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Quantum audio LSB steganography with entanglement-assisted modulation

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Abstract

This paper introduces two novel quantum audio steganography methods that incorporate the logical properties of entangled qubits into the least significant qubit steganography (LSQb) approach. The first method, called entanglement-assisted probability adjustment LSB (EP-LSQb), optimizes the superposition probability of the lowest qubits before embedding the information. This addresses the ‘value-pairing’ problem and improves anti-statistical analysis performance and embedding efficiency. The second method, called quantum phase direct embedding LSB (PD-LSQb), extends traditional LSB steganography by directly embedding the secret speech into the least significant qubit. Quantum circuits are constructed for both methods to demonstrate their feasibility. Theoretical analysis and simulation experiments show that these methods exhibit good imperceptibility (\({\text{PSNR}} > 50\)) and embedding efficiency. Particularly, EP-LSQb method enhances the theoretical limit of embedding efficiency when compared to its corresponding classical counterparts. Additionally, due to the inclusion of entangled qubit particles, our methods offer competitive content security and noise robustness, distinguishing them from classical LSB or general LSQb methods and highlighting the unique advantages of quantum approaches.

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Funding

The funding was provided by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 62171470) and Zhongyuan Science and Technology Innovation Leading Talent Project of Henan Province (Grant No. 234200510019).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Information Systems Engineering, Information Engineering University, Zhengzhou, China

    Chaolong Hao, Xukui Yang, Quangong Ma, Dan Qu & Ran Wang

  2. Laboratory for Advanced Computing and Intelligence Engineering, Wuxi, China

    Xukui Yang & Dan Qu

  3. School of Computer Science and Engineering, Changshu Institute of Technology, Changshu, China

    Tao Zhang

Authors
  1. Chaolong Hao
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  2. Xukui Yang
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  3. Quangong Ma
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  4. Dan Qu
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  5. Ran Wang
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  6. Tao Zhang
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Contributions

CH took charge of designing the quantum steganography methods and drafting the initial version of the manuscript. DQ conducted performance analysis and simulation design specifically for audio steganography. XY performed theoretical analysis on the quantum steganography performance, reviewed the initial draft, and made revisions accordingly. QM concentrated on visualizing the effects of steganography. RW and TZ were responsible for comparing quantum methods with classical methods. All authors participated in reviewing the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dan Qu.

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Hao, C., Yang, X., Ma, Q. et al. Quantum audio LSB steganography with entanglement-assisted modulation. Quantum Inf Process 23, 106 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-024-04312-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-024-04312-1

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