Crypto-steganographic model using chaos and coding based in deoxyribonucleic acid

Abstract

Given the increase of information circulating through public channels, it is essential to create robust schemes to ensure the security of such information. The results presented here were part of the research project entitled computer security models based on mathematical tools and artificial intelligence. An algorithm focused on the encryption of images carrying steganographed texts is proposed, using chaos, artificial vision and coding based in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The process consists of steganographic and cryptographic steps. In the steganographic stage, a color image was taken, the combined Canny and Sobel filters were applied to achieve its dilated edges, using Chen's chaotic attractor, the positions of the edges were selected, to hide a text in binary ASCII code using the least significant bit technique. In the encryption stage, Chen's chaotic system was used to permute the stego-image and to create a chaotic image used in the diffusion process. These two images were divided into blocks represented in DNA coding, selecting the rule to apply through the three-dimensional Logistics system, and finally applying the XOR operation by layers, obtaining a single encrypted image. To validate the proposed model, safety and performance tests were applied, obtaining comparable indicators with some current scientific references.