Experimental Evaluation of Various Chaos-based Image Encryption Schemes

Abubakar Abba; Nisar Ahmed; Hakeem Adewale Sulaimon

doi:10.62411/jcta.13483

Authors

Abubakar Abba Federal University of Education Zaria
Nisar Ahmed University of Engineering and Technology
Hakeem Adewale Sulaimon Federal University of Education

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.62411/jcta.13483

Keywords:

Cryptography, Cryptographic security, Encryption performance, Histogram analysis, Image encryption, Security

Abstract

The widespread use of digital images, driven by low-cost, handheld acquisition devices, has increased the need for robust security measures to safeguard privacy. This demand is further underscored by rising identity theft and other image-related crimes. This study presents a chaos-based experimental evaluation of contemporary image encryption algorithms. Owing to intrinsic properties such as sensitivity to initial conditions and pseudo-randomness, chaos theory has become increasingly prominent in image encryption. Five chaos-based image encryption schemes were selected and applied to a dataset of 26 color images. The evaluation covers both encryption performance and cryptographic security. Decryption quality is measured using Mean Squared Error (MSE), Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR), Structural Similarity Index (SSIM), and DeepEns. Cryptographic security is assessed using entropy, correlation coefficient, Number of Pixel Change Rate (NPCR), Unified Average Changing Intensity (UACI), average and maximum deviation, and histogram analysis. Experimental results indicate that all evaluated schemes demonstrate strong cryptographic security and comparable encryption performance, with broadly similar effectiveness across methods.

Author Biographies

Abubakar Abba, Federal University of Education Zaria

Department of Computer Science, Federal University of Education, Zaria, P.M.B 1041, Nigeria

Nisar Ahmed, University of Engineering and Technology

Department of Computer Science (New Campus), University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, 54000 Pakistan

Hakeem Adewale Sulaimon, Federal University of Education

Department of Computer Science, Federal University of Education, Zaria, P.M.B 1041, Nigeria

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