Efficient color image steganography based on new adapted chaotic dynamical system with discrete orthogonal moment transforms

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, safeguarding the secure transmission of sensitive information is paramount. Traditional steganography methods, while effective at data concealment, have grown vulnerable to brute force attacks in our age of powerful computing. This paper addresses the pressing need to bolster data transmission security. To address the challenges posed by limited key space and security concerns associated with 1-D chaotic maps in data transmission, we introduce a novel 1-D chaotic map, the Multi-Parameter Chebyshev Map (MCM). The MCM boasts four control parameters, each with a broad chaotic range and high chaos level, significantly enhancing security. Furthermore, we present an innovative steganography technique for color images that leverages the MCM in conjunction with discrete moment transforms. This method chaotically embeds the secret message within the moment coefficients of a cover color image using MCM and quantization rules. The expansive chaotic range and high chaos level of the MCM substantially reinforce the security of this approach. The considered moment transforms include Tchebichef, Krawtchouk, Hahn, Charlier, Meixner, Shmaliy, Racah, and Dual-Hahn. The performance of the proposed steganography method is thoroughly evaluated and compared with other state-of-the-art methods in terms of hiding capacity and image quality in both spatial and transform domains. The quantization of moment coefficients demonstrates its superior performance. This method holds crucial implications for practical applications requiring secure communication of color images, such as military and medical contexts. The combination of MCM and moment transforms in this method presents a promising avenue for future research in the field of information hiding.