New Text Steganography Technique Based on Part-of-Speech Tagging and Format-Preserving Encryption

Abstract

The transmission of confidential data using cover media is called steganography. The three requirements of any effective steganography system are high embedding capacity, security, and imperceptibility. The text file's structure, which makes syntax and grammar more visually obvious than in other media, contributes to its poor imperceptibility. Text steganography is regarded as the most challenging carrier to hide secret data because of its insufficient redundant data compared to other digital objects. Unicode characters, especially non-printing or invisible, are employed for hiding data by mapping a specific amount of secret data bits in each character and inserting the character into cover text spaces. These characters are known with limited spaces to embed secret data. Current studies that used Unicode characters in text steganography focused on increasing the data hiding capacity with insufficient redundant data in a text file. A sequential embedding pattern is often selected and included in all available positions in the cover text. This embedding pattern negatively affects the text steganography system's imperceptibility and security. Thus, this study attempts to solve these limitations using the Part-of-speech (POS) tagging technique combined with the randomization concept in data hiding. Combining these two techniques allows inserting the Unicode characters in randomized patterns with specific positions in the cover text to increase data hiding capacity with minimum effects on imperceptibility and security. Format-preserving encryption (FPE) is also used to encrypt a secret message without changing its size before the embedding processes. By comparing the proposed technique to already existing ones, the results demonstrate that it fulfils the cover file's capacity, imperceptibility, and security requirements.