Multi-User Multi-Key Image Steganography with Key Isolation

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Wei, Tzu-Ti, Tseng, Yu-Han, Lin, Jun-Yi, Tseng, Yu-Chee, Chen, Jen-Jee
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Wei, Tzu-Ti
Tseng, Yu-Han
Lin, Jun-Yi
Tseng, Yu-Chee
Chen, Jen-Jee
author_facet Wei, Tzu-Ti
Tseng, Yu-Han
Lin, Jun-Yi
Tseng, Yu-Chee
Chen, Jen-Jee
contents Steganography conceals secret information within innocuous carriers while preserving visual fidelity and enabling reliable recovery. Recent unified networks operate normally under untriggered conditions but switch to hidden steganographic tasks when triggered. PUSNet follows this paradigm by performing image purification during normal operation and steganographic embedding when activated. However, it supports only a single user with one key pair, limiting its applicability in multi-user settings. We propose PUSNet-MK, a multi-key extension that enforces strict key isolation via a mismatched-key isolation loss, effectively preventing cross-key decoding when a wrong key is applied. This design preserves the intended steganographic behavior while addressing a critical security limitation of PUSNet. Extensive experiments demonstrate that PUSNet-MK produces high-quality stego images and accurate secret recovery, while preventing unintended information leakage.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_23005
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Multi-User Multi-Key Image Steganography with Key Isolation
Wei, Tzu-Ti
Tseng, Yu-Han
Lin, Jun-Yi
Tseng, Yu-Chee
Chen, Jen-Jee
Cryptography and Security
68U10, 94A62
I.4.9; K.6.5
Steganography conceals secret information within innocuous carriers while preserving visual fidelity and enabling reliable recovery. Recent unified networks operate normally under untriggered conditions but switch to hidden steganographic tasks when triggered. PUSNet follows this paradigm by performing image purification during normal operation and steganographic embedding when activated. However, it supports only a single user with one key pair, limiting its applicability in multi-user settings. We propose PUSNet-MK, a multi-key extension that enforces strict key isolation via a mismatched-key isolation loss, effectively preventing cross-key decoding when a wrong key is applied. This design preserves the intended steganographic behavior while addressing a critical security limitation of PUSNet. Extensive experiments demonstrate that PUSNet-MK produces high-quality stego images and accurate secret recovery, while preventing unintended information leakage.
title Multi-User Multi-Key Image Steganography with Key Isolation
topic Cryptography and Security
68U10, 94A62
I.4.9; K.6.5
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.23005