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Seminar report 2013 Secure electronic voting system based on image steganography

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1. BASIC CONCEPTS

Election enables every citizen of the country to participate in the process of

government formation. It has always been an arduous task for the election

commission to conduct free and fair polls in our country, the largest democracy in the

world. Crores of rupees have been spent on this to make sure that the elections are riot

free. The most important aspect of the democracy is the ability of the people to choose

their ruler by vote. Integrity of election process will determine the integrity of

democracy itself. So the election system must be secure against a variety of fraudulent

behaviors and should be transparent and comprehensible that voters can accept the

results of an election. But, nowadays it has become common for some forces to

indulge in rigging which may eventually lead to a result contrary to the actual verdict

given by the people. Furthermore, the traditional way of voting will take a long

process and time. So, the novel online voting will become the best solution for the

matters; besides provide easier way of voting.

1.2. ADVANTAGES OF ELECTRONIC VOTING

Compared to existing traditional paper-based voting system the electronic voting has

several advantages like:

(1) Increased participation in democratic governance as more citizens have access to

express their opinion.

(2)Reduced costs as the materials required for printing and

distributing ballots as well as the manpower required to govern poll

sites are considerably reduced.

(3)Flexible as it can be tailored to support multiple languages and

permit up-to-date minute ballot modifications.

(4)Greater speed and accuracy in placing and tallying votes as e-

voting step by step processes help minimize the number of miscast

and rejected votes.

(5)Lower election fraud in endangered countries with young

democracies.

Dept. of ECE,KMCT CE 1


(6)Deliver voting results reliably and more quickly.

1.3. REQUIREMENTS OF ELECTRONIC VOTING

The design of secure voting system must satisfy a number of

competing criteria. These requirements give an avenue for a free,

fair, credible and confidential election. Such systems have to be designed

to satisfy the following requirements.

• Completeness – All valid votes are counted correctly.

• Soundness – The dishonest voter cannot disrupt the voting.

• Privacy – All votes must be secret.

• Unreusability – No voter can vote twice.

• Eligibility – No one who is not allowed to vote can vote.

• Fairness – Nothing must affect the voting. No one can indicate the tally before the

votes are counted

• Verifiability – No one can falsify the result of the voting.

• Robustness – The result reflects all submitted and well-formed ballots correctly,

even if some voters and (or) possibly some of the entities running the election cheat.

• Uncoercibility – No voter should be able to convince any other participant of the

value of its vote.

• Receipt-freeness – Voters must neither obtain nor be able to construct a receipt

proving the content of their vote.

• Mobility – The voter can vote anytime and anywhere through internet.

• Convenience – System must allow voters to cast their votes quickly, in one session

and with minimal equipment or special skills.

In the recent years, researchers are more focusing on developing a new

technology which can support uncoercibility, receipt-freeness and also universal-

verifiability. Many end-to-end verifiable systems (E2E) are proposed and being

widely used. In principle, E2E voting system offer assurance to the voters as they cast

their vote by distributing a receipt of their vote which can be used for verification

purpose from the overall tabulation of the collected votes. Yet on the other hand, this

receipt cannot be used as a proof in vote buying or vote coercion although all of the



receipts will be posted publicly in a secured append-only Bulletin Board once the

voter finished the voting process. Therefore, the E2E system would still protect the

voter’s privacy.

My aim is to present a new online voting system employing biometrics in

order to avoid rigging and to enhance the accuracy and speed of the process so that

one can cast his vote irrespective of his location on the basis of the principle

steganography .

1.4. MERITS OF STEGANOGRAPHY BASED ELECTRONIC VOTING

(1) Transparency

All of the data on the bulletin board should be accessible to the public. This includes

the encrypted votes, public encryption keys, and final tallies. The bulletin board does

not store secrets.

(2) Universal Verifiability

Any election result obtained by the system should be verifiable by any third party. By

inspecting the election transcript, it should be possible to perform a complete audit of

any procedure.

(3) Privacy

All voters in an election should be confident that their individual choices will remain

hidden. Only the total is made available to the public.

(4) Distributed Trust:

Each procedure is supervised by multiple authorities, and the final sum cannot be

revealed without the cooperation of a given number of authorities. Any attempt to

undermine the procedure will require the corruption of a large number of authorities.

