Skip to main content
Log in

Copy–move forgery detection in digital image forensics: A survey

  • Published:
Multimedia Tools and Applications Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The detection of copy-move forgeries has been of utmost relevance in the field of digital image forensics because of the explosive growth of image altering tools. The paper provides a thorough overview of current developments in copy-move forgery detection methods. Block-based, keypoints-based, and deep learning-based methods represent the three distinct categories into which the methodologies in the survey are divided. The papers in each category are thoroughly analysed, taking into consideration important factors including pre-processing techniques, feature extraction strategies, feature matching methods, and performance evaluation using various metrics and datasets. This survey study provides a thorough overview of the state of the field by methodically synthesizing and assessing the surveyed papers, and it also offers helpful insights for researchers and practitioners working to improve the accuracy and robustness of copy–move forgery detection methods in digital image forensics.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.

References

  1. Asghar K, Habib Z, Hussain M (2017) Copy-move and splicing image forgery detection and localization techniques: a review. Aust J Forensic Sci, Taylor Francis 49(3):281–307

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Al-Qershi OM, Khoo BE (2013) Passive detection of copy-move forgery in digital images: State-of-the-art. Forensic Sci Int 231(1):284–295

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Meena KB, Tyagi V (2019) Image forgery detection: survey and future directions. Data, Eng Appl 2:163–194.

  4. AbdWarif NB, Wahab AW, Idris MY, Ramli R, Salleh R, Shamshirband S, Choo KK (2016) Copy-move forgery detection: survey, challenges and future directions. J Net Comput Appl 1(75):259–78

    Google Scholar 

  5. Teerakanok S, Uehara T (2019) Copy-move forgery detection: A state-of-the-art technical review and analysis. IEEE Access 7:40550–40568

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Zhang Z, Wang C, Zhou X (2018) A survey on passive image copy-move forgery detection. J Inform Process Syst 14(1):6–31

    Google Scholar 

  7. Chen H, Yang X, Lyu Y (2020) Copy-move forgery detection based on keypoint clustering and similar neighborhood search algorithm. IEEE Access 8:36863–36875

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Alahmadi A, Hussain M, Aboalsamh H, Muhammad G, Bebis G, Mathkour H (2017) Passive detection of image forgery using DCT and local binary pattern. Signal, Image Vi Process 11(1):81–88

    Google Scholar 

  9. Hayat K, Qazi T (2017) Forgery detection in digital images via discrete wavelet and discrete cosine transforms. Comput Elect Eng 62:448–458

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Alkawaz MH, Sulong G, Saba T, Rehman A (2018) Detection of copy-move image forgery based on discrete cosine transform. Neural Comput Appl 30(1):183–192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Kunbaz A, Saghir S, Arar M, Sönmez EB (2019) Fake image detection using DCT and local binary pattern. In: 2019 Ninth International Conference on Image Processing Theory, Tools and Applications (IPTA), IEEE 1–6.

  12. Parveen A, Khan ZH, Ahmad SN (2019) Block-based copy–move image forgery detection using DCT. Iran J Comput Sci 2(2):89–99

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Mahmood T, Mehmood Z, Shah M, Saba T (2018) A robust technique for copy-move forgery detection and localization in digital images via stationary wavelet and discrete cosine transform. J Visual Commun Image Represent 53:202–214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Dua S, Singh J, Parthasarathy H (2020) Parthasarathy, Image forgery detection based on statistical features of block DCT coefficients. Proc Comput Sci 171:369–378

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Gani G, Qadir F (2020) A robust copy-move forgery detection technique based on discrete cosine transform and cellular automata. J Inform Sec Appl 54:102510

    Google Scholar 

  16. Roy A, Dixit R, Naskar R, Chakraborty RS (2020) Copy-move forgery detection in digital images—survey and accuracy estimation metrics. Digital image forensics. Stud Comp Int Dev 755:27–56

    Google Scholar 

  17. Huang DY, Huang CN, Hu WC, Chou CH (2017) Robustness of copy-move forgery detection under high JPEG compression artifacts. Multimedia Tools Appl 76(1):1509–1530

