An Efficient Image Encryption Scheme Based on:
Henon Map, Skew Tent Map and S-Box
Jansher Khan Jawad Ahmad
Department of Electrical and Department of Electronic and
Electronic Engineering Computer Engineering
Istanbul Technical University Graduate School, Hongik University
Istanbul, Turkey South Korea
Email: jskm893@gmail.com Email: jawad.saj@gmail.com
Abstract—Due to easy and simple implementation, normally
single 1-D chaotic maps like logistic and sine maps are employed
in multimedia data encryption. However, data encrypted through
a single chaotic map does not provide better security in terms of
resistance against various attacks. In this paper, 2D Henon
chaotic map and skew tent map are deployed in the design of an
efficient chaos-based image encryption algorithm. To confuse the
relationship between plaintext and ciphertext images, both
chaotic maps play a key role in the permutation and diffusion
mechanism. In the confusion stage, firstly, the Henon chaotic
map generates two different chaotic sequences, which are further
applied in row and column permutation of plaintext image. The
pixel values diffusion is produced by unimodal skew tent map via
XOR operations. In the last stage of encryption algorithm,
Hussain’s substitution box is used to substitute each pixel into a
new random pixel. Extensive security analysis and resistance to
statistical attack prove the security of anticipated scheme.
IndexTerms—Henon map, Skew Tent Map, Confusion,
Diffusion, S-Box
I. INTRODUCTION
Due to the blanketing nature of chaos theory, it is spread
over many fields of todays, technology. That might be the
reason; it is extended in every subject, like computer, physics,
engineering, mathematics, biology and even arts. Most
commonly, it plays an active role in many cryptographic
applications. In current era, chaotic systems are analyzed to be
extremely powerful for real time implementation in secure
communications. The security of chaotic systems is due to its
inherent properties like sensitivity to control parameters, initial
conditions, non-periodicity and deterministic pseudo-random
behavior. Because of some other properties, for example,
nonlinear dynamics and larger key space, chaotic maps can be
implemented in modern cryptosystems. Combination of chaos
theory and cryptography has set a new direction for
information security or secure communications.
Matthews [1] was the first one who suggested the idea of
chaos-based encryption algorithm. After the novel idea of
Mattews, many chaos-based image encryption schemes has
been presented and analyzed. Among these encryption
algorithms, chaotic maps such as Logistic map, Henon map,
Unimodel skew tent map, Arnold map, Baker map and
Standard map are applied extensively because of simple
978-1-4673-6601-4/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE
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Seong Oun Hwang
Department of Computer and
Information Communication
Engineering, Hongik University
South Korea
Email: sohwang@hongik.ac.kr
implementation [2-8].It is reported in [3], some chaos-based
image encryptions algorithms are susceptible to various attacks
due to their weaker encryption mechanism and small key
spaces. Nowadays, chaos based cryptosystems are gaining the
attention of researchers for developing novel secure image
encryption techniques. Newly designed schemes are supposed
to be secure and which also meet the demands for a real-time
image encryption and then transmission overrun secure
channels. For the sake of improving security characteristics,
chaos based encryption algorithms usually consist of two
processes: (1) chaotic confusion (permutation), which is
basically shuffling the positions of pixels,(2) chaotic diffusion,
changing the pixels gray values. It is understood that a good
encryption algorithm should be sensitive to cipher keys. The
confusion and diffusion processes should also possesses better
statistical properties to frustrate statistical attack, known as
plaintext attack, chosen-plaintext attack and differential attack
etc. In this paper, the plaintext image is shuffled row-wise and
column-wise by using generalized 2-D Henon map which
confirms better shuffling effects. To make the algorithm more
secure against various kinds of attacks, diffusion is also carried
out. In the process of diffusion, pixels of shuffled image are
bitwise XORed with random chaotic values which is generated
by the skew tent map. In the last stage of proposed scheme,
pixels are transformed to new pixels via Hussain’s Substitution
Box (S-Box).
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In section II,
Henon and skew tent maps are defined and their chaotic
properties are also analyzed. Section III demonstrates the
proposed encryption scheme. The security and experimental
analysis are presented in section IV. Section V concludes the
paper.
II. PRELIMINARIES
In this paper, we use two chaotic maps, Henon map [9] and
skew tent map for shuffling and diffusion process respectively.
To add some other security characteristics, we also use the
Hussain’s S-Box in the proposed scheme. In this section, we
shortly discuss how the Henon map, skew tent map and
Hussain S-Box can play a key role in image encryption
scheme.
 Skew Tent Map
1
Henon Map
0.4 0.9

0.8
0.3

0.7
0.2
0.6
0.1
0.5
0
Y

0.4

-0.1
0.3

-0.2 0.2

-0.3 0.1

0
-0.4 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3
-1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
X
(a)
1.5
Fig.2. The plot of unimodel skew tent map

