Article Not peer-reviewed version

Image Encryption Using Improved

Hybrid Chaotic Map and Spiral

Transformation

*
Hengfu Yang and Mingfang Jiang

Posted Date: 6 October 2023

doi: 10.20944/preprints202310.0353.v1

Keywords: image encryption; Chebyshev map; spiral transformation; security analysis

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Article
Image Encryption Using Improved Hybrid Chaotic
Map and Spiral Transformation
Mingfang Jiang 1,2 and Hengfu Yang 1,2,*
1 School of Computer Science, Hunan First Normal University, Changsha 410205, China.
2 Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Informationization for Basic Education, Hunan First Normal
University, Changsha 410205, China.
* Correspondence: [email protected]

Abstract: Image encryption based on chaotic maps is an important way to ensure the secure
communication of digital multimedia on the Internet. To improve the encryption performance and
security of image encryption systems, a new image encryption algorithm is proposed by employing
a compound chaotic map and random cyclic shift. Firstly, an improved Hybrid chaotic system is
designed by coupling Logistic, ICMIC, Tent, and Chebyshev maps (HLITC). Comparison tests with
previous chaotic maps in terms of chaotic trajectory, Lyapunov exponent, and Kolmogorov entropy
illustrate the new hybrid chaotic map has better chaotic performance. Then the proposed HLITC
chaotic system is used to develop a new chaotic image encryption scheme with the double cyclic
shift. The improved HLITC chaotic system is performed to generate key sequences used in the image
scrambling and diffusion stage. The spiral transformation controlled by chaotic sequence is used to
scramble the pixels of the plaintext image, while the XOR operation based on a chaotic map is used
for pixel diffusion. Extensive experiments of statistical analysis, key sensitivity, and keyspace
analysis are conducted. Experimental results show the proposed encryption scheme has good
robustness against brute force attacks, statistical attacks, and differential attacks, and is more
effective than many existing chaotic image encryption algorithms.

Keywords: image encryption; Chebyshev map; spiral transformation; security analysis

1. Introduction
With the rapid development and wide application of new-generation information technologies
such as cloud computing, big data, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence [1–4]. Nowadays,
the dissemination of multimedia data such as digital images on the Internet has become increasingly
prevalent. At the same time, however, the rapidly developing digital signal processing technology
has brought many security problems to the communication and transmission of digital images on the
Internet. Secure transmission and access of digital images in the open network environment have
attracted more and more attention from researchers [5–11]. Image encryption transforms a
meaningful image into an unrecognized noise-like one, and is an effective method to ensure the
security of digital images. Chaos systems have received the researchers’ attention due to their
inherent properties of sensitivity to initial conditions, ergodicity, and random behavior [12,13].
In recent years, many chaotic image encryption schemes have been presented. Pareek et al.
proposed an image encryption algorithm by employing two logistic maps [14]. In the image
encryption scheme, the initial conditions for both logistic maps are derived using an external secret
key, and eight different types of operations are exploited to encrypt the image pixels. Given the
shortcomings of the small parameter space of the Logistic map, Zhang et al. [15] designed an image
encryption algorithm by employing discrete exponential chaotic maps to improve image confusion
and diffusion. Zhu and Sun [12] presented a modified skew tent map and its application in image
encryption. The proposed modified tent map to generate the plaintext-dependent secret keys set. The
diffusion operation with cipher output feedback ensures that the cipher image is dependent on both

© 2023 by the author(s). Distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY license.

Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 6 October 2023 doi:10.20944/preprints202310.0353.v1

