J3: High payload histogram neutral JPEG steganography

Steganography is the art of secret communication between two parties that not only conceals the contents of a message but also its existence. Steganalysis attempts to detect the existence of embedded data in a steganographically altered cover file. Many algorithms have been proposed, but so far each has some weakness that has allowed its effects to be detected, usually through statistical analysis of the image. In this paper, we propose a different approach to JPEG steganography that provides high embedding capacity with zero-deviant histogram restoration. Our algorithm, named J3, uses stop points in its header structure that allows it to restore the histogram completely, making its detection impossible by any first order steganalysis. It gives better results with higher order steganalysis when compared to F5, Outguess and Steghide. As far as we know, there is no existing algorithm that can provide as high an embedding payload with complete histogram restoration.