Authorities and voters may overlap arbitrarily. Thus, it is possible for the voters

themselves to ensure trustworthiness (or have an active role in it).

(5) Greater performance.

(6) The model is proposed for secure remote electronic voting system with the view of

increasing participation, confidence and trustworthiness in electronic democracy,

protects voter’s against intimidation, provide sufficient evidence to convince the

electorate to vote, convince the losing candidate that he actually lost as a result of

conducted, free, fair, credible and genuine elections.



1.5. DEMERITS OF STEGANOGRAPHY BASED ELECTRONIC VOTING

As online voting is risky, it is difficult to come up with a system which is

perfect in all senses. Once we are sure that a voter is genuine, we can easily address

other issues like anonymity and tamper resistance.



CHAPTER 2

STEGANOGRAPHY

2.1 DEFINITION

Steganography is the arts and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that

no one, apart from the sender and intended recipient , suspects the existence of the

message, a form of security through obscurity.

The word steganography comes from the Greek Steganos, which mean

covered or secret and –graphy mean writing or drawing. Therefore, steganography

means, literally, covered writing. Steganography is the art and science of hiding

information such that its presence cannot be detected and a communication is

happening. A secret information is encoding in a manner such that the very existence

of the information is concealed. Paired with existing communication methods,

steganography can be used to carry out hidden exchanges. The main goal of

steganography is to communicate securely in a completely undetectable manner and

to avoid drawing suspicion to the transmission of a hidden data. It is not to keep

others from knowing the hidden information, but it is to keep others from thinking

that the information even exists. If a steganography method causes someone to

suspect the carrier medium, then the method has failed. Until recently, information

hiding techniques received very much less attention from the research community and

from industry than cryptography. This situation is, however, changing rapidly and the

first academic conference on this topic was There has been a rapid growth of interest

in steganography for two main reasons:

(i) The publishing and broadcasting industries have become interested in techniques

for hiding encrypted copyright marks and serial numbers in digital films,

audio recordings, books and multimedia products.

(ii) Moves by various governments to restrict the availability of encryption services

have motivated people to study methods by which private messages can be

embedded in seemingly innocuous cover messages



The basic model of steganography consists of Carrier, Message and Password.

Carrier is also known as cover-object, which the message is embedded and serves to

hide the presence of the message.

Basically, the model for steganography is shown on Figure2.1 . Message is the

data that the sender wishes to remain it confidential. It can be plain text, ciphertext,

other image, or anything that can be embedded in a bit stream such as a copyright

mark, a covert communication, or a serial number. Password is known as stego-key,

which ensures that only recipient who know the corresponding decoding key will be

able to extract the message from a cover-object. The cover-objectwith the secretly

embedded message is then called the stego-object.

Figure 2.1 Basic Steganography Model

There are several suitable carriers below to be the cover-object:

(i) Network Protocols such as TCP, IP and UDP

(ii) Audio that using digital audio formats such as wav, midi, avi, mpeg, mpi and

voc

(iii) File and Disk that can hides and append files by using the slack space

(iv) Text such as null characters, just alike morse code including html and java

(v) Images file such as bmp, gif and jpg, where they can be both color and gray-

scale.


COVER OBJECT (C)

MESSAGE (M)

STEGO-KEY (K)

F

(C,M,K)STEGO OBJECT

(Z)


In general, the information hiding process extracts redundant bits from cover-

object. The process consists of two steps .

(i) Identification of redundant bits in a cover-object. Redundant bits are those bits

that can be modified without corrupting the quality or destroying the integrity

of the cover-object.

(ii) The embedding process then selects the subset of the redundant bits to be

replaced with data from a secret message. The stego-object is created by

replacing the selected redundant bits with message bits

2.2.DIFFERENT KINDS OF STEGANOGRAPHY

Almost all digital file formats can be used for steganography, but the formats that are

more suitable are those with a high degree of redundancy. Redundancy can be defined

as the bits of an object that provide accuracy far greater than necessary for the

object’s use and display. The redundant bits of an object are those bits that can be

altered without the alteration being detected easily. Image and audio files especially

comply with this requirement, while research has also uncovered other file formats

that can be used for information hiding. Figure 2.2.shows the four main categories of

file formats that can be used for steganography.

