A hybrid algorithm for enhanced image security using chaos and DNA theory

An image encryption algorithm based on chaotic theory and Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequencing is proposed here. Initially, two chaotic sequences are generated from the logistic map function, one for image permutation and other for image diffusion. The two internal secret keys derived from the 120 bit user defined secret key serve as the initial condition for the chaotic sequences. Both the image and the mask for diffusion are encoded into DNA sequences using the possible eight DNA complementary rules. After that, image permutation and diffusion operations are performed in the DNA domain. DNA XOR operation is used to carry out diffusion which significantly reduces the correlation between adjacent pixels of the plain image. Simulation results and performance analysis show that the proposed work has high security, large key space, and high key sensitivity and it is also able to resist all types of attacks.