the initial keys and the plaintext image. In [16], the Camellia block cipher and the logistic chaotic map
are used to encrypt images. It scrambles the image using the Cat map and generates the round mask
and the post-whitening key with the logistic map. However previous chaos-based image encryption
schemes are built on low-dimensional chaotic maps. The low-dimensional chaotic systems have small
keyspace, and the generated chaotic sequence has poor randomness. Kumar et al. employed multiple
chaotic maps for image encryption [17]. In this scheme, the Logistic map is introduced to shuffle the
pixels of the plaintext image, and Arnold's cat map is used in the diffusion process. Those encryption
schemes based on low-dimensional chaotic sequences [12,14–17] cannot effectively resist statistical
attacks.
Later, the hyperchaotic maps have been investigated to design more secure image encryption
schemes due to their high randomness and ergodicity. Ref. [18] proposed a Lorenz-based image
encryption algorithm with a perceptron model. It extended the periodicity of the Lorenz chaotic
map by dynamically adjusting the chaotic system’s parameters. The modified Lorenz chaotic map is
used to produce three sets of the pseudo-random sequence. Akhshani et al. presented a hierarchy of
2D piecewise chaotic maps with an invariant measure and developed a new image encryption
scheme by using significant properties of these chaotic maps such as ergodicity, sensitivity to the
initial condition, and random-like behavior [19]. The famous Chen hyperchaotic system is used to
generate the shuffling matrix and the diffusing matrix in Ref. [20]. Firstly, the Chen hyper-chaotic
system is used to shuffle the position of the image pixels. Hua et al. built a new 2D chaotic system
(called 2D-LSM) using the Logistic and Sine maps, and the 2D-LSM chaotic map is further used to
devise a new image encryption algorithm based on the image content [21]. To enhance the encryption
effectiveness, Ye et al. proposed a chaotic encryption scheme combining a 3D logistic map and the
secure hash algorithm-3 (SHA-3) [22]. Wang et al. proposed a color image encryption method by
employing 4D chaotic maps and DNA encoding [23]. In the encryption scheme, the rules of DNA
encoding are controlled by four chaotic sequences generated by the new 4D chaotic system. Gong
et al. designed a new 4D chaotic system with coexisting asymmetric attractors [24]. Theoretical
analysis of phase portrait, bifurcation diagram, and Lyapunov exponent, and its applications in
random number generator (RNG) and image encryption verified the feasibility of the new 4D chaotic
map.
Recently, the compound chaotic system has been an effective approach for image encryption
[25–27] because it showed better randomness and noise-like behaviors than other chaos. Zhu et al.
proposed a 2D composite discrete chaotic system (CDCS) [28]. To obtain a good permutation effect,
the new CDCS system is used for the bit-level permutation and the pixel-level diffusion. In 2017, they
developed another compound homogeneous hyper-chaotic system (CHHCS) that is employed to
permutate the plaintext image [29]. In addition, dynamic LBP operations are used to diffuse each
permutated pixel. Hua et al. introduced a cosine-transform-based chaotic system (CTBCS) [30]. The
CTBCS is exploited to generate three chaotic maps, one of these maps is used to design an image
encryption algorithm where the high-efficiency scrambling is used to separate adjacent pixels and
the random order substitution is used to spread a small change in the plaintext image to all pixels of
the cipher-image. Gao et al. presented an image encryption algorithm by coupling the sine map and
the tent map [31]. The bit rearrangement is used to further improve the composite sine-tent map.
Image pixels are encrypted by applying the most significant bit substitution, scrambling, and
diffusion. To overcome bandwidth and security issues simultaneously, Yadav et al. devised a joint
image compression and encryption scheme using hybrid chaotic maps [32]. The Absolute Moment
Truncation Coding approach is used for compression and Arnold’s Cat and Henon maps are applied
to the compressed image for encryption. To improve the chaotic characteristics, Zhang and Liu [33]
designed a compound Sine-Piecewise Linear Chaotic Map (SPWLCM) and proposed an image
encryption algorithm using this SPWLCM chaos and DNA coding. Wang and Du developed two
chaotic systems: 1D Logistic-Chebyshev map (1DLCM) and Logistic-Chebyshev coupled map lattices
(LCDCML) [34]. LCDCML uses 1DLCM as the dynamic coupling coefficient and further proposes a
pixel-level and bit-level image encryption algorithm using these two new chaotic systems. In the
encryption scheme, the image scrambling and diffusion are implemented with chaotic sequences
Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 6 October 2023 doi:10.20944/preprints202310.0353.v1