1 two random sequences which permutes row and column

positions of an image, respectively.
0.5

A. SKEW TENT MAP

0
Skew tent map U0:[0, 1] [0, 1], also known as
-0.5
asymmetric tent map is a 1-D chaotic map. It is most widely
used in many cryptographic applications [10, 11].
-1 Mathematically, it is given by:

-1.5
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
(b)
Fig. 1. (a) Attractors for the Henon map with a = 1.4 and b
= 0.3. (b) Bifurcation diagram of the Henon map for b = 0.3.
A. HENON MAP
In 1976, Henon proposed a 2-D invertible chaotic system. It
was a simplified solution of the Poincare map for the Lorenz
model, represented by the state equations with a chaotic
attractor [9]. Mathematically, Henon map can be written as
follows:
Where a and b are known as bifurcation parameters. The
contraction in 2-D Henon map is independent of x and y. The
parameters a and b are examined for various numerical values
and the chaotic nature can be establish fora = 1.4 and b = 0.3
only. Figure 1(a) highlights the diagram of the Henon map
attractor map on the x-y plane. Figure 1(b) exhibits the
bifurcation behavior of the Henon map with b = 0.3.Along the
horizontal axis, x coordinate of the attracting set are plotted for
different values in the range 0 a . At a = 0.35, the
iteration sequence starts to split into a two-periodic oscillation,
which is continued up to the value of 0.85. This splitting
mechanism is also known as periodic-doubling bifurcation. In
the approximation range,0.85 , successive doubling
of period occurs. For the value of , the periodicity
changes to chaotic behavior in the dark region. Due to this
chaotic behavior, we use the Henon map in our proposed
encryption scheme. The Henon map is employed for producing
1 1.2 1.4 [ ]
(2)
]
Where a ϵ (0,1) is called the control parameter and x ϵ [0,
1] is known as the state of system. Skew tent map is a
noninvertible transformation of the unit interval onto itself. At
a = 0.5, U0becomes a regular tent map. The transformation of
the skew tent map is continuous and piecewise linear. From
Fig.2,the slope of the left branch is: and the slope of the
right branch is: .For all values of a in the range
(1) (0,1), the skew tent map has positive Lyapunov exponent [10].
This positive Lyapunov exponent indicates the chaotic
properties for the skew tent map. We utilize this chaotic range
of skew tent map for implementing diffusion in our proposed
scheme. The orbits { } of this map are uniformly distributed
over the interval [0, 1], which is discussed in detail in [10, 11].
In [12], some other advantages; such as simplicity, high key
sensitivity, and larger key space are also highlighted. Due to
afore mention properties, we are using the skew tent map for
the generation of a random matrix. This random matrix is
deployed in the process of diffusion.
B. HUSSAIN S-BOX
In [13], Hussain et al presented a new substitution box for
the purpose of generating confusion in plaintext data. In the
literature this substitution box is known as Hussain’s S-Box. In
[14-19], authors analyzed the properties of this S-Box. It is
reported that Hussain’s S-Box can be effectively used in any
encryption algorithm. Various authors has also tested the
strength of the Hussain’s S-Box by applying non-linearity test,

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linear approximation probability method, bit independence
criterion, differential approximation probability method, strict
avalanche criterion and majority logic criterion. Details of Start End
Hussain S-Box can be found in [13]. In the last step of
diffusion we apply Hussain’s S-Box.
III. PROPOSED ENCRYPTION SCHEME Input Decrypted
Figure 3 shows the flow chart of the proposed encryption Image Image
and decryption algorithms. Steps are explained below. Let I be
an input plaintext image of size m × n. Xm and Ym are random
row vectors of size 1 × m and 1 × n, respectively, which is
generated via the Henon chaotic map. Ѵ is a row vector of Henon Inverse Row
random elements of size 1 × mn which is obtained by iterating Map Scrambling
the skew tent map. Ѵ is converted into Ѷto form a matrix of
size m × n. Here the values of matrix Ѷ are between [0,255]. C
is the final ciphertext image. Figure 3 shows the flow chart of
the proposed encryption and decryption algorithms. Detailed Row Inverse Column
steps are explained below. Scrambling Scrambling
Step-1: Random indices Xm and Ym are obtained by iterating
the Henon map K times using initial conditions x0 andy0.Where
K is calculated by using Eq. 3.Here the value of K is
formulated according to the size of image I. Mathematically, K
Column Henon
can be written as:
Scrambling Map
(3)

Step-2: The plaintext image I is now row-wise permutated

through pseudo-random permutation sequence Xm, to get a
row-permutated image Г. Skew-Tent Map Inverse Bit-wise
Step-3: The row-permutated image Г is now again XOR
permutated column-wise through pseudo-random permutation
sequence Ym, to get a permutated image Ѓ.
Step-4: A random matrix Ѵ is generated via iterating the
skew tent map m × n times through the initial condition v0and Bit-wise Skew-Tent
control parameter a. XOR Map
Step-5: The matrix Ѵ is multiplied by a factor of 1014 and
then passed through modulus 256 operation, to get Ѷ matrix.
Mathematically, Ѷ is calculated as:
Hussain’s Inverse Hussain’s
S-Box S-Box
(4)

Step-6: Each pixel of permutated image Ѓ is bit-wise

XORed with the random matrix Ѷ to get a matrix B.
Ciphertext Ciphertext
Step-7: Substitute each pixel of matrix B with the pixel
Image Image
values of Hussain’s S-Box, to get the final ciphertext image C.

