DNA Strands Level Scrambling Based Color Image Encryption Scheme

Abstract

In the past, many image encryption schemes have been developed through the swapping operations at the different levels of granularity. These levels span bits, Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules, pixels, blocks of pixels. In this study, a new scheme for the encryption of color images based on the DNA strands level scrambling (DNASLS) and chaotic system has been proposed. After a color image is input, it is decomposed into the red, green and blue components. After it, these components are merged to form a big single image. Intertwining logistic map (ILM) has been used for the random data which generates three streams of random numbers. These streams have been further manipulated in such a way that nine streams are spawned out of them. One stream out of these nine streams has been used for the generation of a key image. Two streams have been used to DNA-encode the big single image and the key image. Afterwards, the strands of DNA-encoded single image are swapped with each other. Four streams determine the addresses of two DNA encoded pixels for the selection. A yet another stream is being used to select a particular strand from the DNA strands. To create the diffusion effects, an XOR operation has been done between the DNA encoded image after the swapping of strands and the DNA encoded key image. Finally, the last and ninth stream has been used to decode the DNA-encoded pixels into the decimal form. Purely random numbers with no interdependence have been employed in the entire encryption process. The effects of plaintext sensitivity have been achieved through the incorporation of Secure Hash Algorithm-256 or SHA-256 hash codes. In the end, the experiment and the security analysis have been performed. The results of the validation metrics like information entropy(7.9973), average key sensitivity(99.61%) and mean absolute error(84.7158) demonstrate the security, defiance to the number of attacks and a potential for real world application of the proposed image cipher.

Image Encryption Algorithms: A Survey of Design and Evaluation Metrics

“…The MAE is another statistical metric used to evaluate the quality of an image encryption algorithm. It measures the average absolute difference between the pixel values of a plaintext image and its cipher image [56]. A lower MAE value indicates a greater similarity between the plaintext image and its cipher, whereas a higher MAE value indicates a lower similarity between the plaintext image and its cipher; therefore, a higher MAE value means higher-quality encryption.…”

Improved Pixel and Bit Confusion-Diffusion Based on Mixed Chaos and Hash Operation for Image Encryption

“…Basically, the plain image has a very high correlation with adjacent pixels and has a lot of redundant pixel values. But after the image is encrypted, the correlation between adjacent pixels should decrease significantly [4], [21]. Thus, the redundancy is getting smaller, and the correlation value is close to 0.…”

Review of DNA-Based Color Image Encryption Algorithms

“…In 2020 [45], (N. Iqbal et al) suggested a novel strategy for color image encryption based on DNA strands level scrambling (DNASLS) and a chaotic system. The streams were generated via an intertwining logistic map (ILM).…”