generated by the LCDCML map. Basha et al. presented a bit-level color image encryption scheme
using Logistic-Sine-Tent-Chebyshev (LSTC) map [35]. The LSTC map, cyclic shifts, and the XOR
operation are used for the mutual diffusion of two color components. The binary element is
exchanged and transformed into another binary bit plane by using the LSTC map.
To obtain better randomness and ergodicity, we constructed a new hybrid chaotic map by
coupling multiple chaotic maps and designed a new image encryption application for this compound
chaotic map. The main contributions of this paper are summarized as follows: (1) Developed a new
hybrid chaotic map by coupling Logistic, ICMIC, Tent, and Chebyshev maps (called HLITC).
Performance evaluations by chaotic trajectory, Lyapunov exponent, and Kolmogorov entropy testify
the new hybrid chaotic map has better key sensitivity to the initial value and larger control parameter
space. (2) Proposed a chaotic image encryption algorithm using the presented HLITC system. In the
encryption, key sequences generated by the HLITC map are used for image scrambling and diffusion
stages. The spiral transformation controlled by the HLITC map is employed to scramble the pixels of
the plaintext image, and the XOR operation dependent on the chaotic map is used for image diffusion.
(3) The experiments demonstrate that the proposed encryption algorithm has high resistance to
statistical attacks, differential attacks, and brute-force attacks, and it can achieve higher security than
several previous chaotic image encryption algorithms.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 introduces the classic chaotic maps and
the new hybrid chaotic map. The new image encryption algorithm based on the HLITC system is
presented in Section 3. We discuss the experimental results in Section 4 and conclude in Section 5.

2. Construction of the Hybrid Chaotic Map

This section presents the new hybrid chaotic system by coupling Logistic, ICMIC, Tent, and
Chebyshev maps (HLITC), and their properties. To prove the superiority of the HLITC system, a
comparison between three sample chaotic maps is conducted in terms of chaotic trajectory, Lyapunov
exponent, and Kolmogorov entropy.

2.1. Classic Chaotic Maps

2.1.1. Logistic Map

The Logistic map is a quadratic polynomial map, which is one of the typical maps representing
complex nonlinear behavior. The mathematical expression is written as follows.
𝑥𝑛+1 = 𝜇𝑥𝑛 (1 − 𝑥𝑛 ), 𝜇 ∈ [0,4], 𝑥𝑛 ∈ (0,1) (1)
where μ is the bifurcation parameter, only when 3.5699456< μ ≤ 4, the Logistic map falls into the
chaotic state. The bifurcation diagram of the Logistic map is shown in Figure 1(a).

2.1.2. ICMIC Map

He et al. proposed a 1D iterative chaotic map with infinite collapses (ICMIC) [36]. Compared
with the Logistic map and Tent map, the ICMIC map has the advantages of uniform traversal and
fast convergence. It can be expressed as
𝑥𝑛+1 = 𝑠𝑖𝑛(𝛼/𝑥𝑛 ), 𝛼 ∈ [0, ∞], 𝑥𝑛 ∈ [−1,0), ] ∪ (0,1] (2)
Figure 1(b) shows the corresponding bifurcation diagram.

2.1.3. Tent Map

Tent map is a piecewise linear map with a relatively uniform distribution. The bifurcation
diagram for the tent map is represented in Figure 1(c). It has been widely used in chaotic
cryptography. Its mathematical expression is as follows.
𝜇𝑥 , 𝑥𝑛 ∈ (0,0.5)
𝑥𝑛+1 = { 𝑛 (3)
𝜇(1 − 𝑥𝑛 ), 𝑥𝑛 ∈ [0.5,1)
where the control parameter 𝜇 ∈ (0,2).
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2.1.4. Chebyshev Map

Chebyshev map is one of 1D chaotic maps with good nonlinear dynamic characteristics. Figure
1(d) is the bifurcation diagram for the Chebyshev map. When the control parameter 𝜇 is greater than
1, chaos phenomenon begins to occur. When greater than 2, The map is in a chaotic state. It can be
defined as follows.
𝑥𝑛+1 = 𝑐𝑜𝑠(𝜇 ∙ 𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑥𝑛 ), 𝑥𝑛 ∈ [−1,1] (4)

2.2. Proposed HLITC Chaotic System

To enhance the randomness of chaotic systems, we design a new chaotic system by combining
the Logistic map, ICMIC map, Tent map, and Chebyshev map. The main process of building the
chaotic system is as follows:
First, compound ICMIC map and Logistic map, we have
𝜇𝜋
𝑥𝑛+1 = 𝑠𝑖𝑛 ( ) (5)
𝜇𝑥𝑛 (1−𝑥𝑛 )
𝜇
To further skip blank windows, we change the parameter 𝜇 to ( + 3.6). The compound ICMIC
4
map can be rewritten as
𝜇
( 4 +3.6)𝜋
𝑥𝑛+1 = 𝑠𝑖𝑛 ( ) (6)
𝜇𝑥𝑛 (1−𝑥𝑛 )

