Journal of Computer Applications ›› 2026, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (2): 475-484.DOI: 10.11772/j.issn.1001-9081.2025020204

• Cyber security • Previous Articles    

Image steganography method based on conditional generative adversarial networks and hybrid attention mechanism

Ming LI1,2, Mengqi WANG1(), Aili ZHANG1,2, Hua REN1,2, Yuqiang DOU1,2   

  1. 1.School of Computer and Information Engineering,Henan Normal University,Xinxiang Henan 453007,China
    2.Henan Key Laboratory of Educational Artificial Intelligence and Personalized Learning (Henan Normal University),Xinxiang Henan 453007,China
  • Received:2025-03-06 Revised:2025-04-07 Accepted:2025-04-18 Online:2025-04-24 Published:2026-02-10
  • Contact: Mengqi WANG
  • About author:LI Ming, born in 1981, Ph. D., associate professor. His research interests include information hiding, image encryption, adversarial examples.
    WANG Mengqi, born in 1999, M. S. candidate. His research interests include image steganography, adversarial examples. Email:2208183007@stu.htu.edu.cn
    ZHANG Aili, born in 1966, Ph. D., professor. Her research interests include signal processing.
    REN Hua, born in 1992, Ph. D., lecturer. Her research interests include encrypted domain information hiding.
    DOU Yuqiang, born in 1980, Ph. D., lecturer. His research interests include image information security.
  • Supported by:
    Henan Province Science and Technology Research and Development Program(252102210163);Key Scientific Research Project of Henan Higher Education Institutions(25A520028);2023 Henan Province Undergraduate Uiniversities Research-Oriented Teaching Program(Jiaogao [2023] 388-21)

基于条件生成对抗网络和混合注意力机制的图像隐写方法

李名1,2, 王孟齐1(), 张爱丽1,2, 任花1,2, 窦育强1,2   

  1. 1.河南师范大学 计算机与信息工程学院,河南 新乡 453007
    2.河南省教育人工智能与个性化学习重点实验室(河南师范大学),河南 新乡 453007
  • 通讯作者: 王孟齐
  • 作者简介:李名(1981—),男,河南新乡人,副教授,博士,主要研究方向:信息隐藏、图像加密、对抗样本
    王孟齐(1999—),男,河南焦作人,硕士研究生,主要研究方向:图像隐写、对抗样本 Email:2208183007@stu.htu.edu.cn
    张爱丽(1966—),女,河南滑县人,教授,博士,主要研究方向:信号处理
    任花(1992—),女,河南息县人,讲师,博士,主要研究方向:密文域信息隐藏
    窦育强(1980—),男,河南卫辉人,讲师,博士,主要研究方向:图像信息安全。
  • 基金资助:
    2023年河南省本科高校研究性教学项目(教高[2023]388号21);河南省科技攻关计划项目(252102210163);河南省科技攻关计划项目(252102210181);河南省高等学校重点科研项目(25A520028)

Abstract:

Current deep image steganography methods based on image-in-image concealment face challenges in practical applications of privacy protection and secure communication due to insufficient security of stego images and distortion in recovered secret images. To address these issues, a Conditional Generative Adversarial Network and Convolutional Block Attention Module-based image-in-image steganography method (CBAM-CGAN) was proposed. Firstly, a hybrid attention module was introduced into the generator network to enable the generator’s comprehensive learning of image features from both channel and spatial dimensions, thereby enhancing the visual quality of stego images. Secondly, residual connections were employed to reduce feature loss of secret images during network learning, and through adversarial training between the extractor and the discriminator, noise-free extraction of secret images was achieved. Finally, adversarial training between the generator and the steganalyzer was implemented to improve the stego image security. Experimental results on public datasets including COCO demonstrate that compared with steganography method StegGAN, the proposed steganography method achieves the Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) improvements of 4.37 dB and 4.71 dB for stego and decrypted images, respectively, along with Structure Similarity Index Measure (SSIM) enhancements of 9.16% and 6.46%, respectively. For security, the proposed method has the detection Accuracy (Acc) against steganalyzer Ye-Net decreased by 9.35 percentage points with the False Negative Rate (FNR) increased by 12.01 percentage points. It can be seen that the proposed method ensures stego image security while achieving high-quality secret image recovery.

Key words: deep learning, image steganography, conditional Adversarial Generation Network (GAN), hybrid attention mechanism, image-in-image concealment

摘要:

目前以图藏图的深度隐写术存在隐写图像安全性不强以及恢复的秘密图像中存在图像失真的问题,难以实际应用于隐私保护和秘密通信。针对以上问题,提出一种基于条件生成对抗网络和混合注意力机制的以图藏图隐写方法(CBAM-CGAN)。首先,在生成器网络中引入混合注意模块,帮助生成器从通道和空间维度全面地学习图像特征,提高隐写图像的视觉质量;其次,引入残差连接降低网络学习过程中秘密图像的特征损失,并通过提取器和判别器的对抗训练,实现秘密图像的无噪声提取;最后,通过生成器和隐写分析器的对抗训练,提高隐写图像的安全性。在COCO等公开数据集上的实验结果显示,与StegGAN隐写方法相比,所提隐写方法的隐写图像和解密图像的峰值信噪比(PSNR)分别提高了4.37 dB和4.71 dB,结构相似性(SSIM)分别提高了9.16%和6.46%。在安全性方面,所提方法面对隐写分析器Ye-Net的检测,检测准确率(Acc)降低了9.35个百分点,误检率(FNR)提升了12.01个百分点。可见,所提方法在保证隐写图像安全性的同时能高质量地恢复秘密图像。

关键词: 深度学习, 图像隐写, 条件对抗生成网络, 混合注意力机制, 以图藏图

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