JPEG steganography detection with Benford's Law

• Published in: Digital investigation Vol. 9; no. 3-4; pp. 246 - 257
• Main Authors: Andriotis, Panagiotis, Oikonomou, George, Tryfonas, Theo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.02.2013; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Algorithms; Computer forensics; Data encryption; Data hiding; Frequency distribution; Generalized Benford's Law; Image processing systems; Quantized DCT coefficients; Steganalysis; Steganography detection; Data hiding; Steganalysis; Steganography detection; Quantized DCT coefficients; Generalized Benford's Law
• ISSN: 1742-2876; 1873-202X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.diin.2013.01.005

In this paper we present a novel approach to the problem of steganography detection in JPEG images by applying a statistical attack. The method is based on the empirical Benford's Law and, more specifically, on its generalized form. We prove and extend the validity of the logarithmic rule in colour images and introduce a blind steganographic method which can flag a file as a suspicious stego-carrier. The proposed method achieves very high accuracy and speed and is based on the distributions of the first digits of the quantized Discrete Cosine Transform coefficients present in JPEGs. In order to validate and evaluate our algorithm, we developed steganographic tools which are able to analyse image files and we subsequently applied them on the popular Uncompressed Colour Image Database. Furthermore, we demonstrate that not only can our method detect steganography but, if certain criteria are met, it can also reveal which steganographic algorithm was used to embed data in a JPEG file.