Literature DB >> 25258724

A chaotic cryptosystem for images based on Henon and Arnold cat map.

Ali Soleymani1, Md Jan Nordin2, Elankovan Sundararajan1.   

Abstract

The rapid evolution of imaging and communication technologies has transformed images into a widespread data type. Different types of data, such as personal medical information, official correspondence, or governmental and military documents, are saved and transmitted in the form of images over public networks. Hence, a fast and secure cryptosystem is needed for high-resolution images. In this paper, a novel encryption scheme is presented for securing images based on Arnold cat and Henon chaotic maps. The scheme uses Arnold cat map for bit- and pixel-level permutations on plain and secret images, while Henon map creates secret images and specific parameters for the permutations. Both the encryption and decryption processes are explained, formulated, and graphically presented. The results of security analysis of five different images demonstrate the strength of the proposed cryptosystem against statistical, brute force and differential attacks. The evaluated running time for both encryption and decryption processes guarantee that the cryptosystem can work effectively in real-time applications.

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Year:  2014        PMID: 25258724      PMCID: PMC4166429          DOI: 10.1155/2014/536930

Source DB:  PubMed          Journal:  ScientificWorldJournal        ISSN: 1537-744X


1. Introduction

Some researchers utilized conventional cryptosystems to directly encrypting images. But this is not advisable due to large data size and real-time constraints of image data. Conventional cryptosystems require a lot of time to directly encrypt thousands of image pixels value. On the other hand, unlike textual data, a decrypted image is usually acceptable even if it contains small levels of distortion. For all the above mentioned reasons, the algorithms that function well for textual data may not be suitable for multimedia data [1]. Many studies have been performed on the use of textual encryption algorithms for images by modifying the algorithms to adapt with image characteristics. One such option for encrypting an image is to consider a 2D array of image pixels value as a 1D data stream and to then encrypt this stream with any conventional cryptosystem [2, 3]. This would be considered a naïve approach and usually is suitable for text and occasionally for small images files that are to be transmitted over a fleet dedicated channel [4]. Subramanyan et al. [5] proposed an image encryption algorithm based on AES-128 in which the encryption process is a bitwise XOR operation on a set of image pixels. This method employs an initial 128-bit key and an AES key expansion process that changes the key for every set of pixels. The secret keys are generated independently at both the sender and the receiver sides based on the AES key expansion process. Therefore, the initial key alone is shared rather than the whole set of keys.

2. Chaos and Cryptography

Chaotic maps are simple functions and are iterated quickly. Chaos-based image encryption systems are therefore fast enough for real-time applications. Chaos is a natural phenomenon discovered by Edward Lorenz in 1963 while studying the butterfly effect in dynamical systems. The butterfly effect describes the sensitivity of a system to initial conditions as mentioned in Lorenz's paper titled “Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil set off a Tornado in Texas?” [6]. The flapping wings represent a tiny variation in the initial conditions of the dynamic system that causes a chain of events leading to large-scale changes in the future. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different [7]. In general, this means that a small variance in the initial parameters (even in ten-millionth place value) could yield widely divergent results. Hence, for a chaotic system, rendering long-term prediction is impossible in general. This means that having initial conditions of these systems makes their future behavior predictable. This behavior, which derived from a natural phenomenon, is known as deterministic chaos or, simply, chaos and exhibits by chaotic maps. Such maps are classified as continuous maps and discrete maps. In the 1990s, numerous researchers found that there are some relationships between properties that have counterparts in chaos and cryptography. A high sensitivity to initial conditions, with deterministic pseudorandom behavior, is an interesting similarity between chaotic maps and cryptographic algorithms. Furthermore, confusion and diffusion are two general principles in the design of cryptography algorithms that lead to the concealing of the statistical structure of pixels in a plain image and to a decrease in the statistical dependence of a plain image and the corresponding encrypted one. Applying a mixing property on chaos-based encryption algorithms will increase the complexity of the cipher image. Chaotic maps are assigned to discrete and continuous time-domains. Discrete maps are usually in the form of iterated functions, which corresponded to rounds in cryptosystems. This similarity between cryptography and discrete chaotic dynamic systems is utilized to propose chaotic cryptosystems. Each map has some parameters that are equivalent to the encryption keys in cryptography. In stream cipher, a chaotic system is applied to generate a pseudorandom key stream but in block ciphers, the plaintext or the secret key(s) are used as the initial and control parameters. Finally, some iteration is applied on the chaotic systems to obtain the cipher-text. Security and complexity are significant concerns in cryptosystems. These should be considered when selecting a map and its parameters for use in cryptography [8].