STEGANOGRAPHY

TEXT IMAGE AUDIO/VIDEO PROTOCOL

Figure 2.2: Categories of steganography

2.3. IMAGE STEGANOGRAPHY

Images are the most popular cover objects used for steganography. In the domain of

digital different image images many different image file formats exist, most of them

for specific applications. For these file formats, different steganographic algorithms

exist.



As the information technology evolves, more threats arise and a simple

encryption method is just not sufficient enough to protect the secrecy of data

anymore. An encrypted data could easily cause suspicion since it is clearly shown as

one. On the other hand, steganography offers a less suspicious way of hiding a secret.

Therefore, steganography is proposed to be used as a main tool in this paper to secure

the data communication in the election procedure, as its purpose is to maintain a

secret communication between two parties. This scheme could be applied to various

types of data such as text, images, audio, video and protocol file format. The methods

of steganography vary from invisible inks, microdots, character arrangement, digital

signatures, covert channels, to spread spectrum communications.

Fig 2.3. Original Image Fig 2.4.Stego object

Fig.2.3. and Fig. 2.4. shows the comparison of an original and stego-image

with very unnoticeable difference. Fig. 2 is the original image and Fig. 3 has been

encoded with random encrypted words. Image steganography can be separated into

two types based on its compression method, image (spatial) domain and transform

(frequency) domain. For image domain, a message would directly be embedded into a

source image and then it would be compressed with lossy compression. Therefore, all

the embedded information would not be altered in the compression phase. On the

other hand, in transform domain, message would be embedded into an image in

between the compression phases with both lossy and lossless compression. In general,

transform domain is more robust compare to image domain technique because it



eliminates the possibility of message being destroyed during the compression process

when the excess image data is removed (lossy compression).

2.4. STEGANOGRAPHY Vs. CRYPTOGRAPHY

Basically, the purpose of cryptography and steganography is to provide secret

communication. However, steganography is not the same as cryptography.

Cryptography hides the contents of a secret message from a malicious people,

whereas steganography even conceals the existence of the message. Steganography

must not be confused with cryptography, where we transform the message so as to

make it meaning obscure to a malicious people who intercept it. Therefore, the

definition of breaking the system is different. In cryptography, the system is broken

when the attacker can read the secret message. Breaking a steganographic system

need the attacker to detect that steganography has been used and he is able to read the

embedded message. In cryptography, the structure of a message is scrambled to make

it meaningless and unintelligible unless the decryption key is available. It makes no

attempt to disguise or hide the encoded message

It is possible to combine the techniques by encrypting message using

cryptography and then hiding the encrypted message using steganography. The

resulting stego-image can be transmitted without revealing that secret information is

being exchanged.



CHAPTER 3

PROPOSED METHODOLOGY

3.1. SYSTEM OVERVIEW

Using the proposed system, voting can be done through internet with the concept of

Steganography and biometrics. User PIN and the secret key are transmitted to the

server securely using Steganography. If a person views the digital object, he or she

will have no idea that there is any hidden information, and therefore the person will

not attempt to decrypt the information. The general model of Steganography says if

you want to send some secret message then choose a cover image, find its redundant

bits and replace these bits with data bits of the message. The message can be easily

extracted by doing some operations on the other end. Fingerprint images are chosen as

keys for encrypting the secret key. Fingerprint recognition is used for user

authentication because it is the most deployed biometric technique, both in civil and

criminal applications, because of its high maturity and cost-effective capture and

processing.

Some information about the voter should be collected to support such a

system. Firstly, each and every individual in the country should be provided with a

Personal Identification Number. This is needed for maintenance of voter accounts in

the database. Secondly, we need Thumb Impressions (fingerprint images) of all the

individuals. Thirdly, during the account creation every individual will be provided

with a system generated Secret key which he/she should not disclose to anybody. This

will be needed to cast the vote. The voter account creation process is shown in fig 3.1:

Fig 3.1.Secret key generation


PIN + SECRET KEY


Assuming all voter’s information in a country is securely collected, biometric

reader available for voting, the system is online during the election period only, the

methodology is as follows. To cast a vote, a voter logs into the system by entering the

personal identification number and secret key. Along with this voter has to give the

thumb impression on the fingerprint sensor.

The system will generate the cover image and embed the secret key into it

according to the predefined procedure to generate the stego image as shown in fig 3.2:

Fig 3.2.Stego image creation

Now this stego image will be sent securely to the server for voter

authentication. Fingerprint forgery may be restricted by using advanced fingerprint

readers which employ Ultrasonic and Capacitance.

