This research introduces a novel cryptographic system that enhances the security of steganographic images by integrating Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) with traditional encryption. Using the E91 QKD protocol, it generates a shared secret key between parties, leveraging quantum entanglement to provide superior protection against eavesdropping. The quantum key is then hashed with the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) to produce a fixed-length, high-entropy key for symmetric encryption . The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is employed to encrypt steganographic images, which conceal critical data within digital images, adding an extra layer of security through obscurity. Experiments with images of varying resolutions (64 × 64 to 512 × 512 pixels) show consistent encryption performance. The encrypted images exhibit high randomness, with an average entropy of 7.9929. Differential attack resilience is demonstrated by a Number of Pixels Change Rate (NPCR) averaging 99.6928% and a Unified Average Changing Intensity (UACI) of 56.1549%. The average E91 protocol key generation time is 5.78 s with a key rate of 7.43 bps. Encryption and decryption times for test images are 0.00149 and 0.00175 s, respectively. This research combines quantum and classical cryptography with steganography, providing a robust security framework highly resistant to both quantum and classical threats.
This research introduces a novel cryptographic system that enhances the security of steganographic images by integrating Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) with traditional encryption. Using the E91 QKD protocol, it generates a shared secret key between parties, leveraging quantum entanglement to provide superior protection against eavesdropping. The quantum key is then hashed with the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) to produce a fixed-length, high-entropy key for symmetric encryption . The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is employed to encrypt steganographic images, which conceal critical data within digital images, adding an extra layer of security through obscurity. Experiments with images of varying resolutions (64 × 64 to 512 × 512 pixels) show consistent encryption performance. The encrypted images exhibit high randomness, with an average entropy of 7.9929. Differential attack resilience is demonstrated by a Number of Pixels Change Rate (NPCR) averaging 99.6928% and a Unified Average Changing Intensity (UACI) of 56.1549%. The average E91 protocol key generation time is 5.78 s with a key rate of 7.43 bps. Encryption and decryption times for test images are 0.00149 and 0.00175 s, respectively. This research combines quantum and classical cryptography with steganography, providing a robust security framework highly resistant to both quantum and classical threats.
In response to rising cyber threats and the limitations of traditional security, this project proposes a hybrid framework combining quantum cryptography and text-based steganography for secure and concealed communication. Using the BB84 Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) protocol, a secure quantum key is established and extended with SHA-256 to encrypt a secret message via XOR operations. The encrypted data is embedded into a cover text using three steganographic techniques: case-based, zero-width, and color-based methods, the latter including double-color and double-color overlay variants. The techniques are evaluated on embedding efficiency, payload capacity, entropy, and deviation percentage. Among them, double-layer color-based steganography demonstrates superior performance, achieving up to 6 bits/symbol and 95% efficiency, with minimal error and high integrity. The system is implemented using Qiskit and HTML rendering, validating its practical feasibility. This dual-layer security model ensures confidentiality and invisibility, offering a robust, quantum-enhanced approach to secure communication in sensitive applications.
This research combines the BB84 quantum key exchange protocol with Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption to investigate a new method of secure image steganography. Strong data protection is guaranteed by AES encryption, and safe key distribution is provided by BB84, which uses quantum key distribution (QKD) to reduce the iterations for monitoring. By combining the two, the steganographic approach becomes much more resilient to cryptographic assaults while maintaining secrecy and integrity. This method provides a major improvement in secure communication and is perfect for sending sensitive data when privacy is of the utmost importance.
The emergence of quantum computing poses a significant security threat to the current classical cryptography system since it has the potential to outperform the current classical computer in some specific tasks due to its unique principle of operation. This necessitates finding a method that is resistant to quantum computers to securely transfer information. This research addresses these challenges by proposing a novel method combining quantum key distribution (QKD), specifically the E91 protocol, with the classical encryption-authentication protocol ChaCha20-Poly1305, and concealing information within another message through steganography to securely transfer audio messages. A shared secret key is created between the communicating parties using E91 QKD, which exploits the stellar protection of quantum entanglement against eavesdropping. The shared key is hashed through the SHA–3 hash function to generate a fixed-length, high-entropy symmetric key. The audio message is hidden inside another audio signal through steganography. The steganographic signal is encrypted using ChaCha20-Poly1305 AEAD in order to provide another layer of obfuscation as well as a means to verify integrity. Through rigorous experiments, we validated the robustness of the proposed methodology in both classical and quantum attacks. The processing of secret audio signals of varying duration (00:01:32 to 00:01:36) exhibits consistent encryption results. The encrypted stego audios show high randomness, with an average entropy of 15.9984, an average correlation of 1 . 4627 × 1 0 − 5 , an average UACI of 49.9977%, and an average NSCR of 99.9985%. We demonstrated the safety of the shared key using the CHSH inequality test, where in the presence of an eavesdropper, the CHSH value is much less than 2 2 . In addition, the integrity of the secret audio is also validated through the verification of the authenticator tag generated during the encryption process. Our research offers a novel framework for secure audio transmission, combining classical encryption and authentication methods with QKD to enhance confidentiality, integrity, and resilience against eavesdropping and tampering, ensuring robust end-to-end security.