2.1. Related Works

The first chaos-based cryptosystem was proposed by Matthews in 1989 [29]. Subsequently, the amount of research on chaotic cryptography increased rapidly, while trying to break (and find the weakness of) the proposed schemes in order to improve chaos-based cryptosystems. The algorithm proposed by Wang et al. [30] for encrypting color images utilizing a logistic map was broken by Li et al. [31]. Another cryptosystem analyzed by Li et al. [32] is the recent work of Zhu [26]. Zhu applied hyperchaotic sequences to generate the key stream but Li in his work proved that the proposed algorithm was not sufficiently robust against a chosen plaintext attack. Another weak cryptosystem is the combination of the Lorenz map and perceptron model of the neural network proposed by Wang et al. [33]. This chaotic algorithm was cracked by Zhang et al. [34] after analyzing its security by simulated attacks. The experimental results show that the secret key can be reconstructed after one pair of known-plaintext/ciphertext attacks. Furthermore, the effect of changing one bit in the plain image is a change in only one bit at the same position in an encrypted image. This is another weakness of Wang's proposed algorithm. Many similar works have failed in security analysis. Hence, when designing and implementing a chaos-based cryptographic system, some important requirements should be kept in mind. A common framework was proposed by Alvarez and Li [35] for chaos-based cryptosystem designers. Implementation rules, key management tips, and security analysis approaches are three main issues suggested in their work. Adhering to these basic guidelines guarantees an acceptable level of security with the chaos-based cryptosystem scheme. Moreover, Alvarez and Li in [36] established a practical security analysis of a cryptosystem based on the Baker map [37]. In addition to breaking this cryptosystem due to vulnerability of the key, some countermeasures are introduced for improving and enhancing the security of similar cryptosystems. Alvarez and Li in another cryptanalysis work [38] presented that the nonlinear chaotic algorithm by Gao et al. [39] is insecure according to failure in the plaintext attack and statistical and key space analysis. Chaos-based encryption algorithms are based on diverse types of chaotic maps and also on discrete maps. Most of these are a combination of two or more chaotic maps to achieve a greater level of complexity, security, and expanded key space. A combination of the Arnold cat map and the Chen map was the work of Guan et al. [40]. The Arnold cat map was applied to clutter the position of the pixels followed by XOR with the discrete output signal of the Chen map to modify the gray value of the cluttered pixels. This was analyzed and improved by Xiao et al. [41]. They found the weakness of the proposed algorithm and overcame the flaws. To overcome the disadvantages of permutation-only cryptosystems, Fu et al. [12] proposed a novel shuffling algorithm which performs an efficient bit-level permutation in two stages of chaotic sequence sorting and Arnold cat map. Their analysis results show that this scheme is more secure and has much lower computational complexity than previous similar works. Xu et al. [10] analyzed the improved work of Xiang et al. [42] and found two drawbacks. In their proposed letter, iterating Chen chaotic system generates random number sequence, which is more random in comparison with the sequence that was generated by logistic map in [42]. The second drawback is overcome by setting the parameter of Chen map using the last one byte of encrypted plaintext after every iteration that leads to a higher sensitivity of encrypted image to the plain one. This scheme is fast and secure according to simulation results and large size of key space, respectively. To overcome the drawback of time-consuming real number arithmetic calculations in chaos-based image encryption techniques, a block cipher cryptosystem was proposed by Fouda et al. [27]. This fast and secure chaotic scheme is based on sorting the integer coefficients of linear diophantine equation (LDE), which is generated dynamically by only two rounds of any chaos map. The scheme of Chen et al. [28] is another work that is proposed to enhance the efficiency of chaos-based encryption. They found that permutation-diffusion encryption approaches are produce with high computation of at least two chaotic maps and weak against known/chosen plaintext attacks. Hence, they proposed a dynamic mechanism to generate the state variables from the 3D or hyperchaotic maps for snake-like diffusion and pixel-swapping confusion. A tiny change (e.g., one pixel) will make a totally different key stream sequence at the first round of encryption. Table 1 is a brief overview of some chaotic maps applied in image encryption. The Arnold cat map is the most commonly used map in chaos-based image encryption works with the main purpose of shuffling pixels of an image in a pseudorandom order.
Table 1

Applied chaos maps in some proposed image encryption techniques.

ACMLogisticHenonLorenzBakerChenTentCMLStandard map
Zhu et al. [9]××
Xu et al. [10]×
Zhang and Cao [11]××
Fu et al. [12]×
Zhang et al. [13]×××
Ghebleh et al. [14]××
Elshamy et al. [15]×
Ye and Zhou [16]××
Ye and Zhou [17]××
Wang et al. [18]×
Al-Maadeed et al. [19]×
Patidar et al. [20]××
Wong et al. [21]×
Guanghuia et al. [22]×
Zhang et al. [23]×
Liu et al. [24]××

2.2. Henon Map

Henon is a two-dimensional dynamic system proposed [43] to simplify the Lorenz map [44] with the same properties and is defined by (1). This might be easier to implement than the differential equations of the Lorenz system. Consider The initial parameters are α, β and the initial point is (x 0, y 0). Each point (x , y ) is mapped to a new point (x , y ) through the Henon map. For α = 1.4 and β = 0.3, the Henon function has chaotic behavior and the iterations have a boomerang-shaped chaotic attractor. Figure 1 is the outline on a two-dimensional plane for the Henon map obtained from a distinct number of iterations starting from the chosen initial point (0.1, 0.1). Minute variations in the initial point will lead to major changes and different behavior.
Figure 1

Henon map attractor after (a) 500, (b) 5000, and (c) 50000 iterations with initial parameters α = 1.4 and β = 0.3 and initial point (0.1, 0.1).

2.3. Arnold Cat Map

ACM is a mixing discrete ergodic system that performs an area preserving stretch and fold mapping discovered by V. Arnold in 1968 using the image of a cat. This 2D transformation is based on a matrix with a determinant of 1 that makes this transformation reversible and described as Here, P and Q are integers and (x, y) is the original position that is mapped to the new position (x′, y′). This transformation randomizes the original order of pixels or bits in an image. However, after sufficient iterations, the original image is reconstructed. Reverse mapping using (3) is a phase in decryption process to transform the shuffled image into the input image. The number of iterations in the permutation step must be equal to that of the reverse transformation. Consider

3. Proposed Cryptosystem Model

3.1. Initializing Prerequisite Values

In addition to α, β, and initial point (x 0, y 0) in (1), there are some other variables that must be initialized before running the algorithm. The proposed encryption architecture is shown in Figure 2. This scheme is based on two secret images and permutation steps in the bit level and pixel level. In the bitwise permutation, the pixel values are distorted but, in the pixel permutation, the pixels are shuffled without any alteration in value and histogram.
Figure 2

Proposed encryption scheme architecture.

Creating the secret images and a set of parameters P and Q for the Arnold cat map are prerequisites for the encryption and decryption processes. Secret images have pseudo-random-like gray pixel distributions and are created using coordinates x and y generated by a Henon map. The secret images are the same as the plain image in height and width; therefore, the number of iterations for the Henon map depends on the total pixels in the plain image. In this work, experiments are performed on m × m gray-level images. Hence, the minimum iterations of Henon map should be m 2. The first few iterations seem fairly close together. Therefore, the total number of iterations is m 2 + 100, but the first 100 points are discarded to achieve higher randomness. Secret image pixels are generated using (4) and (6). The pixX and pixY are sets of pseudorandom numbers (0 ≤ pixX , pixY ≤ 255) created by x-coordinates and y-coordinates of the Henon map and are considered pixel values. To shape the one-dimensional pixel values into an image, (5) and (7) are applied to create the 2D secImgX and secImgY secret image. The final secret image is generated by a combination of secImgX and secImgY by performing the XOR operation on the corresponding pixels as described by (8). Consider The permutation steps by the Arnold cat map are based on the parameters P and Q. The x-coordinates and y-coordinates that result from the iterations of the Henon map are applied to generate parameters for the ACM. The pixels or bits of an input image that are permuted by the Arnold cat map return to its preliminary position after finite iterations. Attackers may be able to restore the original image by using this periodicity. To avoid such reconstruction of the input image, iteration is repeated for q rounds with different values for the parameters P and Q in each round. Equations (9) and (10) generate parameter values for the Arnold cat map. The number of generated parameters is equal to the total number of permutation rounds:

