A novel chaos-based fragile watermarking for image tampering detection and self-recovery

In this paper, a novel watermarking approach is proposed to provide enhanced tampering localization and self-recovery. A cross chaotic map is used to confuse the blocks generated by the original image. A sister block embedding scheme is proposed to improve the recovery effect after tampering. Flags and a combination of the most significant bit (MSB) and the least significant bit (LSB) mechanism are applied to improve the tampering detection rate and the defense of attacks. And an optimization scheme is given to make the recovered image have advanced visual effects. Experiment results show that the proposed schemes are more secure and have better effect on tampering detection and recovery even though the tampered area is relatively large.

► A novel watermarking approach for providing tampering localization and self-recovery is proposed.
► A new cross chaotic mapping function is proposed to improve the recovery effect after tampering.
► The combination of MSB and LSB improved the tampering detection rate and defense of attacks.
► The results show the approach is security and has better effect on tampering detection and recover.