Recently proposed steganalysis methods based on the local optimality of motion vector prediction (MVP) indicate that the existing HEVC (high efficiency video coding) motion vector (MV) domain video steganography algorithms can disturb the optimality of MVP in advanced motion vector prediction (AMVP) technology. In order to improve the security of steganography algorithm, this paper proposes an MV domain steganography method in HEVC based on MVP’s index and motion vector difference (MVD). First, we analyze the conditions that need to be met for steganography to resist attacks from MVP’s optimality features and other traditional steganalysis features. Then, a distortion function for minimizing embedding distortion is designed, and an algorithm for secret message embedding and extraction in units of inter-frame is proposed. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can resist attacks based on the optimality of MVP and also has high security against other traditional steganalysis methods. In addition, the proposed algorithm has excellent performance in visual quality and coding efficiency, and can be applied to practical scenarios of video covert communication.

A novel reversible data hiding algorithm for H.264/AVC videos is proposed. Histogram Shifting (HS) of motion vector values is used efficiently in reversible data hiding to embed data. By designating a specific decoded reference frame, the distortion accumulation effects due to modification of the motion vectors is overcome. All the extracted information can be recovered without loss of the original compressed video carrier. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is simple, has higher capacity and invisibility than other existing schemes, and can adjust the relationship between capacity and invisibility according to embedded load.