Then compound the Chebyshev map and the Tent map, and modify control parameter 𝜇 by
𝜇 + 2 to avoid falling into blank areas. The compounded Chebyshev chaotic map is expressed as
𝑐𝑜𝑠((𝜇 + 2)𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑜𝑠(4𝜇𝑥𝑛 )), 𝑥𝑛 ∈ (0,0.5)
𝑥𝑛+1 = { (7)
𝑐𝑜𝑠 ((𝜇 + 2)𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑜𝑠(4𝜇(1 − 𝑥𝑛 ))), 𝑥𝑛 ∈ [0.5,1)
Finally, to improve the randomness of the chaotic system, the modular function is used to
integrate the compound Chebyshev map and the improved ICMIC map, and the hybrid HLITC
chaotic system is produced. Its mathematical definition is as follows.
𝜇
( 4 +3.6)
𝑚𝑜𝑑 (𝑠𝑖𝑛 ( ) + 𝑐𝑜𝑠 ((𝜇 + 2)𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑜𝑠((𝜇 + 3.6)𝑥𝑛 )) , 1), 𝑥𝑛 ∈ (0,0.5)
𝜇𝑥𝑛 (1−𝑥𝑛 )
𝑥𝑛+1 = 𝜇 (8)
( 4 +3.6)
𝑚𝑜𝑑 (𝑠𝑖𝑛 ( ) + 𝑐𝑜𝑠 ((𝜇 + 2)𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑜𝑠((𝜇 + 3.6)(1 − 𝑥𝑛 ))) , 1) , 𝑥𝑛 ∈ [0.5,1)
𝑥𝑛
{
The improved HLITC map makes the chaotic sequence distribution more uniform and has a
large parameter space range from 𝜇 ∈ [0, ∞). It can avoid the stability window and the blank area.
Its bifurcation diagram is illustrated in Figure 1(e). From Figure 1, it can be seen that the HLITC map
has a larger parameter space and better randomness than the traditional chaotic maps.

(a) Logistic (b) ICMIC

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(c) Tent (d) Chebyshev

(e) HLITC
Figure 1. Dynamics comparison with Bifurcation diagrams: (a) Logistic, (b) ICMIC, (c) Tent, (d)
Chebyshev and (e) HLITC.

2.3. Chaotic Behaviours

In this section, Lyapunov Exponent (LE), and information entropy are further used to analyze
the dynamics of the HLITC chaotic system. Figure 2 shows the comparison between Logistic, ICMIC,
Tent, Chebyshev, and HLITC for the parameter Lyapunov Exponent. From Figure 2, It can be found
that all the LE values of the HLTIC map for all control parameter values are greater than 0. So, the
HLITC map has more chaotic behaviors than the classic chaotic maps in terms of LE.

(a) Logistic (b) ICMIC

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(c) Tent (d) Chebyshev

(e) HLITC
Figure 2. Lyapunov exponent diagrams of different chaotic maps: (a) Logistic, (b) ICMIC, (c) Tent, (d)
Chebyshev, and (e) HLITC.

Information entropy is usually used to measure the uncertainty of a variable. The greater the
uncertainty of variables, the higher the information entropy, and it is defined as
1
𝐻(𝑋) = ∑𝐿−1
𝑖=0 𝑝(𝑥𝑖 )𝑙𝑜𝑔 )
(9)
𝑝(𝑥𝑖
where 𝑋 = {𝑥𝑖 |𝑥𝑖 ∈ [0,255]}, 𝑝(𝑥𝑖 ) is the probability of 𝑥𝑖 , and L = 256 for gray-scale images.
The maximum value of information entropy is 8 for the grayscale images.
Figure 3 shows the information entropy diagrams of different chaotic maps. It can be seen that
the entropy values of output sequences generated by the proposed HLITC map are close to the ideal
value 8, which indicates the HTLITC map has better unpredictability than the above-mentioned
traditional chaotic maps.

(a) Logistic (b) ICMIC

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(c) Tent (d) Chebyshev

(e) HLITC
Figure 3. Dynamics comparison of different chaotic maps in terms of information entropy.

