This paper proposes a more efficient attack method on an image fusion encryption algorithm based on DNA operation and hyperchaos. Although several references have reported some methods to crack the image encryption algorithm, they are not the most efficient. The proposed chosen-plaintext attack method can break the encryption scheme with (4×N/M+1) or (M/(4×N)+1) chosen-plaintext images, which is much less than the number of chosen-plaintext images used in the previous cracking algorithms, where M and N represent the height and width of the target ciphertext image, respectively. The effectiveness of the proposed chosen-plaintext attack is supported by theoretical analysis, and verified by experimental results.
Keywords: DNA coding; chosen-plaintext attack; hyper-chaotic system; security analysis.