3.2. Encryption Process

Figure 2 presents the architecture of the proposed encryption scheme. This scheme has three inputs and three main functions, and the final result is the encrypted image. The plain image, secImgX, and secImgY are the three main inputs for this model. The primary functions are bit permutation, pixel permutation, and pixel modification. As illustrated in Figure 2, at the first step, secImgX and secImgY are XORed pixel by pixel to generate secImg. Then, pixels of the secret image are permuted q rounds. A simultaneous step is r rounds of bit-level permutation of the plain image. The outputs of these two phases are applied to pixel modification, which is a sequence XOR of consecutive pixels. The result is fed back to the bit permutation function (instead of the plain image) for additional p − 1 rounds while the secImg is permuted with new parameters at each round. The functions details are described in the following sections.

3.2.1. Bit Permutation

For a gray-level image with a size of m × m pixels, the total bits are m × m × 8. Prior to bit permutation, the input image is divided into eight subimages. Each subimage is m × m/8 pixels or m × m bits in height and width as shown in Figure 3. Matrix (11) shows how the kth subimage is created. Replacing the corresponding pixel values of the input image at the proper position of the matrix would create the subimage. A pixel in the position (i, j) is an 8-bit value in the form of (12), where b(8) is the most significant bit (MSB) and b(1) is the least significant bit (LSB) of the pixel value in binary form. Every pixel value of the subimage converts to its binary format and creates the bit-plane. The bit-plane is a matrix with m rows and m columns and each element is one bit 0 or 1. Matrix (13) shows how to create the matrix for the bit-plane. Each subimage is converted to the equivalent m × m bit-plane and each bit-plane is permuted separately and independently:
Figure 3

Splitting an image to 8 subimages.

After creating the bitPlane matrices, the Arnold cat map was applied to these matrices to permute the bits. In the permutation phase, the new location of each bit is calculated by (14). The pair of (x′, y′) is the new position of (x, y). At the first phase, the input image is permuted r times with different parameters P and Q where i = 1,…, r. Consider After finishing this phase, the bitPlane matrices are changed to decimal values to reconstruct the image pixels.

3.2.2. Pixel Permutation

Concurrent with bit permutation of the plain image, the secret image is permuted for q rounds at the pixel level to change the position of the pixels in a random manner. In contrast to bit permutation, pixel permutation does not affect the pixel values. Therefore, histograms of the plain image and the shuffled image are entirely the same. The permutation is performed q times with different parameters P and Q with j = 1,…, q. Consider

3.2.3. Pixel Modification

The concluding phase is a sequence XOR to modify the pixel values. This step will cause extreme changes in the pixels of cipher image with even one bit change in a pixel in plain image. This step is based on the shuffled secret image and the bit-level permuted plain image. Equations (16) and (17) are used to change pixels consecutively. The output of this step is a modified image. For more confusion and modification, this step will repeat for p rounds. After each round, the result is replaced with a plain image, as input, and the secret image will permute q rounds. After completing p rounds, the final output is the cipher image. Consider

3.3. Decryption Process

Figure 4 shows the decryption process. On the receiving side, the secret image is generated by XORing secImgX and secImgY, which are recreated using private parameters. Inverse pixel modification is performed on the cipher image and the secret image after p × q rounds of pixel permutations. The result of the secret image pixel permutation in the first step is saved for subsequent steps and at each round this is inverse permuted for q rounds and applied as an input to the inverse pixel modification function. The additional input is (the feedback of) the output of the inverse pixel modification function after r rounds of inverse bit permutation.
Figure 4

Decryption model architecture.

4. Experiments and Security Analysis

Experiments are carried out to analyze the proposed algorithm and evaluate their security and robustness. A vigorous encryption algorithm is resistant to attacks by an opponent or to unauthorized access. Due to the various types of attacks, a comprehensive security analysis is inevitable. This section analyzes the results of simulated attacks such as a statistical attack, a differential attack, a brute-force attack, and a known/chosen plaintext attack to demonstrate the strength of the proposed technique. Key space, encryption time, and decryption time are additional parameters that will affect the decision-making regarding the choice of applied cryptosystem. The selected images for the experiments are “Peppers,” “Baboon,” and “Fingerprint,” which are 512 × 512 gray images. “Cameraman” and “Chess-plate” are two additional images of size 256 × 256. The proposed algorithm is implemented using the MATLAB programming language on a PC with a 64-bit OS, Core i5 CPU, and 8 GB installed RAM.

4.1. Initial Values

The Henon map is the main function in this cryptosystem and the generated chaotic sequence is employed to produce both the secret image and the parameters for the Arnold cat map. Its initial value is one of the secret keys in this scheme. The chosen point (1.210000001, 0.360000001) is the starting point for generating the Henon chaotic sequence. α and β have fixed values of 1.4 and 0.3, respectively. As mentioned above, the test images sizes are 512 × 512 and 256 × 256 pixels. The number of iterations for the Henon map is based on the image size. The larger image has a total of 262144 pixels. The Henon map (18) is iterated 262244 times, but the first 100 points are discarded. Consider Having obtained the set of x and y, we can create pixels of secImgX and secImgY by setting the values γ = 12345678 and λ = 87654321 in (4) and (6) as shown in (19) and (21), respectively. Then, we reshape them to form an image with the same size as the plain image using (20) and (22). The final secret image is the result of (23). Consider The parameters for the Arnold cat map that perform permutations on the plain image and secret images are the set of P and Q. Each pair of P and Q is a modified value of a point on the Henon sequence. These coordinates are real numbers. They converted to integer numbers using multiplied, modular, and absolute operations as described in (8) and (9). By setting quantities δ = 12345 and ϑ = 67890, P and Q are in the form of

4.2. Running Time

Pixel permutation, bit permutation, and pixel modification are three key functions in this cryptosystem. The encryption time depends on the run time of each function and the number of rounds. Table 2 presents the average run time for one round of each function in this cryptosystem on a 512 × 512 image. Additional tests show a linear relation between running time and number of pixels. The results for 256 × 256 were almost a quarter of the given intervals in Table 2. The total encryption time is calculated by (25) and the decryption time is calculated by (26). Table 3 is the encryption time of proposed cryptosystem in comparison with recent similar works for a 256 × 256 gray image. Consider
Table 2

Evaluated running time for main functions in proposed cryptosystem.

