A Novel Grayscale Image Encryption Scheme Based on the Block-Level Swapping of Pixels and the Chaotic System

Hundreds of image encryption schemes have been conducted (as the literature review indicates). The majority of these schemes use pixels as building blocks for confusion and diffusion operations. Pixel-level operations are time-consuming and, thus, not suitable for many critical applications (e.g., telesurgery). Security is of the utmost importance while writing these schemes. This study aimed to provide a scheme based on block-level scrambling (with increased speed). Three streams of chaotic data were obtained through the intertwining logistic map (ILM). For a given image, the algorithm creates blocks of eight pixels. Two blocks (randomly selected from the long array of blocks) are swapped an arbitrary number of times. Two streams of random numbers facilitate this process. The scrambled image is further XORed with the key image generated through the third stream of random numbers to obtain the final cipher image. Plaintext sensitivity is incorporated through SHA-256 hash codes for the given image. The suggested cipher is subjected to a comprehensive set of security parameters, such as the key space, histogram, correlation coefficient, information entropy, differential attack, peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR), noise, and data loss attack, time complexity, and encryption throughput. In particular, the computational time of 0.1842 s and the throughput of 3.3488 Mbps of this scheme outperforms many published works, which bears immense promise for its real-world application.