At the server side, Optical Character Recognition technique will be used to

read the personal identification number represented on the image. After reading it, the

server will find out the details of that individual from the database. These details will

be his/her fingerprint image and secret key. Using these details, the image can be

decoded to find out the embedded message which should be the secret key of that

individual. Once authentication is complete, the voter will be allowed to vote. In this

next page, all the details regarding the voting boundaries of that individual will be

shown. Here voter can select the desired candidate and finalize the vote. After casting

the vote, the account will be closed and in the database the voted bit will be set to one

for that voter.

3.2. COVER IMAGE CREATION

Every voter should have a 16-digit personal identification number. This

number will be automatically written over a base image in predefined font style &


PIN & SECRET KEY

+


size. Let us use 256*256 pixels bitmap cover image. The base image should be clear

so that the text written over it is machine readable. This image will be finally

modified into a stego image and sent over insecure channel. The base image is a

default image for the system, same for all. Cover image is a simple inscription of

personal identification number over the base image. So, the cover image for each

voter is different which will reduce the chances of predicting the image by an attacker

during transmission.

3.3. SECRET KEY EXPANSION USING HASHING

The secret key plays very important role in the whole process. It should not be

compromised in any case. There is a limitation with the secret key here, as the system

is designed for general public which is quite negligent in these issues, we can’t keep

the key too long. It should be short enough to be remembered by everybody. For

explanation purpose we are assuming it to be a 4-digit number, similar to ATM PIN.

This 4-digit PIN can easily be represented using 2 bytes.

But 2 byte data looks very much vulnerable in terms of length. As we have to

finally embed it into the image, which is quite big. The cover image is a 24-bit image

where every pixel is represented using three bytes. So, we have 3 2^16 byte data in∗

total. Now hiding only 2 bytes in this much space will not fully exploit the resources

in terms of cryptography. This is because the algorithm we are using provides both

cryptography and steganography at the same time. Steganography says its good as the

statistical properties of the cover image will remain intact due to under performed

modification. The eavesdroppers will never be able to deduce that some data is hidden

in the image. But if somehow they know that it is a stego image, they can easily

extract the PIN From the cryptography point of view, the key image under utilized as

well. As the fingerprint image is of the same dimension, we will be exploiting very

less features of the key image. So, to increase the complexity of analysis, the 2 byte

secret key is expanded to 32 byte key by applying MD5 hashing algorithm. Now these

160 bits will become a part of the actual secret message. When the secret message is

embedded in the cover image, its statistical properties will not remain same. The stego

image will remain more complex to be analyzed because more features of the key

image are utilized in this case. So, even if eavesdroppers know that this is a stego

image, it would be more difficult for them to predict the embedded data.



3.4. GENERATION OF THE SECRET MESSAGE

In this phase of the methodology, we will get a 288 bit secret message from a 16 bit

secret key. Firstly, the secret key is concatenated with the time-stamp value. The

timestamp is a 32 bit value which represents the current date. Now we will apply SHA

256 algorithm to get a 256 bit hash code for that key. Now the same time-stamp is

concatenated with this hash code to get the secret message. So, our secret message

will be of 288 bit length. As the actual secret key is never embedded in the stego

image, there will be no chance of predicting secret key from it. The mechanism is

shown in fig 3.3:

Fig3.3 Generation of the secret message

The modern formulation of steganography to an application area is given in

terms of prisoners’ problem in which Alice (the sender) and Bob (the receiver), the

two inmates wishes to communicate to formulate an escape plan without the

knowledge of wendy, the prison warden. Supposing Alice sends secret message M to

Bob using steganographic process, he chooses a cover medium which can be image,

video and audio C. The steganographic algorithm employed as shown in figure

identifies C’s redundant bit and embed it to a chosen media, for instance image, to

create a Stego Image, S, by replacing these redundant bit with data from Message M.

The Stego image S is transmitted over insecure wireless link under the monitoring of

Wendy to the receiver Bob only if Wendy has no suspicion of it. The process of

embedding the privilege data for transmission in public channel represents a critical



task for steganographic system because the stego Image S must be as similar as

possible to the chosen cover media for the avoidance of the eavesdropper.

