An efficient diffusion approach for chaos-based image encryption

One of the existing chaos-based image cryptosystems is composed of alternative substitution and diffusion stages. A multi-dimensional chaotic map is usually employed in the substitution stage for image pixel permutation while a one-dimensional (1D) chaotic map is used for diffusion purpose. As the latter usually involves real number arithmetic operations, the overall encryption speed is limited by the diffusion stage. In this paper, we propose a more efficient diffusion mechanism using simple table lookup and swapping techniques as a light-weight replacement of the 1D chaotic map iteration. Simulation results show that at a similar security level, the proposed cryptosystem needs about one-third the encryption time of a similar cryptosystem. The effective acceleration of chaos-based image cryptosystems is thus achieved.