Securing voice communications using audio steganography

Although authentication of users of digital voice-based systems has been addressed by much research and many commercially available products, there are very few that perform well in terms of both usability and security in the audio domain. In addition, the use of voice biometrics has been shown to h...

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Main Authors: Phipps, Anthony, Ouazzane, Karim, Vassilev, Vassil
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Modern Education and Computer Science (MECS) Press 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://repository.londonmet.ac.uk/7233/1/Steg_paper_IJCNIS.pdf
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author Phipps, Anthony
Ouazzane, Karim
Vassilev, Vassil
author_facet Phipps, Anthony
Ouazzane, Karim
Vassilev, Vassil
author_sort Phipps, Anthony
collection LMU
description Although authentication of users of digital voice-based systems has been addressed by much research and many commercially available products, there are very few that perform well in terms of both usability and security in the audio domain. In addition, the use of voice biometrics has been shown to have limitations and relatively poor performance when compared to other authentication methods. We propose using audio steganography as a method of placing authentication key material into sound, such that an authentication factor can be achieved within an audio channel to supplement other methods, thus providing a multi factor authentication opportunity that retains the usability associated with voice channels. In this research we outline the challenges and threats to audio and voice-based systems in the form of an original threat model focusing on audio and voice-based systems, we outline a novel architectural model that utilises audio steganography to mitigate the threats in various authentication scenarios and finally, we conduct experimentation into hiding authentication materials into an audible sound. The experimentation focused on creating and testing a new steganographic technique which is robust to noise, resilient to steganalysis and has sufficient capacity to hold cryptographic material such as a 2048 bit RSA key in a short audio music clip of just a few seconds achieving a signal to noise ratio of over 70 dB in some scenarios. The method developed was seen to be very robust using digital transmission which has applications beyond this research. With acoustic transmission, despite the progress demonstrated in this research some challenges remain to ensure the approach achieves its full potential in noisy real-world applications and therefore the future research direction required is outlined and discussed.
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spelling oai:repository.londonmet.ac.uk:72332024-01-11T14:44:00Z https://repository.londonmet.ac.uk/7233/ Securing voice communications using audio steganography Phipps, Anthony Ouazzane, Karim Vassilev, Vassil 000 Computer science, information & general works Although authentication of users of digital voice-based systems has been addressed by much research and many commercially available products, there are very few that perform well in terms of both usability and security in the audio domain. In addition, the use of voice biometrics has been shown to have limitations and relatively poor performance when compared to other authentication methods. We propose using audio steganography as a method of placing authentication key material into sound, such that an authentication factor can be achieved within an audio channel to supplement other methods, thus providing a multi factor authentication opportunity that retains the usability associated with voice channels. In this research we outline the challenges and threats to audio and voice-based systems in the form of an original threat model focusing on audio and voice-based systems, we outline a novel architectural model that utilises audio steganography to mitigate the threats in various authentication scenarios and finally, we conduct experimentation into hiding authentication materials into an audible sound. The experimentation focused on creating and testing a new steganographic technique which is robust to noise, resilient to steganalysis and has sufficient capacity to hold cryptographic material such as a 2048 bit RSA key in a short audio music clip of just a few seconds achieving a signal to noise ratio of over 70 dB in some scenarios. The method developed was seen to be very robust using digital transmission which has applications beyond this research. With acoustic transmission, despite the progress demonstrated in this research some challenges remain to ensure the approach achieves its full potential in noisy real-world applications and therefore the future research direction required is outlined and discussed. Modern Education and Computer Science (MECS) Press 2022-03-10 Article PeerReviewed text en https://repository.londonmet.ac.uk/7233/1/Steg_paper_IJCNIS.pdf Phipps, Anthony, Ouazzane, Karim and Vassilev, Vassil (2022) Securing voice communications using audio steganography. International Journal of Computer Network and Information Security (IJCNIS), 14 (3). pp. 1-18. ISSN 2074-9090 https://doi.org/10.5815/ijcnis.2022.03.01 10.5815/ijcnis.2022.03.01 10.5815/ijcnis.2022.03.01
spellingShingle 000 Computer science, information & general works
Phipps, Anthony
Ouazzane, Karim
Vassilev, Vassil
Securing voice communications using audio steganography
title Securing voice communications using audio steganography
title_full Securing voice communications using audio steganography
title_fullStr Securing voice communications using audio steganography
title_full_unstemmed Securing voice communications using audio steganography
title_short Securing voice communications using audio steganography
title_sort securing voice communications using audio steganography
topic 000 Computer science, information & general works
url https://repository.londonmet.ac.uk/7233/1/Steg_paper_IJCNIS.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT phippsanthony securingvoicecommunicationsusingaudiosteganography
AT ouazzanekarim securingvoicecommunicationsusingaudiosteganography
AT vassilevvassil securingvoicecommunicationsusingaudiosteganography