A symmetric color image encryption algorithm using the intrinsic features of bit distributions

In recent years, a variety of chaos-based image encryption algorithms have been proposed. Most of them employ the confusion-diffusion architecture and operate at the pixel level. In this paper, we analyze the intrinsic features of the bit distributions, the high correlation among bit planes and other issues related to the bit information of an image. Due to the superior characteristics of bit-level operations and the intrinsic bit features of the image, an expand-and-shrink strategy is employed to shuffle the image with reconstructed permuting plane. Simulations have been carried out and the results demonstrate the superior security and high efficiency of the proposed scheme.