Cracking a hierarchical chaotic image encryption algorithm based on permutation

In year 2000, an efficient hierarchical chaotic image encryption (HCIE) algorithm was proposed, which divides a plain-image of size M×N with T possible value levels into K blocks of the same size and then operates position permutation on two levels: intra-block and inter-block. As a typical position...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Signal processing Vol. 118; pp. 203 - 210
Main Author: Li, Chengqing
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier B.V 01.01.2016
Subjects:
Chaotic cryptanalysis
Chosen-plaintext attack
Histogram
Known-plaintext attack
Permutation
Histogram
Permutation
Known-plaintext attack
Chosen-plaintext attack
Chaotic cryptanalysis
ISSN:0165-1684, 1872-7557
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:In year 2000, an efficient hierarchical chaotic image encryption (HCIE) algorithm was proposed, which divides a plain-image of size M×N with T possible value levels into K blocks of the same size and then operates position permutation on two levels: intra-block and inter-block. As a typical position permutation-only encryption algorithm, it has received intensive attention. The present paper analyzes specific security performance of HCIE against ciphertext-only attack and known/chosen-plaintext attack. It is found that onlyO(⌈logT(M·N/K)⌉)known/chosen plain-images are sufficient to achieve a good performance, and the computational complexity isO(M·N·⌈logT(M·N/K)⌉), which effectively demonstrates that hierarchical permutation-only image encryption algorithms are less secure than normal (i.e., non-hierarchical) ones. Detailed experiment results are given to verify the feasibility of the known-plaintext attack. In addition, it is pointed out that the security of HCIE against ciphertext-only attack was much overestimated. •Security performance of an encryption algorithm called HCIE is analyzed in detail.•Hierarchical permutation-only encryption schemes are less secure than normal ones.•Security of HCIE against ciphertext-only attack was reported being overestimated.
ISSN:0165-1684
1872-7557
DOI:10.1016/j.sigpro.2015.07.008