Block-based Image Authentication Algorithm using Differential Histogram-based Reversible Watermarking

In most applications requiring high-confidential images, reversible watermarking is an effective way to ensure the integrity of images. Many watermarking researches which have been adapted to authenticate contents cannot recover the original image after authentication. However, reversible watermarking inserts the watermark signal into digital contents in such a way that the original contents can be restored without any quality loss while preserving visual quality. To detect malicious tampering, this paper presents a new block-based image authentication algorithm using differential histogram-based reversible watermarking. To generate an authentication code, the DCT-based authentication feature from each image block is extracted and combined with user-specific code. Then, the authentication code is embedded into image itself with reversible watermarking. The image can be authenticated by comparing the extracted code and the newly generated code and restored into the original image. Through experiments using multiple images, we prove that the presented algorithm has achieved over 97% authentication rate with high visual quality and complete reversibility.