Comput Syst Sci & Eng (2019) 1: 23–32 © 2019 CRL Publishing Ltd International Journal of Computer Systems Science & Engineering A novel approach to steganography: Enhanced least significant bit substitution algorithm integrated with self-determining encryption feature Resul Das 1∗ , Muhammet Baykara 1 and Gurkan Tuna 2 1 Department of Software Engineering, Technology Faculty, Firat University, 23119, Elazig, Turkey Tel: +90-424-2370000-4292, Fax: +90- 424-2367064, E-mail: mbaykara@firat.edu.tr 2 Department of Computer Programming, Trakya University, 22020, Edirne, Turkey Tel: +90-284-2240283, Fax: +90-284-2240288, E-mail: gurkantuna@trakya.edu.tr One of the most well-known and used algorithms for Steganography is Least Significant Bit (LSB) substitution. Although LSB has several advantages such as simplicity, efficiency, and easy-to-do implementation, it has some distinct disadvantages such as it openness to miscellaneous attacks. In this study, we aim to improve the traditional LSB algorithm by eliminating its main disadvantage, being easy to detect, and this way propose an enhanced LSB algorithm called E-LSB. We mainly aim to minimize differences which are due to encryption and image hiding steps in LSB algorithm and make it more difficult to notice that some text has been hidden in the original cover image. As most of the researchers and practitioners in security field argue, stenographic techniques alone are not sufficient for protecting sensitive information and thus must be used together with encryption algorithms. Therefore, the proposed approach integrates E-LSB with an encryption algorithm. E-LSB does not modify the file size and allows the flexibility of choosing one of well-known encryption algorithms including RSA, AES and CAESAR, but others can be implemented in it. With a set of experiments, the proposed approach is compared with the traditional LSB based embedding approach, and its efficiency and usability is analyzed. A set of performance evaluations realized with the developed software tool based on E-LSB algorithm show that E-LSB is better than the traditional LSB algorithm from security point of view. Keywords: Steganography; Least Significant Bit Substitution; Enhanced LSB; Dynamic Embedding Range Determination; Information Security 1. INTRODUCTION Steganography is a widely-used technique for information hid- ing within images [1-4]. It processes a message to be hidden and hides it in a cover image by means of an embedding algorithm. It has many practical uses; therefore, in recent years, stegano- graphic techniques have received notable attention from both the ∗ Tel: +90-424-2370000-4305, Fax: +90-424-2367064, E-mail: rdas@firat.edu.tr research community and developers. Steganographic techniques process and modify cover images in such a way that some text can be embedded in them. In this way, only intended recipients can process them and unhide the embedded text. Since they are invisible, detecting them is not easy. Most of the existing steganographic techniques rely on substituting redundant parts of a signal with a secret message [5-7]. On the other hand, using steganalysis techniques, unintended users can detect that some text is hidden in the images and uncover it [4, 8, 9]. vol 34 no 1 January 2019 23