Figure 3.4: General Steganographic Model

In secure e-voting domain, the steganographic message consists of the secret

message, the electronic ballot, the cover data and the stego message. The secret

message is the part of the message intended to be hidden, the cover data refers to the

container for hiding the secret message and the stego message is the final product of

steganography. The general framework for steganography to electronic voting is

shown in fig 3.5.



Figure 3.5: General framework of Steganography to E-voting



CHAPTER 4

STEGANOGRAPHIC ALGORITHMS

4.1.DESCRIPTION OF EMBEDDING ALGORITHM

The embedding algorithm makes use of a stegocryptographic model. The model easily

unifies cryptographic and steganographic models. It basically results as a

steganographic one with the addition of a new element as the key image. It finally

delivers cryptographic functionality while preserving its steganographic nature. The

output of this embedding process is a stego image S and the inputs are expanded

secret key concatenated with time-stamp, i.e. secret message, a cover image and the

key image.

4.1.1.LEAST SIGNIFICANT BIT INSERTION ALGORITHM

Usually 24-bit or 8-bit files are used to store digital images. The former one provides

more space for information hiding; however, it can be quite large. The colored

representations of the pixels are derived from three primary colors: red, green and

blue. 24-bit images use 3 bytes for each pixel, where each primary color is

represented by 1 byte. Using 24-bit images each pixel can represent 16,777,216 color

values. We can use the lower two bits of these color channels to hide data, then the

maximum color change in a pixel could be of 64-color values, but this causes so little

change that is undetectable for the human vision system.

This algorithm is only for embedding a character (8-bit). For embedding the entire

message, the steps in the algorithm are repeated. The output obtained as a result of

encryption performed in Module 3 is embedded in an image which is of Portable

Network Graphics format i.e. image with ‘png’ extension. The process of embedding

consists of the following steps:

Step 1: The image is selected initially, in which data has to be embedded.

Step 2: The total number of pixels in the image is calculated by using the formula

‘width x height’.

Step 3: The color intensities of each and every pixel is retrieved and stored in an

array. Each pixel constitutes of 3 bytes, where each byte represents one of the three

primary colors i.e. RGB.



Step 4: AND operation is performed on each byte of the pixel along with the binary

equivalent of 252. The result obtained is the byte value with the last two bits as ‘00’.

Step 5: The cipher text is AND operated with the binary equivalent of ‘03’ to retrieve

the last two bits of the message.

Step 6: The OR operation is performed with the output of step 4 and step 5.

Step 7: The output of step 6 becomes the new intensity of the Red color. For Green

and Blue color step 4 is repeated and before doing step 5 right bit shifting is

performed to the cipher text in the incremental order of 2 till all the 8 bits are

embedded.

To retrieve the cipher text from the image, the reverse steps of the algorithm

mentioned above is to be performed.

4.1.2. STEGO IMAGE CREATION ALGORITHM

The output of this algorithm is a stego image S and the inputs are expanded secret key

concatenated with time-stamp, i.e. secret message, a cover image and the core image.

In this embedding process we are going to modify the 256*256 pixels cover image

given by the array Cover[] of 3*216 of size. In terms of cryptography, performing

permutations on input data increases the level of confusion. More is the level of

confusion, more it will become unpredictable. In this phase we distribute the bits of

secret message throughout the image in a random manner.

As we need to embed 288 bits of secret message SM[] into cover image, we need to

determine the bytes of cover image which we are going to modify. These are

determined by random function with secret key as seed. Here, we have a Random

Number RN[] array of size 288 with values ranging from 1 to 3*2^16. We have a core

image array Core[] of 3*216 bytes. So, in order to yield stego image Stego[] we are

going to use the following algorithm.

Stego Image Creation Algorithm:

Input: Cover [], Core [], RN [], SM []

Output: Stego []

Begin

forevery bit of Secret Message SM [i] do

ifSM [i] = 1 then

ifCover[RN[i]] and Core[RN[i]] both odd then



Stego[RN[i]] = Cover[RN[i]] – 1

else if Cover[RN[i]] and CI[RN[i]] both even then

Stego[RN[i]] = Cover[RN[i]] +1

end

else

Stego[RN[i]] = Cover[RN[i]]

end

else if SM[i] = 0 then

ifCover[RN[i]] and Core[RN[i]] both either even or odd

thenStego[RN[i]] = Cover[RN[i]]

else

Stego[RN[i]] = Cover[RN[i]] + 1

end

end

End

According to the algorithm, if secret message bit is one and both cover image

and key image byte values are odd we are making stego image byte value one less

than cover image byte value, else one more than that. If secret message bit is zero and

both cover image and key image byte values are even or odd we are keeping stego

image byte value same as cover image byte value, else one more than that. We should

notice that during extraction we have to apply the same random function with the

same seed.

