IEEE Access (Jan 2024)

A New 12-Bit Chaotic Image Encryption Scheme Using a 12 × 12 Dynamic S-Box

  • Saleh Ibrahim,
  • Alaa M. Abbas,
  • Ayman A. Alharbi,
  • Marwan Ali Albahar

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3374218
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12
pp. 37631 – 37642

Abstract

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The use of 12-bit levels of grayscale in medical image representation allows for more precise image analysis and diagnosis, and encrypting such images is essential for protecting patient privacy and security. Existing 8-bit image encryption schemes become inefficient when applied to 12-bit images. In this paper, we design a cryptographically strong encryption scheme to improve the efficiency of encrypting 12-bit medical images. The core of the proposed scheme is a key-dependent $12\times 12$ S-box, which plays a crucial role in enhancing the security and efficiency of the encryption scheme. Most notably, test results show that $12\times 12$ S-boxes offer significantly stronger confusion and key-sensitivity than their $8\times 8$ counterparts. This finding enables the proposed $12\times 12$ S-box-based scheme to process 12-bit images 3.3 times faster than an $8\times 8$ S-box while passing all security tests. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme can encrypt 12-bit images at speeds up to 300MB/s. Moreover, the proposed scheme has also been shown to efficiently handle 8-bit images. Comparative results highlight the security and efficiency advantages of the proposed scheme over existing medical image encryption schemes.

Keywords