Hiding Encrypted Images in Audios Based on Cellular Automatas and Discrete Fourier Transform

With the increasing need for secure long-distance communication, protecting sensitive information such as images during transmission remains a significant challenge. This paper proposes a new method for hiding encrypted images inside audio files by integrating Cellular Automata (CA) and the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT). The primary aim is to enable secure transmission of large encrypted images without altering the audio's perceptual quality. The scheme leverages the cryptographic properties of CA to generate encrypted images, which are then embedded into inaudible frequencies of audio using DFT. Results show that this method successfully hides and recovers images of considerable size, maintaining bit-level integrity of the original images while preserving audio quality. However, the scheme lacks resilience to signal processing attacks, such as compression or filtering, the resulting size of the audio is also bigger. Despite this limitations, the method provides a competitive advantage in payload capacity and efficiency, making it suitable for applications where the transmission of large, sensitive data is necessary but not subject to aggressive signal attacks.