Title: Security and privacy protocols for perceptual image hashing

Authors: Donghui Hu; Bin Su; Shuli Zheng; Zhong-Qiu Zhao; Xintao Wu; Xindong Wu

Addresses: School of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China ' School of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China ' School of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China ' School of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China ' Department of Computer Science and Computer Engineering, University of Arkansas, AR 72701, USA ' School of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China; Department of Computer Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA

Abstract: Perceptual hashing plays an increasingly important role in digital forensics, pirate detection and source tracking of the massive networking information. Security and privacy problems exist in existing digital image hashing efforts and have negatively influenced their applications. In this paper we propose and design security and privacy protocols for perceptual image hashing. Specifically we propose the concepts "commutative perceptual hashing and encryption" and "distance preserving feature encryption" to ensure that perceptual hashes in the encryption domain of digital images can be calculated and compared. We further propose three sets of protocols to provide security assurance and privacy protection for the whole process. Each set of protocols are applied on registration, authentication and identification stages of the digital image hashing application models. We improve existing perceptual hashing methods by implementing the security-enhanced protocols. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the improved perceptual hashing methods.

Keywords: security protocols; perceptual image hashing; privacy preservation; privacy protection; registration; identification; authentication; commutative perceptual hashing; distance preserving feature encryption; cryptography; perceptual hashes; digital images.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSNET.2015.068178

International Journal of Sensor Networks, 2015 Vol.17 No.3, pp.146 - 162

Received: 30 Jun 2014
Accepted: 30 Jun 2014
Published online: 22 Mar 2015 *

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