Tampering attacks on binary phase only filter-based watermarking schemes for image authentication

Recently, a category of watermarking techniques based on binary phase-only filter (BPOF) has been proposed for image authentication. In such techniques, the authentication is implemented by evaluating the correlation between Fourier phase information and the hidden watermark bitplane. In this paper, we reveal the security flaws of BPOF-based watermarking algorithms and propose sophisticated tampering attacks against them. We show how the attacker can easily tamper with a watermarked image without being detected. Experimental results demonstrate that our attacks are successful in tampering watermarked images. The watermarking schemes are proven to be fundamentally flawed. (C) 2011 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). [DOI: 10.1117/1.3579458]