Capacity of Steganographic Channels
Venue
IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 55 (2009), pp. 1775-1792
Publication Year
2009
Authors
Jeremiah Harmsen, William Pearlman
BibTeX
Abstract
This work investigates a central problem in steganography, that is: How much data
can safely be hidden without being detected? To answer this question, a formal
definition of steganographic capacity is presented. Once this has been defined, a
general formula for the capacity is developed. The formula is applicable to a very
broad spectrum of channels due to the use of an information-spectrum approach. This
approach allows for the analysis of arbitrary steganalyzers as well as
nonstationary, nonergodic encoder and attack channels. After the general formula is
presented, various simplifications are applied to gain insight into example hiding
and detection methodologies. Finally, the context and applications of the work are
summarized in a general discussion.