2.4. Randomness Test

To further test the randomness of the HLITC map, the NIST SP800 test is performed on the
chaotic sequences generated by the HTLITC system. The NIST randomness testing has 15
performance tests which are accessed by P-value. If the P-value is less than 0.01, the randomness of
the tested sequence is poor, and if the P-value is greater than or equal to 0.01, the randomness of the
tested sequence is good.
In the testing, the chaotic sequence generated by the HLITC map is first converted into a binary
sequence and then the NIST randomness testing is performed. The test results are listed in Table 1.
From Table 1, it can be seen that the chaotic sequence produced by the new HLITC system has good
randomness among all 15 indicators tested by NIST, and all P-values are greater than 0.01, indicating
that the generated chaotic sequence has good randomness.

Table 1. Results of NIST randomness test for HLITC.

Test Name P-value Results

Approximate entropy test 0.9548 Success
Block frequency test 0.0383 Success
Cumulative sums (forward) test 0.2631 Success
FFT test 0.2789 Success
Frequency test 0.2919 Success
Linear complexity test 0.8934 Success
Longest runs of ones test 0.4398 Success
Nonoverlapping template matching test 0.9961 Success
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Overlapping template matching test 0.4771 Success

Binary matrix rank test 0.9562 Success
Runs test 0.3959 Success
Serial test 0.0297 Success
Maurer's universal statistical test 0.4439 Success
Random excursions test 0.3061 Success
Random excursions variant test 0.0527 Success

3. Image Encryption Based on Hybrid HLITC Map

This section introduces the proposed image encryption algorithms based on spiral
transformation and chaos maps. The proposed image encryption algorithm based on the HLITC map
is composed of three stages, i.e., key generation, image scrambling, and image diffusion process as
illustrated in Figure 4.

Subblock
Plaintext Pixel scrambling Image Diffusion
scrambling based Cipher image
image using spiral transform based on chaotic map
on chaotic map
L1 L2 L3

Hash value K
HLITC map
External parameters

Figure 4. The image encryption process.

3.1. Key Generation

To enhance the security and enlarge the key space, the hash value of the plaintext image and
external parameters are employed to produce the control parameters and initial values of the
proposed HLITC map. Assume that the original image is denoted as 𝐼𝑚×𝑛 . The detailed process of
key generation is illustrated as follows.
Step 1: Obtain the hash value K of the plaintext image by applying the SHA-256 hash function.
Step 2: Divide the hash value K into 32 segments with each of one byte. Thus, K can be expressed
as 𝐾 = 𝑘1 ,𝑘2 , … , 𝑘𝑖 , … , 𝑘32 , where i=1,2,…,…,32, and 𝑘𝑖 is an integer in the interval [0,255].
Step 3: Set the secret keys 𝜆𝑖 , i=1,2,3 as the external parameters, and generate the initial values
𝑥𝑖 and control parameters 𝜇𝑖 .
𝑚𝑜𝑑(𝑘
6(𝑖−1)+1 ⊗𝑘
6(𝑖−1)+2 ⊗𝑘
6(𝑖−1)+3 ⊗𝑘
6(𝑖−1)+4 ⊗𝑘6(𝑖−1)+5 ⊗𝑘6𝑖 ⊗𝑘31 +𝜆𝑖 ,256)
𝑥 =
{ 𝑖 256 (10)
𝜇𝑖 = 𝑚𝑜𝑑(∑5𝑗=1 𝑘6(𝑖+2)+𝑗 + 𝑘32 + 𝜆𝑖+3 , 256)
Step 4: Iterate the HLITC map for 𝑛0 + 𝑛𝑢𝑚 times using 𝑥𝑖 and 𝜇𝑖 as the initial values and
the control parameters, and generate 3 chaotic sequences 𝑦1 , 𝑦2 , 𝑦3 . Their length 𝑛𝑢𝑚 is 𝑁𝑏 , 𝑁𝑏 ,
and 𝑚 × 𝑛, respectively. To minimize the nonperiodic effect, the first 𝑛0 values are discarded, where
𝑚 × 𝑛 is the size of the original image.
Step 5: Produce 3 random integer sequences 𝐿1 , 𝐿2 , 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐿3 for image scrambling and image
diffsion.
𝐿1 = 𝑚𝑜𝑑(𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑(𝑦1 × 1015 ), 𝑁𝑏 ) + 1 (11)
15 ),
𝐿2 = 𝑚𝑜𝑑(𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑(𝑦2 × 10 𝐵) + 1 (12)
𝐿3 = 𝑚𝑜𝑑(𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑(𝑦3 × 1015 ), 256) (13)
where B is the number of elements of an image subblock, 𝑁𝑏 is the number of image subblocks.
𝑚×𝑛
𝑁𝑏 = (14)
𝐵
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3.2. Image encryption

In this method, to enhance the pseudo-randomness of image scrambling, the arbitrary points
spiral transformation based on a chaotic map is used for image scrambling, and the XOR operation
of chaotic control is introduced in the pixel diffusion process to further improve the encryption effect.

