitions are illustrated on Figure~\ref{fig:MSCLSC},
86 where the significance function $(u^k)$ is defined as in Example \ref{Exemple LSC}, $M=5$, and $m=6$.
93 \begin{minipage}[b]{.32\linewidth}
95 \centerline{\includegraphics[width=3.75cm]{IH/img/lena512}}
96 \centerline{(a) Lena.}
98 \begin{minipage}[b]{.32\linewidth}
100 \centerline{\includegraphics[width=3.75cm]{IH/img/lena_msb_678}}
101 \centerline{(b) MSCs of Lena.}
104 \begin{minipage}[b]{0.32\linewidth}
106 \centerline{\includegraphics[width=3.75cm]{IH/img/lena_lsb_1234_facteur17}}
108 %\centerline{\epsfig{figure=img/lena_lsb_1234_facteur17.pdf,width=4cm}}
109 \centerline{(c) LSCs of Lena ($\times 17$).}
112 \caption{Most and least significant coefficients of Lena.}
121 \subsubsection{Presentation of the $\mathcal{CIW}_1$ dhCI scheme}
123 We have proposed in SECRYPT10~\cite{guyeux10ter} to
124 study a particular instance of the dhCI class, which
125 considers the negation function as iteration mode.
126 The resulting chaotic iterations watermarking\footnote{Watermarking means here that only a binary information, like the presence of a copyright, can be extracted.} process has been denoted by
127 $\mathcal{CIW}_1$ in this publication.
128 It operates as follows. Let:
132 \item $(K,N) \in [0;1]\times \mathds{N}$ be an embedding key,
133 \item $X \in \mathbb{B}^\mathsf{N}$ be the $\mathsf{N}$ least significant coefficients (LSCs) of a given cover media $C$,
134 \item $(S^n)_{n \in \mathds{N}} \in \llbracket 1, \mathsf{N} \rrbracket^{\mathds{N}}$ be a strategy, which depends on the message to hide $M \in [0;1]$ and $K$,
135 \item $f_0 : \mathbb{B}^\mathsf{N} \rightarrow \mathbb{B}^\mathsf{N}$ be the vectorial logical negation.
142 \subfigure[Original Lena.]{\includegraphics[width=4cm]{IH/Medias/lena512}}\hspace{0.5cm}
143 \subfigure[Watermark.]{\label{invad}\includegraphics[width=1cm]{IH/iihmsp13/exp/invader}}\hspace{0.5cm}
144 \subfigure[Watermarked Lena.]{\includegraphics[width=4cm]{IH/Medias/lena512marqueDWT}}
145 \caption{Data hiding with chaotic iterations}
150 So the watermarked media is $C$ whose LSCs are replaced by $Y_K=X^{N}$, where:
156 \forall n < N, X^{n+1} = G_{f_0}\left(X^n\right).\\
160 In the following section, two ways to generate $(S^n)_{n \in \mathds{N}}$ are given, namely
161 Chaotic Iterations with Independent Strategy~(CIIS) and Chaotic Iterations with Dependent
162 Strategy~(CIDS). In CIIS, the strategy is independent from the cover media $X$,
163 whereas in CIDS the strategy will be dependent on $X$. These
164 strategies have been introduced in~\cite{gfb10:ip}. Their stego-security are studied in Section~\ref{sec:chaotic iterations-security-level} and their topological security in Section~\ref{sec:topological security-evaluation}.
171 \subsubsection{Examples of strategies}
172 \label{sec:ciis-cids-example}
173 \paragraph{CIIS strategy}
175 Let us first introduce the Piecewise Linear Chaotic Map~(PLCM, see~\cite{Shujun1}), defined by:
177 \begin{Def}[PLCM]\label{Def:PLCM}
181 x/p & \text{if} & x \in [0;p] \\
182 (x-p)/(\frac{1}{2} - p) & \text{if} & x \in \left[ p; \frac{1}{2} \right]
184 F(1-x,p) & \text{else.} & \\
190 \noindent where $p \in \left] 0; \frac{1}{2} \right[$ is a ``control parameter''. Contrary to well-known chaotic maps like the logistic
191 map, this PLCM is unbiased and does not present obvious security
192 flaws~\cite{Shujun1}.
194 We define the general term of the strategy $(S^n)_n$ in CIIS setup by
195 the following expression: $S^n = \left \lfloor \mathsf{N} \times K^n \right \rfloor +
198 \begin{equation*}\label{eq:PLCM-for-strategy}
201 p \in \left[ 0 ; \frac{1}{2} \right] \\
203 K^{n+1} = F(K^n,p), \forall n \leq N_0\\ \end{array} \right.
208 \noindent in which $\otimes$ denotes the bitwise exclusive or (XOR) between two floating part numbers (\emph{i.e.}, between their binary digits representation). Lastly, to be certain to enter into the chaotic regime of PLCM~\cite{Shujun1}, the strategy can be preferably defined by: $S^n = \left \lfloor \mathsf{N} \times K^{n+D} \right \rfloor + 1$, where $D \in \mathds{N}$ is large enough.