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Mahmood T, Shah M, Rashid J, Saba T, Nisar MW, Asif M (2020) A passive technique for detecting copy-move forgeries by image feature matching. Multimedia Tools Appl 79(43):31759–31782

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Ahmed B, Gulliver TA (2020) Blind copy-move forgery detection using SVD and KS test. SN Appl Sci 2(1377):1–12

  20. Rathore NK, Jain NK, Shukla PK, Rawat U, Dubey R (2020) Image Forgery Detection Using Singular Value Decomposition with Some Attacks. Natl Acad Sci Lett 44(4):1–8

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  21. Priyanka, Singh G, Singh K (2020) An improved block based copy-move forgery detection technique. Multimedia Tools Appl 79(19):13011–13035

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Park C-S, Kim C, Lee J, Kwon GR (2016) Rotation and scale invariant upsampled log-polar fourier descriptor for copy-move forgery detection. Multimedia Tools Appl 75(23):16577–16595

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Pun C-M, Chung JL (2018) A two-stage localization for copy-move forgery detection. Inform Sci 463–464:33–55

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  24. Gan Y, Yang J (2019) An effective scheme for copy-move forgery detection using polar sine transform. 2019 2nd International Conference on Safety Produce Informatization (IICSPI). IEEE 337–341

  25. Warif NBA, Idris MYI, Wahab AWA, Salleh R, Ismail A (2019) CMF-iteMS: An automatic threshold selection for detection of copy-move forgery. Forensic Sci Int 295:83–99

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Aimen A, Kaur A, Sidheekh S (2020) Scale invariant fast PHT based copy-move forgery detection. 2020 11th International Conference on Computing, Communication and Networking Technologies (ICCCNT). IEEE 1–7

  27. Tan W, Wu Y, Wu P, Chen B (2019) A survey on digital image copy-move forgery localization using passive techniques. J New Media 1(1):11–25

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Vidyadharan DS, Thampi SM (2017) Digital image forgery detection using compact multi-texture representation. J Intell Fuzzy Syst 32(4):3177–3188

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Mahmood T, Irtaza A, Mehmood Z, Mahmood MT (2017) Copy–move forgery detection through stationary wavelets and local binary pattern variance for forensic analysis in digital images. Forensic Sci Int 279:8–21

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Muzaffer G, Ulutas G, Ustubioglu B (2020) Copy move forgery detection with quadtree decomposition segmentation. 2020 43rd Int Conf Telecommun Signal Proc (TSP), IEEE 208–211

  31. Kanwal N, Girdhar A, Kaur L, Bhullar JS (2019) Detection of digital image forgery using fast fourier transform and local features. 2019 International Conference on Automation, Computational and Technology Management (ICACTM), IEEE 262–267

  32. Velmurugan S, Subashini TS, Prashanth MS (2020) Dissecting the literature for studying various approaches to copy move forgery detection. IJAST, 29(04):6416–6438

  33. Wang XY, Liu YN, Xu H, Wang P, Yang HY (2018) Robust copy–move forgery detection using quaternion exponent moments. Pattern Anal Appl 21(2):451–467

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  34. Hosny KM, Hamza HM, Lashin NA (2018) Copy-move forgery detection of duplicated objects using accurate PCET moments and morphological operators. Imaging Sci J, Taylor Francis 66(6):330–345

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Hosny KM, Hamza HM, Lashin NA (2019) Copy-for-duplication forgery detection in colour images using QPCETMs and sub-image approach. IET Image Process 13(9):1437–1446

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Thajeel SA, Mahmood AS, Humood WR, Sulong G (2019) Detection copy-move forgery in image via quaternion polar harmonic transforms. SII Trans Int Inform Syst (TIIS), 13(8):4005–4025

  37. Meena KB, Tyagi V (2019) A copy-move image forgery detection technique based on Gaussian-Hermite moments. Multimedia Tools Appl 78(23):33505–33526

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Rajkumar R, Roy S, Manglem Singh K (2019) A robust and forensic transform for copy move digital image forgery detection based on dense depth block matching. Imaging Sci J 67(6):343–357

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Ouyang J, Liu Y, Liao M (2019) Robust copy-move forgery detection method using pyramid model and Zernike moments. Multimedia Tools Appl 78(8):10207–10225

