Semi-fragile watermarking for image authentication with sensitive tamper localization in the wavelet domain

This paper proposes a novel image authentication scheme in the wavelet domain. The scheme uses a semi-fragile watermark to detect and precisely locate malicious tampering in images. The wavelet coefficients selected for embedding are randomly permuted with a secret key, achieving high security. A bit of the watermark is embedded in a group of coefficients by means of quantization. The experimental results show, that our algorithm achieves high image quality and high tampering detection resolution at a low watermark payload, compared to block-based authentication schemes. Thanks to the random permutation, the watermark is protected against local attacks. We have also conducted experiments to demonstrate the robustness of the watermark against mild to moderate JPEG compression.

► A novel image authentication scheme in the wavelet domain. ► The scheme detects and precisely locates malicious tampering. ► Algorithm achieves high tampering detection. ► The watermark is protected against local attacks.