A Novel Image Encryption Scheme for DNA Storage Systems Based on DNA Hybridization and Gene Mutation

With the rapid development of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) storage technologies, storing digital images in DNA is feasible. Meanwhile, the information security in DNA storage system is still a problem to solve. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a DNA storage-oriented image encryption algorithm utilizing the information processing mechanisms in molecule biology. The basic idea is to perform pixel replacement by gene hybridization, and implement dual diffusion by pixel diffusion and gene mutation. The ciphertext DNA image can be synthesized and stored in DNA storage system after encryption. Experimental results demonstrate it can resist common attacks, and shows a strong robustness against sequence loss and base substitution errors in the DNA storage channel. A DNA storage-oriented image encryption algorithm based on gene hybridization and gene mutation, First, we scramble rows and columns of the plaintext image by dynamic Josephus traversing. Second, we replace the pixels by gene hybridization. Finally, we diffuse the image matrix in binary domain and encode pixels into 8-base strands which are later further diffused by gene mutation. The ciphertext image can be synthesized according to the mutant gene codes and stored in any DNA storage system.