A Self-adaptive Bit-level Color Image Encryption Algorithm Based on Generalized Arnold Map

Abstract

A self-adaptive bit-level color image encryption algorithm based on generalized Arnold map is proposed. The red, green, blue components of the plain-image with height H and width W are decomposed into 8-bit planes and one three-dimensional bit matrix with size ze H×W×24 is obtained. The generalized Arnold map is used to generate pseudo-random sequences to scramble the resulted three-dimensional bit matrix by sort-based approach. The scrambled 3D bit matrix is then rearranged to be one scrambled color image. Chaotic sequences produced by another generalized Arnold map are used to diffuse the resulted red, green, blue components in a cross way to get more encryption effects. Self-adaptive strategy is adopted in both the scrambling stage and diffusion stage, meaning that the key streams are all related to the content of the plain-image and therefore the encryption algorithm show strong robustness against known/chosen plaintext attacks. Some other performances are carried out, including key space, key sensitivity, histogram, correlation coefficients between adjacent pixels, information entropy and difference attack analysis, etc. All the experimental results show that the proposed image encryption algorithm is secure and effective for practical application.