The role of permutation coding in minimum-distortion perfect counterforensics

This paper exploits the connection between minimum-distortion perfect counterforensics and maximum-rate perfect steganography in order to provide the optimum solution to the first of these problems, in the case in which the forensic detector solely uses first-order statistics. The solution relies on Slepian´s variant I permutation codes, which had previously been shown to implement maximum-rate perfect steganography when the host is memoryless (equivalently, when the steganographic detector only uses first-order statistics). Additionally, we demonstrate a blind counterforensic strategy made possible by permutation decoding, which may also find application in image processing.