A Novel Image Encryption Scheme Based on Different Block Sizes for Grayscale and Color Images

Abstract: In this paper, two image encryption schemes are proposed for grayscale and color images. The two encryption schemes are based on dividing each image into blocks of different sizes. In the first scheme, the two dimension ($2$D) input image is divided into various blocks of size $N \times N$. Each block is transformed into a one dimensional ($1$D) array by using the Zigzag pattern. Then, the exclusive or (XOR) logical operation is used to encrypt each block with the analogous secret key. In the second scheme, after the transformation process, the first block of each image is encrypted by the corresponding secret key. Then, before the next block is encrypted, it is XORed with the first encrypted block to become the next input to the encrypting routine and so on. This feedback mechanism depends on the cipher block chaining (CBC) mode of operation which considers the heart of some ciphers because it is highly nonlinear. In the case of color images, the color component is separated into blocks with the same size and different secret keys. The used secret key sequences are generated from elliptic curves (EC) over a \textit{binary} finite field $\mathbb{F}_{2^{m}}$. Finally, the experimental results are carried out and security analysis of the ciphered images are demonstrated that the two proposed schemes had a better performance in terms of security, sensitivity and robustness.