VariableFunctionRunning time for one round (ms)
T BP Bit permutation running time62
T PP Pixel permutation running time13
T PM Pixel modification running time4
T IBP Inverse bit permutation running time75
T IPP Inverse pixel permutation running time23
T IPM Inverse pixel modification running time4
Table 3

Comparison of encryption time for proposed algorithm with recent similar works.

Proposed scheme[12][10][25] [26] [27]
Encryption time (ms)19.75232220.793252

4.3. Encryption and Decryption Illustrations and Histogram

The image histogram is the graphical illustration of the pixel distribution at different gray levels. A great deal of statistical information regarding the image is extractable from its histogram [45]. The histogram of an encrypted image should have a uniform distribution and be completely different from that of the plain image. This prevents the leakage of any meaningful information from the plain image. In addition to the histogram, the encrypted image must be absolutely unique in appearance without any similar pattern to the original image. Basically, the histogram analysis results are demonstrated for a bit-permuted plain image based on the proposed technique to compare with the proposed scheme by Zhu et al. [9]. Despite the pixel value alteration by Zhu's model, the histogram of the permuted image is not uniform. This is due to the permutation of a group of bits in the same position. According to Shannon's theory, the 8th bit (MSB) pixel values carry almost 50% of the total information of the image. Permuting all of the bits at the same location will not vastly change the image pixels' value. Hence, the plain image, which is shown in Figure 5, is bit permuted for four rounds, and the result and its histogram are illustrated in Figure 6. It seems that there are patterns that still appear in the image. To overcome this vulnerability, a bit permutation scheme is proposed and shuffles the bits entirely and independently of its position. Figure 7 shows the subimages of the plain image that would be permuted independently. After four rounds of permuting each subimage with altered parameters, the result and its histogram are shown in Figure 7. Visual comparison of images and histograms in Figures 6 and 7 demonstrates the efficacy of the proposed bit-permutation model. Figures 8 and 9 are the images and the histograms after the encryption and decryption process, respectively. The decrypted image is the same as the original one and this technique is found to be lossless.
Figure 5

(a) Plain image and (b) its histogram.

Figure 6

(a) Plain image after four rounds of bit permutation based on Zhu's algorithm and (b) its histogram.

Figure 7

(a) Plain subimages, (b) plain image after four rounds of proposed bit permutation and (c) its histogram.

Figure 8

(a) Encrypted image and (b) its histogram.

Figure 9

(a) Decrypted image and (b) its histogram.

4.4. Key Analysis

4.4.1. Key Space Analysis

The total number of possible keys that an attacker must try to break a cryptosystem is called key space and it should be large enough to prevent brute-force attack. In the proposed cryptosystem, the initial point (x 0, y 0) of the Henon map was used as one of the secret keys. Other control parameters are γ,  λ, δ,   ϑ, p, q, and r. These parameters should be kept secret and be used as secret keys. Table 4 is the upper bound for each variable. A combination of these parameters will provide a large key space of approximately 2300 that is sufficient to make brute-force attack infeasible and very large rather than similar works that are compared in Table 5.
Table 4

Secret parameters length in bit.

ParameterLength (bit)
p 10
q 10
r 10
γ 48
λ 48
δ 24
ϑ 24
x 0 64
y 0 64
Table 5

Comparison of encryption time for proposed algorithm with recent similar works.

Proposed scheme[12][10][25][26][28][27]
Key space2300 2153 2120 2128 2186 2199 2256

4.4.2. Key Sensitivity Analysis

In addition to a sufficiently large key space to protect an encrypted image from brute-force attacks, a strength algorithm should also be absolutely sensitive to both encryption and decryption keys. Changing even one bit in a secret key will cause a completely different result in either the encrypted image or the decrypted image. Key sensitivity is analyzed in both the encryption and the decryption phase. In the encryption phase, the cipher image that results from changing even one bit in any one of the initial values is compared with the encrypted image that resulted before changing the key. The results are given in Table 6. Several experiments were performed and, in each experiment, only one parameter was manipulated while others were unchanged. The changed values and the difference rates for the produced images are listed in the table.
Table 6

Difference rates of two encrypted images with slight change in a parameter.

ParameterInitial valueChanged valueEncrypted images difference rate
p 6799.59%
q 2199.60%
r 2199.62%
Γ123456781234567999.58%
λ 876543218765432099.62%
δ 123451234699.63%
ϑ 678906789199.60%
x 0 1.210000011.2199.59%
y 0 0.360000010.3699.60%
In the decryption phase, key sensitivity means that the encrypted image cannot be decrypted by slight variations in the secret key. Based on the results in Table 7, changing even one bit in the decryption key will result in a wholly different decrypted image.
Table 7

Difference rate of two decrypted images with slight change in a parameter.

ParameterEncryption parametersDecryption parametersDecrypted images difference rate
p6599.59%
q2199.62%
r2199.59%
γ123456781234567799.62%
λ876543218765432299.58%
δ123451234499.59%
ϑ678906788999.60%
x0 1.210000011.2100000299.60%
y0 0.360000010.3600000299.62%

4.5. Statistical Analysis

Statistical analysis can extract the relationships between the original and the encrypted image. Shannon in his theory of information and communication [45] proved that it is possible to break many types of cryptograms by statistical analysis. This can be thwarted by dissipating the redundancy in the structure of the message by diffusion or by increasing the complexity of the relationship between the encrypted message and the secret key by confusion. Either confusion or diffusion is presented in the proposed cryptosystem to frustrate statistical attacks.

4.5.1. Correlation Analysis

Two adjoining pixels in a regular image are strongly correlated in horizontal, vertical, and diagonal positions. Scatter plots in Figures 10 and 11 reveal the correlation of two adjacent pixels in horizontal, vertical, and diagonal distributions in the plain and the cipher image, respectively. Correlation coefficients are calculated for test images by (27) and the results for plain images and cipher images are listed in Table 14. For an ordinary image, the correlation coefficients are very close to 1, which is the highest possible value. The produced encrypted image is ideal and resists statistical attack if the correlation coefficients are very low and close to 0. Consider
Figure 10

Correlation of plain image's pixels in (a) horizontal, (b) vertical, and (c) diagonal position.

