A new self-recovery technique for image authentication

Abstract

In this paper a simple and secure self recovery authentication algorithm is presented which hides an image digest into some of the DWT subbands of the to-be-authenticated image. Authentication is achieved by comparing visually the hidden digest with the image under inspection. The digest is computed through a properly modified version of JPEG coding operating at very high compression ratios. The modification is introduced to make the digest insensitive to global, innocuous manipulations. Particular care is given to ensure robustness against innocuous manipulations, and to prevent forgery attempts. Security aspects are also discussed in great detail. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the good performance of the proposed system. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.