4.1.3. DECRYPTION ALGORITHM FOR AUTHENTICATION

In the extraction process, firstly the personal identification number from the Stego

image is read using OCR. Now, from the matching entry in the voter database, we

read the core image and Secret key of that individual. The key to successful

comparison is the time-stamp value. The timestamp (e.g. Date) delivers the security

from replay attacks, so that the same stego image cannot be used again in future.

Using the secret key as seed we are generating the array RN[] of size 288. From the

stego image we are forming the array Stego[]. Also, we have array Core[] given by

key image. Using these we can extract the SM[] by applying the algorithm given

below.



Input: Stego [], Cover [], RN[], Secret Key

Output: Authentic Voter/ Not an Authentic Voter

Begin 𝑆𝑒𝑐[], 𝐷𝑎𝑡𝑒[], 𝑆𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑡𝐾𝑒𝑦𝐷𝑎𝑡𝑒, k = 0

fori=0 to 287 do

ifStego[RN[i]] and Core[RN[i]] both either even or odd then

SM[i]= 0

elseSM[i] = 1

end

end

fori = 256 to 287 do

Date [k++] =SM[i]

end𝑆𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑡𝐾𝑒𝑦𝐷𝑎𝑡𝑒 = 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑒(𝑆𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑡𝐾𝑒𝑦,𝐷𝑎𝑡𝑒)

if𝐶𝑜𝑚(𝑆M[], 𝑆𝐻𝐴256(𝑆𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑡𝐾𝑒𝑦𝐷𝑎𝑡𝑒))

thenReturn: Authentic Voter

else

Return: Not an Authentic Voter

end

End

In the above algorithm, we are checking bytes of stego image and key image,

if both are odd or even we are taking the secret message as one otherwise zero. Using

the Date value contained in the secret message and Secret Key we can verify the

authenticity.



CHAPTER 5

ASSOCIATED SYSTEMS

5.1. AUTHENTICATION CENTRE (AC)

Authentication Centre is an entity within the GSM network. AC generates the

authentication parameters and authenticates the mobile equipment. The

Steganography part is needed as we want to involve biometric identity to provide

added security. To cast a vote, a voter logs in to the system by entering the personal

identification number and secret key. Along with this voter has to give the thumb

impression on the fingerprint/iris sensor. The system will generate the cover image

and embed the secret key into it according to the predefined procedure to generate the

stego image. Now this stego image will be sent securely to the server for voter

authentication.

5.2.VERIFICATION SERVER (VS)

Verification server belongs to the voting authority, who organizes the voting

event. It verifies the legitimacy of the voter and issues a voting token to the voter. At

the server side, it will use the Optical Character Recognition technique to read the

personal identification number represented on the image. After reading it, the server

will find out the details of that individual from the database. These details will be

his/her fingerprint /iris image and secret key. Using these details, the image can be

decoded to find out the embedded message which should be the secret key of that

individual. Once authentication is complete, the voter will be allowed to vote.

5.3. COLLECTING AND COUNTING SERVER (CS)

Collecting and counting server is the server that collects and counts the votes

to give the final result. CS's action need to be audited by all candidate parties.



CHAPTER 6

VOTING PROCEDURE

6.1 REGISTRATION STAGE

This stage is also known as the preparation stage. In this phase all of the necessary

constraints for the election are prepared. Voter’s registration would be carried out to

respect the voters’ right by ensuring only eligible voters can vote. They would be

identified by using their respective organization’s email address. As another layer of

security during login process, each of them would be prompted to insert few random

characters of a secret word that would then be used as authorization key in the next

stage.

6.2 AUTHENTICATION STAGE

In a remote electronic voting system, registered voters can authorize themselves by

logging into the system. They would be prompted to enter their self-defined username

and encrypted password for security purposes. Upon login, the user is required to

enter few random characters on their predefined authorization key as another layer of

authentication. It is proposed as in a remote electronic voting system, stronger

protection is required to convince the voters that a proper level of trust has been

established between the voter and the system. Once the user has been identified as an

eligible voter and successfully logged in to the system, they will see a welcome screen

which states their account status and a menu panel where they can navigate to cast

their vote.