Figure 11

Correlation of cipher image's pixels in (a) horizontal, (b) vertical, and (c) diagonal position.

Table 14

Calculated UACI and NPCR for different combinations of p and r while q = 1 for Chess-plate.

p/r 12345678910
1UACI49.751138.96830.68280.319417.83289.12341.84460.668224.847645.3508
NPCR99.113577.63212.720681.457571.052672.702014.698885.197499.002190.3473
2UACI30.811126.399334.174733.506533.362233.413433.048833.582133.586533.5562
NPCR72.572390.612899.316499.321099.519399.598799.494999.667499.569799.6399
3UACI 33.6698 33.2530 33.4078 33.4257 33.5033 33.4428 33.4594 33.5224 33.3517 33.4282
NPCR 99.5483 99.6460 99.5850 99.5682 99.6063 99.6033 99.5819 99.6338 99.5972 99.6002
4UACI 33.4568 33.4550 33.4542 33.4903 33.5600 33.3137 33.4928 33.5251 33.4225 33.3196
NPCR 99.6185 99.6201 99.6262 99.5819 99.5850 99.5972 99.5895 99.6216 99.5956 99.6063
5UACI 33.4745 33.5885 33.5112 33.5035 33.4013 33.4363 33.4302 33.5542 33.4494 33.4572
NPCR 99.6155 99.6414 99.6292 99.6262 99.5850 99.5956 99.6063 99.6262 99.6109 99.6002
6UACI 33.4729 33.4588 33.3505 33.5044 33.5310 33.5108 33.3838 33.6189 33.3733 33.4620
NPCR 99.6277 99.5728 99.6292 99.5987 99.6048 99.6689 99.5865 99.6017 99.5941 99.6109
7UACI 33.4701 33.4639 33.3825 33.5426 33.4590 33.4672 33.3788 33.4522 33.4046 33.4853
NPCR 99.5926 99.6246 99.5758 99.6368 99.5941 99.6078 99.6201 99.6399 99.6048 99.5682
8UACI 33.4681 33.4529 33.3931 33.3834 33.6822 33.4259 33.3729 33.3856 33.4834 33.4206
NPCR 99.5926 99.6811 99.6063 99.5941 99.5972 99.6002 99.6643 99.6368 99.5987 99.6155
9UACI 33.3928 33.5164 33.5825 33.4455 33.5033 33.4134 33.4258 33.5132 33.5198 33.6166
NPCR 99.5956 99.6231 99.6078 99.6216 99.6262 99.6094 99.6033 99.6094 99.6216 99.6292
10UACI 33.2732 33.5652 33.5405 33.6319 33.3404 33.4587 33.3828 33.4207 33.4494 33.5986
NPCR 99.5911 99.5895 99.6185 99.6002 99.6078 99.6063 99.6231 99.6216 99.5590 99.6536

4.5.2. Entropy Analysis

Entropy is a statistical parameter that is defined to measure the uncertainly and randomness of a bundle of data. According to Shannon theory, image entropy is the number of bits that is necessary to encode every pixel of the image. The optimal value for entropy of an encrypted image is ~8. This quantity describes the random pattern and texture of pixels in an encrypted image and is calculated by where n is the total number of gray levels (i.e., 256) and P is the probability of incidence of intensity i in the current image. P is the number of pixels with intensity i divided by the total number of pixels. The base-2 logarithm will present the calculated entropy in bits. The entropy values for plain images and encrypted images are given in Table 14.

4.6. Differential Analysis

For the purpose of differential attack, an attacker changes a specific pixel in the plain image and traces the differences in the analogous encrypted image to find a meaningful relation. This is also known as a chosen-plaintext attack. A robust encrypted image must be sensitive to minor changes and even changing one bit in the plain image should result in a wide range of changes in the cipher image. The NPCR measures the number of pixels change rate in an encrypted image when 1 bit is changed in the plain image. This parameter is calculated by (29) and for an ideal encryption algorithm it is 1. Consider where c 1 and c 2 are obtained by encrypting two m × n plain images and one random bit dissimilarity. The UACI in differential analysis is the unified average changing intensity between two encrypted images with a difference in only one bit in corresponding plain images. The UACI can be calculated by (30): To evaluate the sensitivity of the proposed algorithm to differential attacks, a random bit is changed in the plain image. Encrypting two plain images with a difference in only one bit produces two encrypted images. The rates of pixel and intensity differences in the two encrypted images are calculated. Tables 8, 9, and 10 present calculated UACI and NPCR values for different combinations of p, q, and r to trade off the encryption speed and the overall rounds to find a threshold that achieves the highest rate. The following tables are related to the Peppers image. From Tables 8 and 9, it was concluded that increasing the value of the parameter q that is related to the pixel permutation rounds does not affect the NPCR and UACI values. These values depend only on p and r. However, to increase the level of confusion and increase the key space, pixel permutation is required. The results in Table 10 were used to find the minimum values for p and r that result in the ideal value for NPCR and UACI with the smallest run-time. It was concluded that at least three rounds of p were required to obtain the highest values for UACI and NPCR. After the 3rd row, all of the combinations are ideal. Different combinations of p, q, and r are calculated with (25) and the combination of (p, q, r) that encrypts the image with the smallest run-time is (3, 1, 1).
Table 8

Calculated UACI and NPCR for different combinations of q and r while p = 1 in Peppers.

