Efficient scheme for secret hiding in QR code by improving exploiting modification direction

Abstract

QR codes as public patent are widely used to acquire the information in various fields. However, it faces security problem when delivering the privacy message by QR code. To overcome this weakness, we propose a secret hiding scheme by improving exploiting modification direction to protect the private message in QR code. The secret messages will be converted into octal digit stream and concealed to the cover QR code by overwriting the cover QR code public message bits. And the private messages can be faithfully decoded using the extraction function. In our secret hiding scheme, the QR code public message still can be fully decoded publicly from the marked QR codes via any standard QR Code reader, which helps to reduce attackers’ curiosity. Experiments show that the proposed scheme is feasible, with high secret payload, high security protection level, and resistant to common image post-processing attacks.