3.2.1. Image scrambling based on a spiral transformation

The image scrambling process consists of image sub-block scrambling based on chaos control
and pixel scrambling based on arbitrary points spiral transformation. The detailed scrambling
process is as follows.
Step 1: Divide the plaintext image 𝐼𝑚×𝑛 into subblock of size 𝑠 × 𝑠, i.e. 𝐵 = 𝑠 × 𝑠.
Step 2: Use a chaotic sequence 𝐿1 of length 𝑁𝑏 to scramble each image subblock 𝐼𝑏 𝑖 , and so
the scrambled image 𝐼′ is obtained.
Step 3: Generate a chaotic sequence 𝐿2 by utilizing the average of each image subblock 𝐼𝑏 𝑖 .
Step 4: According to the random starting point 𝐿2 (𝑖), we perform the spiral transformation on
all the pixels within each image subblock to obtain the scrambled image 𝐼′′ .
Figure 5 shows an example of image scrambling based on spiral transformation.

Figure 5. Image scrambling based on a spiral transformation.

3.2.2. Image diffusion based on chaotic map

Step 1: Read scrambled image data P from the scrambled image 𝐼′′ .
Step 2: Reshape matrix P to sequence 𝑃′ of length 𝑚 × 𝑛.
Step 3: Perform XOR operation for image diffusion, the detailed process is written as follows.
𝑃′ (𝑖)⨂𝐿3 (𝑖)⨂𝐸(1), 𝑖=1
𝐸(𝑖) = { ′ (15)
𝑃 (𝑖)⨂𝐿3 (𝑖)⨂𝐸(𝑖 − 1), 𝑖 > 1
∑32
𝑖=1 𝑘𝑖
Where 𝐸(1) = 𝑚𝑜𝑑 (𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 ( × 1015 ) , 256)
32
Step 4: Reshape sequence E to a matrix of size 𝑚 × 𝑛 to obtain the final encrypted image 𝐼𝑒 .
The proposed image encryption system is symmetric, and the decryption algorithm is the
inverse process of the encryption algorithm.

4. Experimental Results
In the experiment, some grayscale images of size 512×512 are used to evaluate encryption
performance. Figure 6 illustrates the results of image encryption and decryption using the proposed
encryption algorithm. From Figure 6, it can be seen that the ciphertext image is an irregular noise
signal image, and it is hard to observe the relevant information from the ciphertext image. However,
the decrypted image is consistent with the plaintext image, indicating that the proposed encryption
method has good encryption performance.
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10

Figure 6. Results of image encryption and decryption. left column: plaintext image, center column:
cipher image, and right column: decipher image (top to down: Lena, Peppers, Man, and Baboon).

4.1. Histogram analysis

The image histogram is the probability statistics of image pixels, and the ideal distribution of
encrypted image pixels should be uniform. Figure 7 shows the comparison of image histograms
before and after encryption.
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11

Figure 7. Histogram analysis (top to down: Lena, Peppers, Man and Baboon).

From Figure 7, it can be observed that the histogram distribution of plaintext images is uneven,
while the histogram of ciphertext images is uniformly distributed, indicating that the proposed
method has good resistance to statistical attacks. In addition, the histogram variance is used to
quantitatively measure the uniformity of pixel distribution in ciphertext images. The smaller the
value of the histogram variance, the more uniform the distribution of ciphertext images is, and the
higher the security of the encryption method. The corresponding results of the histogram variance
test for ciphertext images are shown in Table 2. From Table 2, it can be seen that the histogram
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variance of the ciphertext image obtained by our encryption method is smaller than that of the
existing encryption methods, indicating that it has good security.

Table 2. Histogram variance analysis of ciphertext image.