q/r 12345678910
1UACI5.11632.78102.03311.18601.58106.13051.43493.77283.32150.0564
NPCR81.541444.321832.403218.902625.196597.705122.869560.128452.93660.8984
2UACI5.11632.78102.03311.18601.58106.13051.43493.77283.32150.0564
NPCR81.541444.321832.403218.902625.196597.705122.869560.128452.93660.8984
3UACI5.11632.78102.03311.18601.58106.13051.43493.77283.32150.0564
NPCR81.541444.321832.403218.902625.196597.705122.869560.128452.93660.8984
4UACI5.11632.78102.03311.18601.58106.13051.43493.77283.32150.0564
NPCR81.541444.321832.403218.902625.196597.705122.869560.128452.93660.8984
5UACI5.11632.78102.03311.18601.58106.13051.43493.77283.32150.0564
NPCR81.541444.321832.403218.902625.196597.705122.869560.128452.93660.8984
6UACI5.11632.78102.03311.18601.58106.13051.43493.77283.32150.0564
NPCR81.541444.321832.403218.902625.196597.705122.869560.128452.93660.8984
7UACI5.11632.78102.03311.18601.58106.13051.43493.77283.32150.0564
NPCR81.541444.321832.403218.902625.196597.705122.869560.128452.93660.8984
8UACI5.11632.78102.03311.18601.58106.13051.43493.77283.32150.0564
NPCR81.541444.321832.403218.902625.196597.705122.869560.128452.93660.8984
9UACI5.11632.78102.03311.18601.58106.13051.43493.77283.32150.0564
NPCR81.541444.321832.403218.902625.196597.705122.869560.128452.93660.8984
10UACI5.11632.78102.03311.18601.58106.13051.43493.77283.32150.0564
NPCR81.541444.321832.403218.902625.196597.705122.869560.128452.93660.8984
Table 9

Calculated UACI and NPCR for different combinations of q and p while r = 1 in Peppers.

q/p 12345678910
1UACI5.116316.2147 33.4573 33.4727 33.4075 33.4355 33.4484 33.5372 33.4775 33.4735
NPCR81.541489.1617 99.6342 99.6208 99.6059 99.6231 99.5930 99.6277 99.5930 99.6174
2UACI5.116316.2173 33.4317 33.4902 33.4462 33.4644 33.5382 33.4616 33.5023 33.4503
NPCR81.541489.1617 99.6342 99.6208 99.6059 99.6231 99.5930 99.6277 99.5930 99.6174
3UACI5.116316.2191 33.3994 33.5234 33.4093 33.4373 33.4497 33.4928 33.5363 33.5198
NPCR81.541489.1617 99.6342 99.6208 99.6059 99.6231 99.5930 99.6277 99.5930 99.6174
4UACI5.116316.2003 33.4263 33.4481 33.3943 33.4181 33.5062 33.4770 33.4784 33.5147
NPCR81.541489.1617 99.6342 99.6208 99.6059 99.6231 99.5930 99.6277 99.5930 99.6174
5UACI5.116316.1772 33.4520 33.4995 33.3855 33.4539 33.4610 33.5291 33.4940 33.4577
NPCR81.541489.1617 99.6342 99.6208 99.6059 99.6231 99.5930 99.6277 99.5930 99.6174
6UACI5.116316.1845 33.4262 33.5164 33.3721 33.4232 33.4606 33.5161 33.4626 33.4400
NPCR81.541489.1617 99.6342 99.6208 99.6059 99.6231 99.5930 99.6277 99.5930 99.6174
7UACI5.116316.1885 33.4141 33.4955 33.4241 33.4615 33.4464 33.5113 33.4486 33.4434
NPCR81.541489.1617 99.6342 99.6208 99.6059 99.6231 99.5930 99.6277 99.5930 99.6174
8UACI5.116316.1882 33.4694 33.4696 33.3941 33.4834 33.5019 33.4556 33.4589 33.5000
NPCR81.541489.1617 99.6342 99.6208 99.6059 99.6231 99.5930 99.6277 99.5930 99.6174
9UACI5.116316.1954 33.4277 33.4527 33.3872 33.5124 33.4510 33.4750 33.4249 33.5083
NPCR81.541489.1617 99.6342 99.6208 99.6059 99.6231 99.5930 99.6277 99.5930 99.6174
10UACI5.116316.2147 33.4573 33.4727 33.4075 33.4355 33.4484 33.5372 33.4775 33.4735
NPCR81.541489.1617 99.6342 99.6208 99.6059 99.6231 99.5930 99.6277 99.5930 99.6174
Table 10

Calculated UACI and NPCR for different combinations of p and r while q = 1 in Peppers.

p/r 12345678910
1UACI5.11632.78102.03311.18601.58106.13051.43493.77283.32150.0564
NPCR81.541444.321832.403218.902625.196597.705122.869560.128452.93660.8984
2UACI16.21192.02580.97360.49040.866332.67790.49223.83144.12710.1998
NPCR89.161785.514881.739075.000076.323394.894475.340386.626189.819350.9499
3UACI 33.3879 32.8273 34.7519 32.7804 33.5263 33.5459 33.3332 34.4429 33.5705 33.2778
NPCR 99.6342 99.5850 99.6552 99.5987 99.6357 99.6017 99.6098 99.6044 99.6033 99.5075
4UACI 33.4882 33.3894 33.4144 33.4373 33.5037 33.5170 33.4163 33.4185 33.4494 33.5380
NPCR 99.6208 99.6124 99.5979 99.5918 99.6075 99.5892 99.6185 99.6075 99.5960 99.5995
5UACI 33.3994 33.3844 33.5083 33.4886 33.4846 33.5354 33.4447 33.5059 33.3940 33.4656
NPCR 99.6059 99.6124 99.6258 99.6159 99.6033 99.6067 99.6101 99.6166 99.6120 99.5953
6UACI 33.4314 33.4144 33.4623 33.3797 33.4872 33.5663 33.4599 33.4731 33.4311 33.4141
NPCR 99.6231 99.6296 99.6250 99.6006 99.6208 99.6265 99.6037 99.6040 99.5926 99.6120
7UACI 33.4744 33.4282 33.4541 33.5446 33.4563 33.4700 33.4543 33.4240 33.4748 33.4333
NPCR 99.5930 99.5968 99.6128 99.6017 99.6082 99.6021 99.6311 99.6132 99.5964 99.6185
8UACI 33.4535 33.3790 33.5941 33.5118 33.5437 33.4958 33.5057 33.5276 33.4622 33.4553
NPCR 99.6277 99.5972 99.5758 99.6044 99.6094 99.5983 99.6170 99.6136 99.5888 99.5983
9UACI 33.4703 33.4465 33.4612 33.5285 33.5804 33.4783 33.4213 33.4463 33.4063 33.4409
NPCR 99.5930 99.5975 99.6006 99.6094 99.6185 99.6262 99.5903 99.6052 99.6082 99.6071
10UACI 33.4631 33.4266 33.3962 33.4113 33.4824 33.5212 33.5256 33.4979 33.3891 33.4482
NPCR 99.6174 99.6109 99.6178 99.6105 99.6212 99.6071 99.5857 99.6014 99.6071 99.5960
In addition to Peppers, the same experiments were performed on Baboon, Figure 12, Fingerprint, Figure 13, Cameraman, Figure 14, and Chess-plate, Figure 15. The results of the experiments on these three images are investigated to determine the strength of the proposed cryptosystem. Tables 11, 12, 13, and 14 list the calculated values of UACI and NPCR for different combinations of p and r in Baboon, Fingerprint, Cameraman, and Chess-plate images, respectively. Because the results were similar to other combinations of the Pepper image, the other similar tables were discarded and only the set of p and r was surveyed. The results for entropy, correlation, and brief of the UACI and NPCR are listed in Table 15.
Figure 12

(a) Baboon image and (b) its histograms and (c) encrypted image and (d) its histogram.

