Art of Misdirection Using AES, Bi-layer Steganography and Novel King-Knight’s Tour Algorithm

Nowadays, the need for of data-integrity and privacy is higher than ever. From small bank transactions to large-scale classified military information, these factors have been prerequisites. This classified information can be faked deliberately by the sender with the help of a pseudo secret in order to increase the level of security. Cryptography makes this information unreadable and steganography hides the same. This paper brings together the paths of steganography and Rijndael encryption, which is commonly known as the AES. The secret image or text-file is encrypted using AES algorithm and is then camouflaged into the pseudo-secret image using a modified proposed Knight’s Tour-inspired chess-based algorithm that enhances data diffusion. Then the pseudo-secret image/text is once again encrypted using the AES algorithm and is masked into the cover image/text using a checkerboard-based location map. Thus lossless, highly secure, nested-layer steganography is achieved with high complexity and high PSNR for various extension types of images as illustrated in the paper.