Encryption method (ciphertext image) Histogram variance

[37] (Lena) 242.4651
[38] (Lena) 124.6218
[34] (Lena) 68.9023
Our method (Lena) 31.5731
Our method (Peppers) 29.7752
Our method (Man) 32.6184
Our method (Baboon) 30.2543

4.2. Correlation analysis

There exist rich relationships and dependencies between adjacent pixels in original images,
resulting in high correlation. Therefore, eliminating the correlation between adjacent pixels is one of
the key requirements for ensuring the security of image encryption methods. Cipher images with low
correlation in the horizontal, vertical, and diagonal directions are considered to be effective in
resisting statistical attacks. The visual results of the correlation before and after encryption are shown
in Figure 8. From Figure 8, it can be seen that the scatter points related to adjacent pixels in the
plaintext image are relatively concentrated, while the ciphertext image is uniformly distributed,
indicating that the encryption algorithm effectively eliminates the correlation in all directions of
plaintext images.
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Figure 8. Pixel correlation between Lena image and its ciphertext image in various directions (Left:
plaintext image Right: ciphertext image, top to down: Horizontal, Vertical, and Diagonal).

4.3. Analysis for differential attack

A differential attack means that an attacker finds the corresponding relationship between the
plaintext image and the ciphertext image by comparing the differences between the corresponding
ciphertext before and after slightly changing the plaintext. The ability of algorithms to resist
differential attacks is generally evaluated using two indicators: Number of Pixels Change Rate
(NPCR) and Unified Average Change Intensity (UACI).
0, 𝑖𝑓 𝐼1 (𝑖, 𝑗) = 𝐼2 (𝑖, 𝑗)
𝐶(𝑖, 𝑗) = { (16)
1, 𝑒𝑙𝑠𝑒
∑𝑚 𝑛
𝑖=1 ∑𝑗=1 𝐶(𝑖,𝑗)
𝑁𝑃𝐶𝑅 = × 100% (17)
𝑚×𝑛
∑𝑚 𝑛
𝑖=1 ∑𝑗=1|𝐼1 (𝑖,𝑗)− 𝐼2 (𝑖,𝑗)|
𝑈𝐶𝐴𝐼 = (18)
𝑚×𝑛×255

In the Lena plaintext image, randomly select a pixel and increase its value by 1. Use the algorithm
in this paper to encrypt and calculate the NPCR and UACI values. The results are shown in Table 3.

Table 3. Comparison of NPCR and UCAI results.

Metrics Our method [37] [38]

NPCR 99.6627 99.6134 99.6283
UCAI 33.64 33.28 33.53

From Table 3, it can be seen that the NPCR and UACI values of the encrypted images using our
algorithm all exceed 99.66 and 33.60 respectively. Compared with other chaotic image encryption
algorithms, our algorithm has slightly higher average NPCR and UCAI values, indicating that it can
more effectively resist differential attacks.

4.4. Information entropy analysis

Information entropy reflects the uncertainty of image information. Generally, the larger the
entropy, the greater the amount of information, and the less detectable information For 256-level
grayscale images, the theoretical value of information entropy is 8. Table 4 records the information
entropy before and after image encryption, and compares it with other algorithms The results show
that the encrypted image proposed in this paper can effectively conceal information.

Table 4. Information entropy comparison.

Plaintext image Cipher text image [37] [38]

7.4455 7.9986 7.9935 7.9926
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5. Conclusions
This paper designs a composite Chebyshev chaotic map (HLITC), and random testing shows
that the composite HLITC map has good randomness. Subsequently, a new image encryption
algorithm is proposed by combining the HLITC map with the spiral transformation. Firstly, the initial
values of the compound HLITC chaotic system are generated using the SHA-256 hash function and
plaintext images and used for the generation of chaotic sequences. Then, a random starting point
spiral transformation is introduced to eliminate the periodicity of chaotic systems. The spiral
transformation is used for the scrambling, and the image diffusion is achieved by combining chaos
and XOR operation. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively hide
plaintext information, has strong key sensitivity, and can resist differential attacks and other attack
methods.

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, M.J.; Methodology, M.J. and H.Y.; Investigation, M.J.; Writing—
original draft, M.J.; Writing—review and editing, H.Y. All authors have read and agreed to the published version
of the manuscript.
Funding: This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61872408,
the Natural Science Foundation of Changsha under Grant 2022199, and the Social Science Foundation of Hunan
Province under Grant 19YBA098.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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