Meaningful ciphertext encryption for color image via 2D-CICCM and stairwise compression

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Information Security
• Applied Mathematics

Background:

• Digital image security is crucial due to widespread digital media use.
• Existing color image encryption methods suffer from poor ciphertext and reconstructed image quality.
• There's a need for advanced encryption techniques that preserve image fidelity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel color image encryption scheme for meaningful ciphertext.
• To improve both ciphertext quality and reconstructed image quality.
• To enhance the security and effectiveness of digital image encryption.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing a two-dimensional coupled infinite collapsing chaotic mapping (2D-CICCM) for pseudo-random sequence generation.
• Implementing stairwise compression to exploit spatial and inter-channel redundancies in color images.
• Employing bit-level permutation, ciphertext embedding into a cover image, and histogram rearrangement with embedding-value adjustment.

Main Results:

• The proposed stairwise compression significantly enhances decrypted image reconstruction quality by leveraging inter-channel redundancy.
• The histogram rearrangement and embedding-value adjustment strategy minimizes cover image distortion, optimizing ciphertext quality.
• The 2D-CICCM provides strong randomness suitable for cryptographic applications.
• Experimental results confirm favorable performance in ciphertext quality, decryption accuracy, and security.

Conclusions:

• The developed color image encryption scheme effectively addresses limitations of existing methods.
• The integration of 2D-CICCM and stairwise compression offers a robust solution for secure and high-quality image encryption.
• The scheme demonstrates feasibility and effectiveness for practical applications in digital image security.