213 \paragraph{CIDS strategy}\label{sec:cids-example}
214 The same notations as above are used.
215 We define CIDS strategy as in~\cite{gfb10:ip}: $\forall k \leqslant N$,
217 \item if $k \leqslant \mathsf{N}$ and $X^k = 1$, then $S^k=k$,
220 In this situation, if $N \geqslant \mathsf{N}$, then only two watermarked contents are possible with the scheme proposed in Section~\ref{sec:data-hiding-algo-chaotic iterations}, namely: $Y_K=(0,0,\cdots,0)$ and $Y_K=(1,0,\cdots,0)$.
222 Before being able to present the security study we performed on it, we must firstly recall the notion of security usually considered
223 in information hiding and its difference with robustness.
225 \subsection{Security versus robustness}\label{sec:chaotic iterations-security-level}
228 \subsubsection{Presentation}
230 Even if security and robustness are neighboring concepts without clearly
231 established definitions~\cite{Perez-Freire06}, robustness is often considered
232 to be mostly concerned with blind elementary attacks, whereas security is not
233 limited to certain specific attacks. Indeed, security encompasses robustness
234 and intentional attacks~\cite{Kalker2001,ComesanaPP05bis}. The best attempt to
235 give an elegant and concise definition for each of these two terms was
236 proposed in \cite{Kalker2001}. Following Kalker, we will consider in this
237 article the two following definitions:
239 \begin{Def}[Security~\cite{Kalker2001}]\label{def:security}
240 Watermarking security
241 % \footnote{Remark that when robustness is required in information hiding, the community tends to
242 % speak about digital watermarking, while researchers prefer to say
243 % steganography when security is regarded. Similarly, some authors
244 % speak about watermarking when the hidden information is only one bit,
245 % while steganography is for larger messages, even if such use of
246 % the terminologies is less common. Such ambiguities come from the fact
247 % that no clear common definitions of steganography and digital watermarking have been accepted by the whole community, and that
248 % this community is indeed split in various subcommunities that do not
249 % communicate together. So, in this
250 % manuscript, security will always refer to mathematical proofs while
251 % robustness will be related to brute-force attacks. Steganography,
252 % watermarking, as well as steganalysis will however be used with various
253 % significations that can be deduced from the context.}
255 inability by unauthorized users to have access to the raw watermarking channel
256 [...] to remove, detect and estimate, write or modify the raw watermarking
260 \begin{Def}[Robustness~\cite{Kalker2001}]\label{def:robustness}
261 Robust watermarking is a mechanism to create a communication channel that is
262 multiplexed into original content [...] It is required that, firstly, the
263 perceptual degradation of the marked content [...] is minimal and, secondly,
264 that the capacity of the watermark channel degrades as a smooth function of the
265 degradation of the marked content.
270 \subsubsection{Classification of attacks}
271 \label{sec:attack-classes}
273 In the security framework, attacks have been classified
274 in~\cite{Cayre2008} as follows.
278 Watermark-Only Attack (WOA) occurs when an attacker has only access to several watermarked contents.
282 Known-Message Attack (KMA) occurs when an attacker has access to several pairs of watermarked contents and
283 corresponding hidden messages.
287 Known-Original Attack (KOA) is when an attacker has access to several pairs of watermarked contents and
288 their corresponding original versions.
292 Constant-Message Attack (CMA) occurs when the attacker observes several watermarked contents and only knows that the
293 unknown hidden message is the same in all contents.
297 A synthesis of this classification is given in
298 Table~\ref{table:attack-classification}.
302 \begin{tabular}{|c||c|c|c|}
304 \textbf{Class} & \textbf{Original content} & \textbf{Stego content} &
305 \textbf{Hidden message}\\
308 \textbf{WOA} & & $\times$ & \\
310 \textbf{KMA} & & $\times$ & $\times$ \\
312 \textbf{KOA} & $\times$ & $\times$ & \\
314 \textbf{CMA} & & & $\times$ \\
317 \caption{Watermarking attacks classification in context of~\cite{Kalker2001}}
318 \label{table:attack-classification}
324 \subsubsection{Definition of stego-security}\label{sec:stego-security-definition}
327 In the Simmons' prisoner problem~\cite{Simmons83}, Alice and Bob are in jail and
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328 they want to, possibly, devise an escape plan by exchanging hidden messages in
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329 innocent-looking cover contents. These messages are to be conveyed to one
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330 another by a common warden named Eve, who eavesdrops all contents and can choose
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331 to interrupt the communication if they appear to be stego-contents.
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333 Stego-security, defined in this well-known context, is the highest security
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334 class in Watermark-Only Attack setup, which occurs when Eve has only access to
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335 several marked contents~\cite{Cayre2008}.
