High payload secret hiding technology for QR codes

Abstract

Quick response (QR) code has become one of the more popular two-dimensional barcodes because of its greater data capacity and higher damage resistance. The barcode scanners can easily extract the information hidden in the QR code while scanning the data modules. However, some sensitive data directly stored in QR codes are insecure in real-world QR applications, such as the e-ticket and e-coupon. To protect the sensitive data, this paper explores the characteristics of QR barcodes to design a secret hiding mechanism for the QR barcode with a higher payload compared to the past ones. For a normal scanner, a browser can only reveal the formal information from the marked QR code. The authorized user/scanner can further reveal the sensitive data from the marked QR tag. The experiments demonstrate a satisfactory secret payload and the feasibility of the proposed scheme.