Figure 13

(a) Fingerprint image and (b) its histograms and (c) encrypted image and (d) its histogram.

Figure 14

(a) Cameraman image and (b) its histograms and (c) encrypted image and (d) its histogram.

Figure 15

(a) Chess-plate image and (b) its histograms and (c) encrypted image and (d) its histogram.

Table 11

Calculated UACI and NPCR for different combinations of p and r while q = 1 in Baboon.

p/r 12345678910
1UACI34.576418.56221.970039.719343.030212.31254.406840.148848.644720.7776
NPCR68.882836.97933.924679.128385.724324.52898.779179.983996.909341.3929
2UACI7.91960.95660.196015.650616.34040.50350.195914.210932.85001.7190
NPCR87.568781.393849.981793.730293.283576.176149.942086.616993.360167.2352
3UACI 33.4245 32.9577 32.9665 33.6173 33.4770 33.5504 33.4176 32.8382 33.4229 32.5148
NPCR 99.6040 99.6105 99.6094 99.6319 99.6090 99.6128 99.6162 99.6017 99.5922 99.5224
4UACI 33.5433 33.4850 33.4328 33.4770 33.4972 33.4388 33.4096 33.4726 33.4217 33.4147
NPCR 99.6140 99.6307 99.6166 99.6136 99.6037 99.6071 99.6059 99.5964 99.6056 99.6235
5UACI 33.4336 33.4809 33.4824 33.4264 33.4568 33.5143 33.4470 33.3774 33.4297 33.3378
NPCR 99.6151 99.5892 99.6128 99.6189 99.6273 99.5922 99.6407 99.6044 99.5819 99.6120
6UACI 33.4377 33.4569 33.4803 33.4672 33.5039 33.4647 33.4143 33.5158 33.4548 33.4117
NPCR 99.6021 99.5987 99.6178 99.5975 99.6174 99.6155 99.6090 99.6067 99.6140 99.6143
7UACI 33.4281 33.4751 33.4826 33.4711 33.4626 33.4911 33.4976 33.4263 33.4891 33.5239
NPCR 99.6052 99.6120 99.5922 99.5892 99.5998 99.6334 99.6040 99.6052 99.6258 99.6120
8UACI 33.4534 33.5000 33.4770 33.4986 33.4616 33.4514 33.4376 33.4205 33.4672 33.5179
NPCR 99.6265 99.5892 99.5953 99.6082 99.6101 99.6059 99.6014 99.6334 99.6258 99.6128
9UACI 33.4524 33.5607 33.4740 33.5257 33.3783 33.5049 33.4948 33.4504 33.4197 33.4726
NPCR 99.6223 99.6204 99.6002 99.5934 99.6124 99.5991 99.6025 99.5911 99.5953 99.6094
10UACI 33.3259 33.4977 33.3791 33.5318 33.5857 33.4664 33.4249 33.4084 33.5136 33.5256
NPCR 99.6155 99.6353 99.6536 99.6338 99.5850 99.5987 99.6536 99.6063 99.6155 99.6353
Table 12

Calculated UACI and NPCR for different combinations of p and r while q = 1 in Fingerprint.

p/r 12345678910
1UACI0.11020.28330.24290.36970.32910.46720.61680.17440.07140.1102
NPCR14.053336.114930.971547.139041.965159.571178.644922.23669.099214.0533
2UACI0.45391.09971.05022.01792.01014.095716.33350.49050.19230.4539
NPCR71.950585.473386.763885.970384.355588.262289.801875.003149.031171.9505
3UACI 32.7711 33.2829 23.0805 33.4200 33.3053 33.4104 33.9360 33.4891 34.1633 32.7711
NPCR 99.6140 99.6277 99.3843 99.6178 99.5754 99.6014 99.6368 99.6098 99.7284 99.6140
4UACI 33.5087 33.4496 33.4820 33.5291 33.3559 33.4629 33.5104 33.4655 33.4892 33.5087
NPCR 99.6105 99.6220 99.6216 99.6178 99.6067 99.6181 99.6120 99.5991 99.6105 99.6105
5UACI 33.5129 33.4573 33.4886 33.4295 33.5528 33.5534 33.4449 33.4749 33.5176 33.5129
NPCR 99.6117 99.6181 99.5953 99.6269 99.5880 99.6021 99.6094 99.6166 99.5991 99.6117
6UACI 33.4461 33.4562 33.5025 33.5266 33.4495 33.4262 33.4276 33.4117 33.4122 33.4461
NPCR 99.5983 99.6094 99.6044 99.5956 99.5930 99.6132 99.6391 99.6204 99.5926 99.5983
7UACI 33.3924 33.5282 33.4733 33.4923 33.5048 33.4279 33.4765 33.5338 33.4224 33.3924
NPCR 99.6265 99.6075 99.6014 99.6273 99.6212 99.6075 99.5922 99.6101 99.6155 99.6265
8UACI 33.4546 33.4874 33.5073 33.4015 33.4098 33.4831 33.3897 33.4127 33.5300 33.4546
NPCR 99.6063 99.6025 99.6132 99.6159 99.6147 99.6292 99.5827 99.6315 99.5949 99.6063
9UACI 33.5202 33.4528 33.5220 33.4781 33.4966 33.4986 33.4642 33.4896 33.5301 33.5202
NPCR 99.6223 99.6201 99.5995 99.6304 99.5895 99.6002 99.6078 99.5880 99.5781 99.6223
10UACI 33.3561 33.4246 33.4130 33.4110 33.3838 33.4363 33.5498 33.4906 33.4433 33.3561
NPCR 99.6170 99.5872 99.5777 99.5884 99.6170 99.6048 99.5926 99.6140 99.5987 99.6170
Table 13

