Open Access

ARTICLE

Secure Image Authentication Using Watermarking and Blockchain

Alsehli Abrar¹, Wadood Abdul^1,*, Sanaa Ghouzali²

1 Department of Computer Engineering, College of Computer and Information Sciences King Saud University 11543 Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
2 Information Technology Department, College of Computer and Information Sciences
King Saud University, 11451 Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

* Corresponding Author: Wadood Abdul. Email:

(This article belongs to this Special Issue: Soft Computing Methods for Innovative Software Practices)

Intelligent Automation & Soft Computing 2021, 28(2), 577-591. https://doi.org/10.32604/iasc.2021.016382

Received 31 December 2020; Accepted 13 February 2021; Issue published 01 April 2021

Abstract

Image authentication is an important field that employs many different approaches and has several significant applications. In the proposed approach, we used a combination of two techniques to achieve authentication. Image watermarking is one of the techniques that has been used in many studies but the authentication field still needs to be studied. Blockchain technology is a relatively new technology that has significant research potential related to image authentication. The watermark is embedded into the third-level discrete wavelet transform (DWT) in the middle frequency regions to achieve security and imperceptibility goals. Peak signal-to-noise ratio PSNR, structural similarity matrix (SSIM), normalized correlation coefficient (NCC), and bit error rate (BER) are used to measure the performance of image watermarking. We used blockchain technology to avoid involving a trusted third party for authentication. Secure Hash Algorithm 256 (SHA-256) is applied on the watermark to save it into the blockchain. The watermark is encrypted using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and embedded into the image. The proposed method is tested on the USP SICI database and the MedPix medical image database. Ethereum blockchain is used to provide security, anonymity, and integrity of data with no third-party intervention. The proposed solution demonstrates enhanced security for image authentication compared with the state-of-the-art.

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Keywords

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