A QR Code Secret Hiding Scheme against Contrast Analysis Attack for the Internet of Things

Due to the advantages of larger content and error correction capability, quick response (QR) code is commonly used as a tagging technology for the Internet of Things (IoT) recently. However, the cover message of QR code can be easily decoded by a QR code reader, which causes the security and privacy of the cover message to raise the important issues. In this paper we present a new secret hiding scheme based on QR code. The proposed scheme has low computational complexity and is suitable for low-power devices in IoT systems because of utilizing the error correction property of QR code to hide secret information. The proposed scheme hides the secret information without changing the cover message of QR code and the user can get the cover message by using a general scanner, which contributes to reducing attacker’s curiosity. The hidden secret information can be read by a special scanner with the help of the user key. One thing which is better than other known schemes is that the proposed scheme can resist contrast analysis attack. In addition, experimental results show the proposed scheme has feasibility, low computational complexity, and high hiding payload.