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338 Let $\mathds{K}$ be the set of embedding keys, $p(X)$ the probabilistic model of
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339 $N_0$ initial host contents, and $p(Y|K)$ the probabilistic model of $N_0$
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340 marked contents such that each host content has been marked
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341 with the same key $K$ and the same embedding function.
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343 \begin{Def}[Stego-Security~\cite{Cayre2008}]
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344 \label{Def:Stego-security} The embedding function is \emph{stego-secure}
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345 if $\forall K \in \mathds{K}, p(Y|K)=p(X)$ is established.
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350 Stego-security states that the knowledge of $K$ does not help to make the
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351 difference between $p(X)$ and $p(Y)$. This definition implies the following
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353 $$p(Y|K_1)= \cdots = p(Y|K_{N_k})=p(Y)=p(X)$$
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354 This property is equivalent to a zero Kullback-Leibler divergence, which is the
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355 accepted definition of the ``perfect secrecy'' in steganography~\cite{Cachin2004}.
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359 \subsection{Security evaluation}
362 \subsubsection{Evaluation of the stego-security}
363 \label{sec:stego-security-proof}
365 We have proven in~\cite{gfb10:ip} the following proposition.
368 CIIS is stego-secure, while CIDS does not satisfy this security property.
373 \subsubsection{Evaluation of the topological security}
374 \label{sec:topological security-evaluation}
376 To check whether an information hiding scheme $S$ is topologically secure or not, we have proposed
377 in~\cite{gfb10:ip}, to write
378 $S$ as an iterate process $x^{n+1}=f(x^n)$ on a metric space $(\mathcal{X},d)$. As recalled previously,
379 this formulation is always possible. So,
381 \begin{Def}%[topological security]
382 \label{Def:topological security-definition}
383 An information hiding scheme $S$ is said to be topologically secure on
384 $(\mathcal{X},d)$ if its iterative process has a chaotic
385 behavior according to Devaney.
390 Due to the chaos properties of the so-called chaotic iterations,
391 we have then deduced in~\cite{gfb10:ip} that,
394 CIIS and CIDS are topologically secure.
397 We have then deduced qualitative and quantitative
398 properties of topological security for this information
399 hiding scheme in~\cite{gfb10:ip}: it is expansive (with a constant of
400 expansiveness equal to 1), topologically mixing,
401 etc. These properties can measure the
402 disorder generated by our scheme, giving by doing so an important information about the
403 unpredictability level of such a process, which helps to compare it
404 to other data hiding methods. Such a comparison is outlined in
405 the next section~\cite{gfb10:ip}.
409 \subsection{Comparison between spread-spectrum and chaotic
410 iterations}\label{sec:comparison-application-context}
412 The consequences of topological mixing for data hiding are multiple. Firstly,
413 security can be largely improved by considering
414 the number of iterations as a secret key. An attacker
415 will reach all of the possible media when iterating without this key.
416 Additionally, he cannot benefit from a KOA setup, by studying media in the
417 neighborhood of the original cover. Moreover, as in a topological mixing
418 situation, it is possible that any hidden message (the initial condition), is
419 sent to the same fixed watermarked content (with different numbers of
420 iterations), the interest to be in a KMA setup is drastically reduced. Lastly, as
421 all of the watermarked contents are possible for a given hidden message, depending
422 on the number of iterations, CMA attacks will fail.
426 The property of expansiveness reinforces drastically the sensitivity in the aims of reducing the benefits that Eve can obtain from an attack in KMA or KOA setup. For example, it is impossible to have an estimation of the watermark by moving the message (or the cover) as a cursor in situation of expansiveness: this cursor will be too much sensitive and the changes will be too important to be useful.
427 On the contrary, a very large constant of expansiveness $\varepsilon$ is unsuitable: the cover media will be strongly altered whereas the watermark would be undetectable.
428 Finally, spread-spectrum is relevant when a discrete and secure data hiding technique is required in WOA setup. However, this technique should not be used in KOA and KMA setup, due to its lack of expansiveness.
433 \subsection{Lyapunov exponent evaluation}%~\cite{bfg12:ip}}
435 The Lyapunov exponent of the
436 $\mathcal{CIW}_1$ algorithm has been computed in~\cite{bfg12:ip},
437 to improve our knowledge of its topological security. It is equal
438 to $\ln{\mathsf{N}}$, where $\mathsf{N}$ stands for the number of
439 LSCs chosen in the implementation of the algorithm.
441 To evaluate this Lyapunov exponent,
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442 chaotic iterations must be described by a differentiable function on $\mathds{R}$.
444 a topological semiconjugacy between the phase space $\mathcal{X}$ and
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445 $\mathds{R}$ has been written.
446 As this proof is simply a rewriting in the digital watermarking field
447 of an unpublished result on chaotic iterations obtained in~\cite{Guyeux2012}, and as Section~\ref{sec:lyapCIS2} provides a Lyapunov exponent
448 evaluation for a completely different algorithm,
449 we will not say any more about this publication.