Calculated UACI and NPCR for different combinations of p and r while q = 1 for Cameraman.

p/r 12345678910
1UACI7.49042.66205.133311.49823.76955.67945.390211.95438.41847.4904
NPCR29.844710.606420.452945.813015.019222.628821.476747.630333.541929.8447
2UACI1.02140.19430.49101.92580.35920.50520.49111.87471.00551.0214
NPCR83.563249.551475.079386.700463.806276.202475.059584.402581.143283.5632
3UACI 33.7662 29.9298 32.1345 32.5679 33.5877 33.5277 33.6352 34.8690 33.6583 33.7662
NPCR 99.6262 99.5071 99.5102 99.5285 99.5224 99.5850 99.6384 99.6552 99.6521 99.6262
4UACI 33.4563 33.3303 33.4678 33.5979 33.4952 33.5201 33.4910 33.2905 33.3876 33.4563
NPCR 99.6292 99.5453 99.5972 99.6582 99.5972 99.6170 99.5682 99.5743 99.6475 99.6292
5UACI 33.2851 33.4706 33.3841 33.5766 33.3711 33.4932 33.3911 33.4998 33.4473 33.2851
NPCR 99.6155 99.6262 99.5834 99.5972 99.6109 99.5956 99.5956 99.6368 99.6201 99.6155
6UACI 33.4854 33.3612 33.6393 33.4269 33.3583 33.6404 33.4790 33.3590 33.2436 33.4854
NPCR 99.6567 99.5911 99.5682 99.6078 99.6277 99.5880 99.6277 99.6124 99.6414 99.6567
7UACI 33.4159 33.4013 33.5464 33.5039 33.4404 33.4768 33.4303 33.3951 33.2653 33.4159
NPCR 99.6674 99.5850 99.6094 99.6262 99.5880 99.6140 99.5941 99.5850 99.6002 99.6674
8UACI 33.4321 33.4036 33.6195 33.4753 33.3993 33.5394 33.4112 33.5314 33.4387 33.4321
NPCR 99.5621 99.5926 99.6368 99.6277 99.5895 99.5941 99.5819 99.5987 99.6094 99.5621
9UACI 33.4651 33.3438 33.4917 33.4837 33.4551 33.4780 33.4704 33.4806 33.4516 33.4651
NPCR 99.6140 99.6323 99.5636 99.6216 99.6429 99.6109 99.6338 99.5758 99.6002 99.6140
10UACI 33.6242 33.5821 33.2618 33.4312 33.5802 33.6133 33.3934 33.6385 33.5515 33.6242
NPCR 99.5972 99.5895 99.6078 99.5773 99.6033 99.5911 99.6323 99.6109 99.5850 99.5972
Table 15

Results of security analysis.

Image name p q r Plain entropyCipher entropyPlain image correlationsCipher image correlationsUACINPCR
HCVCDCHCVCDC
Cameraman256 × 2561117.00977.99690.83900.71890.69730.00030.00120.00137.490429.8447
3117.99760.0057−0.00490.002733.766299.6262
1317.99710.00130.0035−0.00307.490429.8447
1137.99720.00110.0011−0.00425.133320.4529

Chess-plate256 × 25611117.99700.97750.98000.9637−0.0096−0.00560.005649.751199.1135
3117.99740.0193−0.02310.004833.669899.5483
1317.9972−0.00100.01020.011149.751199.1135
1137.99730.0123−0.00530.02060.68282.7206

Baboon512 × 5121117.35797.99930.86440.75870.7261−0.00380.00330.001534.576468.8828
3117.99930.0015−0.00040.000933.424599.6040
1317.99930.0012−0.0004−0.000734.576468.8828
1137.99930.00160.0018−0.00241.97003.9246

Peppers512 × 5121117.57147.99930.86420.75870.7261−0.00300.0018−0.00170.186747.6059
3117.9993−0.0047−0.0032−0.000933.948099.3217
1317.99930.00050.00070.00120.186747.6059
1137.9993−0.0008−0.0025−.000911.350690.4499

Fingerprint512 × 5121116.72797.99930.86440.75870.72610.0040−0.00100.00490.110214.0533
3117.9992−0.00090.0009−0.003232.771199.6140
1317.9994−0.0014−0.0002−0.00130.110214.0533
1137.99930.0043−0.0007−0.00070.242930.9715

5. Conclusion and Future Works

In this paper, a new chaos-based cryptosystem has been proposed for encrypting images. The Arnold cat map and the Henon map are two discrete chaotic maps that are used in this scheme. Bit shuffling and pixel shuffling are reversible transformations that are performed using the Arnold cat map with various secret parameters. Improving the randomness of transformation and the efficiency of bit permutation are two advantages of this cryptosystem that increases the strength of the ciphered image in comparison with previous works. Iterating the Arnold cat map with different parameters at each round prevents undesirable reconstruction of the input image. These parameters are generated by the Henon map with secret initial values. The points generated by the Henon map are also applied to create secret images for more confusion and diffusion and to increase the key space. Sequential XOR of the bit-permuted plain image and the pixel-permuted secret image is another phase of modifying the pixels values. This creates a slight distortion in the plain image to prevent successful differential attacks. The results of security analysis of five images demonstrate the resistance of the encrypted image to statistical attacks and to the chosen-plaintext attack. In addition, a sufficiently large key space makes a brute force attack impractical. As the future work, the proposed cryptosystem in this paper will combine with a public key technique such as ECC or RSA to propose a hybrid encryption method. This technique is a chaotic asymmetric cryptosystem.
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Authors:  Cao Guanghui; Hu Kai; Zhang Yizhi; Zhou Jun; Zhang Xing
Journal:  ScientificWorldJournal       Date:  2014-02-23

2.  A novel image encryption algorithm based on DNA subsequence operation.

Authors:  Qiang Zhang; Xianglian Xue; Xiaopeng Wei
Journal:  ScientificWorldJournal       Date:  2012-10-11
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1.  A Novel Image Encryption Scheme Based on Self-Synchronous Chaotic Stream Cipher and Wavelet Transform.

Authors:  Chunlei Fan; Qun Ding
Journal:  Entropy (Basel)       Date:  2018-06-06       Impact factor: 2.524

  1 in total

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