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Niu P, Wang C, Chen W, Yang H, Wang X (2021) Fast and effective Keypoint-based image copy-move forgery detection using complex-valued moment invariants. J Visual Commun Image Represent 77:103068

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Tralic D, Zupancic I, Grgic S, Grgic M (2013) CoMoFoD—New database for copy-move forgery detection. Proceedings ELMAR-2013, IEEE, pp. 49–54

  42. Christlein V, Riess C, Jordan J, Riess C, Angelopoulou E (2012) An evaluation of popular copy-move forgery detection approaches. IEEE Trans inform Forensic Sec 7(6):1841–1854

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Kumar S, Nagori S (2017) Key-point based copy-move forgery detection in digital images. J Stat Manag Syst, Taylor Francis 20(4):611–621

    Google Scholar 

  44. Lowe DG (2004) Distinctive image features from scale-invariant keypoints. Int J Comput Vis 68(2):91–110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Alberry HA, Hegazy AA, Salama GI (2018) A fast SIFT based method for copy move forgery detection. Future Comput Inform J 3(2):159–165

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Devi MU, Babu UR (2019) Grey wolf assisted SIFT for improving copy move image forgery detection. Evol Intell 15(2):1097–1108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Zheng J, Liu Y, Ren J, Zhu T, Yan Y, Yang H (2016) Fusion of block and keypoints based approaches for effective copy-move image forgery detection. Multidim Syst Signal Proc 27(4):989–1005

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  48. Narayanan SS, Gopakumar G (2020) Recursive block based keypoint matching for copy move image forgery detection. 2020 11th International Conference on Computing, Communication and Networking Technologies (ICCCNT), IEEE 1–6

  49. Bay H, Tuytelaars T, Van Gool L (2006) Surf: Speeded up robust features. Eur Conf Comput Vis 3951:404–417

  50. Wang C, Zhang Z, Li Q, Zhou X (2019) An Image Copy-Move Forgery Detection Method Based on SURF and PCET. IEEE Access 7:170032–170047

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Dhivya S, Sangeetha J, Sudhakar B (2020) Copy-move forgery detection using SURF feature extraction and SVM supervised learning technique. Soft Comput 24(19):1–12

    Article  Google Scholar 

  52. Bilal M, Habib HA, Mehmood Z, Yousaf RM, Saba T, Rehman A (2020) A robust technique for copy-move forgery detection from small and extremely smooth tampered regions based on the DHE-SURF features and mDBSCAN clustering. Aust J Forensic Sci, Taylor Francis 53(4):1–24

    Google Scholar 

  53. Alazrak FM, Elsharkawy ZF, Elkorany AS, El Banby GM, Dessowky MI, Abd El-Samie FE (2020) Copy-Move Forgery Detection Based on Discrete and SURF Transforms. Wireless Personal Commun 110(1):503–530

    Article  Google Scholar 

  54. Wang X, He G, Tang C, Han Y, Wang S (2016) Keypoints-based image passive forensics method for copy-move attacks. Int J Patt Recognit Artif Intell 30:31655008

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  55. Huynh KT, Ly TN, Le-Tien T (2020) ORB for detecting copy-move regions with scale and rotation in image forensics. Int Conf Future Data Sec Eng 1306:358–372

  56. Niyishaka P, Bhagvati C (2020) Copy-move forgery detection using image blobs and BRISK feature. Multimedia Tools Appl 79(35):26045–26059

    Article  Google Scholar 

  57. Yang F, Li J, Lu W, Weng J (2017) Copy-move forgery detection based on hybrid features. Eng Appl Artif Intell 59:73–83

    Article  Google Scholar 

  58. Uma S, Sathya P (2020) Copy-move forgery detection of digital images using football game optimization. Aust J Forensic Sci 54(2):1–22

    Google Scholar 

  59. Sunitha K, Krishna AN (2020) Efficient keypoint based copy move forgery detection method using hybrid feature extraction, 2020 2nd International Conference on Innovative Mechanisms for Industry Applications (ICIMIA), IEEE 670–675

  60. Diwan A, Sharma R, Roy AK, Mitra SK (2021) Keypoint based comprehensive copy-move forgery detection. IET Image Proc 15(6):1298–1309