6.3 VOTING STAGE

In a paper-based voting, this stage would be carried out by inserting the ballot

into a securely sealed box. Similarly in the electronic voting system, this stage is

carried out by sending the voter’s casted vote in an electronic ballot to the server

where all the ballots would be collected and stored. Once the voter submits their vote,

it would then be encoded in the ballot by implementing steganography. This ballot

will later on be sent over to the tally server as a stego-image. Basically, each voter

would be given one layer of the image as their receipt, while the other separated layer

of the vote would be kept – or saved by the administrator for the purpose of vote’s



tally. Therefore, the voters would still be able to verify their votes to themselves and

have a better confidence in the system.

6.4 TALLYING STAGE

In this stage, all of the collected ballots would be initially ‘decrypted’ by using the

other half of the vote share. In order to perform this decryption process, the private

key which has been divided and distributed to a few appointed personnel must be

merged together. This method is called the threshold decryption cryptosystem.

Threshold scheme would be implemented in the ballot decryption process to ensure

that only the authorized personnel can count the vote. However, all of the votes are

stored as cipher texts in the database. The votes would then be published for

verification purpose.

6.5 PUBLISHING AND VOTE VERIFICATION STAGE

In a paper-based voting, once the tally process is done, the authorized personnel will

announce the result of the election. However, the voter would not be able to verify

their own vote because the authorized personnel will only announce and publish the

total result of each candidate. On the other hand, in remote electronic voting system

the voters can verify their own votes because each voter receives a share of receipt

that would be published in the secured append-only bulletin board. Other than that,

the system would also be provided with a vote verification data to check their casted

vote. The feature is implemented by combining visual cryptography and secret ballot

receipts together. In this way, most of electronic voting system’s requirements, such

as uncoercibility, receipt-freeness, universal-verifiability, etc. would be delivered as

neither the user nor the election officials (administrator) has access to identify the

collected ballots.




UPDATE

CASTE VOTE

SECRET KEY VERIFICATION

PIN EXTRACTION

COVER IMAGE

CREATION

DATA BASE

DECRYPTION

SERVER

VOTER

FINGER PRINT

STEGO IMAGE

SECRET KEY ENCRYPTION

PIN

Fig 6.1: Online Voting System Flowchart


CHAPTER 7

CONCLUSION

In this paper we have enforced a method for integrating Cryptography and

Steganography to present a highly secure Electronic Online Voting System for future

electronic democracy. The security level of our system is greatly improved by the new

idea of random cover image generation for each voter. The user authentication

process of the system is improved by adding both biometric and password security.

The Steganography portion of the system is secured by random distribution of

message bits into the cover image. This system will preclude the illegal practices like

rigging. Thus, the citizens can be sure that they alone can choose their leaders, thus

exercising their right in the democracy.



REFERENCE

(1)Lauretha Rura, Biju Issac and Manas Kumar Haldar , “Secure Electronic Voting

System Based On Image Steganography” Published in “Open Systems (ICOS),2011

IEEE Conference on 25-28 Sept.2011”, Malaysia.

(2)B. Swaminathan, J. Cross Datson Dinesh ,“Highly Secure Online Voting System

with Multi Security using Biometric and Steganography”

International Journal of Advanced Scientific Research and Technology issue 2,

volume 2 (april 2012) issn: 2249-9954

(3) Olaniyi, O.M, Arulogun O. T. and Omidiora E.O,

”Towards an Improved Stegano-Cryptographic Modelfor Secured Electronic Voting”

African Journal of Computing & ICT, Vol 5.No. 6. Dec 2012

(4) Shobhalokhande, Dipalisawant, NazneenSayyad, MamataYengul, “E-Voting

through Biometrics and Cryptography- Steganography Technique with conjunction of

GSM Modem“ Emerging Trends in Computer Science and Information Technology -

2012(ETCSIT2012) Proceedings published in International Journal of Computer

Applications® (IJCA)

(5) Dr.K.Kuppusamy, K.Kavitha,”Secure Electronic Registration & Voting

SystemBasedon Biometrics”,National Conference on Future Computing,Volume 1,

March 2012.


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