Quantum security improves cryptographic protocols by applying quantum mechanics principles, assuring resistance to both quantum and conventional computer attacks. This work addresses these issues by integrating Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) utilizing the E91 method with Multi-Layer Chaotic Encryption, which employs a variety of patterns to detect eavesdropping, resulting in a highly secure image-transmission architecture. The method leverages entropy calculations to determine the unpredictability and integrity of encrypted and decrypted pictures, guaranteeing strong security. Extensive statistical scenarios illustrate the framework's effectiveness in image encryption while preserving high entropy and sensitivity to the original visuals. The findings indicate significant improvement in encryption and decryption performance, demonstrating the framework's potential as a robust response to weaknesses introduced by advances in quantum computing. Several metrics, such as Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR), Structural Similarity Index (SSIM), Normalized Cross-Correlation (NCC), Bit Error Rate (BER), entropy values for original, encrypted, and decrypted images, and the correlation between original and decrypted images, validate the framework's effectiveness. The combination of QKD with Multi-Layer Chaotic Encryption provides a scalable and resilient technique to secure image communication. As quantum computing advances, this framework offers a future-proof approach for defining secure communication protocols in crucial sectors such as medical treatment, forensic computing, and national security, where information confidentiality is valuable.
In recent times, secure data transmission become crucial requirement because of increasing growth of threats and emergence of quantum computing technologies. However, existing Quantum Key Distribution-Advanced Encryption Standard-Least Significant Bit (QKD-AES-LSB) struggled with two main limitations such as restricted resistance to future quantum attacks because of dependence on classical encryption and vulnerability of static LSB steganography for improved Machine Learning (ML) approaches. To address these challenges, Quantum Key Distribution-Post-Quantum Cryptography-Adaptive Steganographic Encryption framework (QKD-PQC-ASE) is proposed. Primarily, secret data and cover images are gathered then quantum key is generated using E91 protocol. Next, post-quantum cryptographic key encapsulation is applied to strengthened the generated kay and ensure long-term quantum resistance. Further, secret data is encrypted employing quantum-resilient encryption mechanism and combined using cryptographic hashing. Furthermore, encrypted data is embedded in to cover image through quantum-randomness-guided adaptive steganography for resisting improved steganalysis attacks. Finally, proposed QKD-PQC-ASE framework obtains improved resistance against future quantum attacks and enhanced steganalysis by maintaining low computational overhead. Therefore, proposed QKD-PQC-ASE framework achieved greater results in terms of NPCR of 99.84 % and a UACI of57.92%which demonstrates efficiency of framework for secure and future-ready data encryption in quantum-aware communication environments.
Quantum computing threatens classical cryptography and the convergence of quantum key distribution (QKD), and steganography offers an unconditionally secure hybrid approach for postquantum communication. QKD ensures provable secrecy via quantum mechanics, while steganography conceals the existence of communication providing stealth and plausible deniability. This systematic review explores integrated frameworks that combine QKD with classical and quantum steganographic techniques to enhance confidentiality, integrity, and undetectability. The study categorizes existing hybrid models and evaluates their performance using metrics such as quantum bit error rate (QBER), entropy, and imperceptibility. It examines quantum steganographic protocols including quantum LSB, entangled‐state hiding, and covert key transmission, analyzing their resilience against quantum noise and steganalysis. Despite promising simulation tools and real‐time QKD implementations, challenges remain in scalability, interoperability, and formal security guarantees. This review identifies key limitations in current systems and highlights future directions for developing robust, scalable, and stealth‐aware quantum–classical security frameworks. To the best of current knowledge, this is the first systematic synthesis of hybrid QKD–steganography frameworks offering a novel taxonomy and critical analysis to advance secure communication infrastructures in the postquantum era.