    Article  Google Scholar 

  61. Achanta R, Shaji A, Smith K, Lucchi A, Fua P, Süsstrunk S (2012) SLIC superpixels compared to state-of-the-art superpixel methods. IEEE transactions on pattern analysis and machine intelligence. IEEE 2274–2282

  62. Rao Y, Ni J, Zhao H (2020) Deep Learning Local Descriptor for Image Splicing Detection and Localization. IEEE Access 8:25611–25625

    Article  Google Scholar 

  63. Akram T, Laurent B, Naqvi SR, Alex MM, Muhammad N (2018) A deep heterogeneous feature fusion approach for automatic land-use classification. Inform Sci 467:199–218

    Article  Google Scholar 

  64. Agarwal R, Verma OP (2019) An efficient copy move forgery detection using deep learning feature extraction and matching algorithm. Multimedia Tools and Applications 79:1–22

  65. Muzaffer G, Ulutas G (2019) A new deep learning-based method to detection of copy-move forgery in digital images. Sci Meeting Elect-Electron Biomed Eng Comput Sci (EBBT), IEEE 1–4

  66. Ouyang J, Liu Y, Liao M (2017) Copy-move forgery detection based on deep learning. 2017 10th international congress on image and signal processing. Biomed Eng Inform (CISP-BMEI), 1–5

  67. Wu Y, Abd-Almageed W, Natarajan P (2018) Image copy-move forgery detection via an end-to-end deep neural network. 2018 IEEE Winter Conf Appl Comput Vis (WACV), IEEE 1907–1915

  68. Samir S, Emary E, El-Sayed K, Onsi H (2020) Optimization of a pre-trained AlexNet model for detecting and localizing image forgeries. Information 11(5):275

    Article  Google Scholar 

  69. Wu Y, Abd-Almageed W, Natarajan P (2018) Busternet: detecting copy-move image forgery with source/target localization. Proc Eur Conf Comput Vis (ECCV), 168–184

  70. Abdalla Y, Iqbal MT, Shehata M (2019) Copy-move forgery detection and localization using a generative adversarial network and convolutional neural-network. Information 10:286

    Article  Google Scholar 

  71. Islam A, Long C, Basharat A, Hoogs A (2020) DOA-GAN: dual-order attentive generative adversarial network for image copy-move forgery detection and localization, Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, IEEE, 4676–4685

  72. Goel N, Kaur S, Bala R (2021) Dual branch convolutional neural network for copy move forgery detection. IET Image Processing. Wiley Online Library 656–665

  73. Shi Z, Shen X, Kang H, Lv Y (2018) Image manipulation detection and localization based on the dual-domain convolutional neural networks. IEEE Access 6:76437–76453

    Article  Google Scholar 

  74. Zhang Y, Goh J, Win LL, Thing VL (2016) Image region forgery detection: a deep learning approach. SG-CRC 1–11

  75. Rao Y, Ni J (2016) A deep learning approach to detection of splicing and copy-move forgeries in images. 2016 IEEE Int Workshop Inform Forensics Sec (WIFS), IEEE 1–6

  76. Bondi L, Lameri S, Güera D, Bestagini P, Delp EJ, Tubaro S (2017) Tampering Detection and Localization Through Clustering of Camera-Based CNN Features. IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops (CVPRW) 2017:1855–1864

    Google Scholar 

  77. Elaskily MA, Elnemr HA, Sedik A, Dessouky MM, El Banby GM, Elshakankiry OA, Khalaf AA, Aslan HK, Faragallah OS, Abd El-Samie FE (2020) A novel deep learning framework for copy-moveforgery detection in images. Multimedia Tools Appl 79(27):19167–19192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  78. Gloe T, Böhme R (2010) The 'dresden image database' for benchmarking digital image forensics. Proc 2010 ACM Symposium Appl Comput 3(2–4):1584–1590

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mahmoud H. Farhan.

Ethics declarations

Conflicts of interests

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Farhan, M.H., Shaker, K. & Al-Janabi, S. Copy–move forgery detection in digital image forensics: A survey. Multimed Tools Appl (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-024-18399-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-024-18399-2

Keywords

Navigation