Chaos-based encryption schemes have attracted many researchers around the world in the digital image security domain. Digital images can be secured using existing chaotic maps, multiple chaotic maps, and several other hybrid dynamic systems that enhance the non-linearity of digital images. The combined property of confusion and diffusion was introduced by Claude Shannon which can be employed for digital image security. In this paper, we proposed a novel system that is computationally less expensive and provided a higher level of security. The system is based on a shuffling process with fractals key along with three-dimensional Lorenz chaotic map. The shuffling process added the confusion property and the pixels of the standard image is shuffled. Three-dimensional Lorenz chaotic map is used for a diffusion process which distorted all pixels of the image. In the statistical security test, means square error (MSE) evaluated error value was greater than the average value of 10000 for all standard images. The value of peak signal to noise (PSNR) was 7.69(dB) for the test image. Moreover, the calculated correlation coefficient values for each direction of the encrypted images was less than zero with a number of pixel change rate (NPCR) higher than 99%. During the security test, the entropy values were more than 7.9 for each grey channel which is almost equal to the ideal value of 8 for an 8-bit system. Numerous security tests and low computational complexity tests validate the security, robustness, and real-time implementation of the presented scheme.
Keywords: Lorenz chaotic maps; chaotic maps; confusion; diffusion; fractals; hybrid dynamical system; non-linearity; shuffling.