Data Hiding in Encrypted H.264/AVC Video Streams by Codeword Substitution

• Published in: IEEE transactions on information forensics and security Vol. 9; no. 4; pp. 596 - 606
• Main Authors: Dawen Xu, Rangding Wang, Shi, Yun Q.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.04.2014; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Artificial intelligence; Ciphers; codeword substituting; Coding, codes; Computer information security; Computer science; control theory; systems; Cryptography; Data hiding; Data mining; encrypted domain; Encryption; Exact sciences and technology; Extraction; Feasibility; H.264/AVC; Information, signal and communications theory; Mathematical analysis; Memory and file management (including protection and security); Memory organisation. Data processing; Pattern recognition. Digital image processing. Computational geometry; Preserves; Product introduction; Signal and communications theory; Software; Streaming media; Streams; Telecommunications and information theory; Vectors (mathematics); Video coding; Watermarking; Symmetric key; Streaming; Private life; Video coding; Stream ciphering; Video signal; Data hiding; Decryption; H.264/AVC; Substitution encryption; Codec; Experimental result; Codebook; Encrypted domain; Confidentiality; Efficiency; Cryptanalysis; Feasibility; codeword substituting; Cryptography; Computer security; Digital watermarking
• ISSN: 1556-6013; 1556-6021
• DOI: 10.1109/TIFS.2014.2302899

Digital video sometimes needs to be stored and processed in an encrypted format to maintain security and privacy. For the purpose of content notation and/or tampering detection, it is necessary to perform data hiding in these encrypted videos. In this way, data hiding in encrypted domain without decryption preserves the confidentiality of the content. In addition, it is more efficient without decryption followed by data hiding and re-encryption. In this paper, a novel scheme of data hiding directly in the encrypted version of H.264/AVC video stream is proposed, which includes the following three parts, i.e., H.264/AVC video encryption, data embedding, and data extraction. By analyzing the property of H.264/AVC codec, the codewords of intraprediction modes, the codewords of motion vector differences, and the codewords of residual coefficients are encrypted with stream ciphers. Then, a data hider may embed additional data in the encrypted domain by using codeword substitution technique, without knowing the original video content. In order to adapt to different application scenarios, data extraction can be done either in the encrypted domain or in the decrypted domain. Furthermore, video file size is strictly preserved even after encryption and data embedding. Experimental results have demonstrated the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed scheme.