To get the plaintext image I from the ciphertext image C,

apply all steps from 1 to 9 in a reverse order. This reverse
process is also known as decryption mechanism.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In this section, some experimental results are presented
to demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed
scheme. The proposed algorithm is implemented in MATLAB
R2012b and results are carried out for the Cameraman gray
scale image of size 256 × 256 pixels. The Cameraman image is
encrypted through proposed scheme and results are depicted in
Fig4. Form Fig 4(e), it is evident that the ciphertext image
End Start
Fig. 3.Flow chart of the proposed encryption/decryption
scheme.
conceals all attributes of plaintext image. It is also clear from
Fig 4(f) and Fig 4(g) that the histogram of ciphertext image is
completely different from plaintext image. Detail security
analyses are presented in subsequent sections.

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 1000

900

800

700

600

500

400

300

200

100
(a) 0

0 50 100 150 200 250

(f)

600

500

400

300

200
(b)
100

0 50 100 150 200 250

(g)
Fig. 4. (a) Original cameraman image. (b) Row-wise
permuted image. (c) Column-wise permuted image. (d)
Diffused image via XORed operation. (e) The image after
Hussain’s S-Box transformation. (f) Histogram of original
Cameraman image.(g) Histogram of Ciphertext image.

(c) A. CORRELATION COEFFICIENT

In 1880’s, Kral Pearson proposed product moment
correlation coefficient and is used in determining the similarity
between horizontally and vertically adjacent pixels of an
image. It is understood that the correlation among the adjacent
pixels of plaintext image is significantly high. A low
correlation values are required for an encrypted image.
Mathematically, the correlation of an image is given by:
(5)

(d) ∑ ̅ ̅ (6)

∑ ̅ (7)

∑ ̅ (8)

Where σx and σy are the standard deviations (σx≠ 0, σy≠ 0),

is the value of correlation coefficient between -1 and
1.Cov(x,y) is covariance at pixels positions x and y, ̅ and ̅ are
the mean value operators. N is the total number of pixels for an
(e) N × N matrix.

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 As mentioned earlier that the lower value of correlation Table 1
coefficients is an indicator of lower similarities among Correlation analysis of the plaintext and ciphertext images
neighbor pixels. Table 1 shows correlation values of the
plaintext and the ciphertext images, respectively. These results Direction of adjacent pixels Plaintext Ciphertext
illustrates that the pixels of ciphertext image are less correlated Image Image
with each other.
Horizontal 0.9472 -0.0042
B. ENTROPY
Vertical 0.9577 0.0114
Entropy is a statistical measure of randomness that can be Diagonal 0.9062 -0.0074
used to demonstrate the texture of an image. Mathematically,
the entropy H (m)can be calculated as:
Table 2: Results of encryption quality analysis
∑ ( ) (7)
Parameters Cipher image
Where is the probability of occurrence of symbol
MD 66521
(mi), N is the total number of symbol m and log2denotes that
the entropy values are represented in bits. For a true random
source that emits28 symbols, its ideal entropy value is H (m) = ID 39554
8. The value of entropy is calculated by Eq. 7 for the ciphertext
image which is 7.9972. This means that the ciphertext image is Dp 0.0489
very close to a true random source and the proposed scheme
has resistance against entropy attack. MSE 40.3295

C. HISTOGRAM ANALYSIS NPCR 99.0799

For a highly secure encryption scheme, the histogram plot
of the ciphertext image should be ideally uniform. Figure 3(g) UACI 33.5612
shows that the ciphertext image have fairly uniform histogram
and significantly different from the histogram of plaintext
image. Hence, it does not provide any useful information for
the attackers to perform any type of statistical attack on the V. CONCLUSION
encrypted image.
An efficient, lightweight image encryption and decryption
D. ENCRYPTION QUALITY ANALYSIS scheme, based on chaotic maps and Hussain S-Box is
presented in this paper. In the process of permutation, the
In [20-22], Jawad et al underlined various parameters
proposed scheme shuffles plaintext image in an unpredictable
(metrics) which can be used for security and efficiency analysis
way. To change the gray values of shuffled image, an efficient
of an image encryption scheme. These security and quality
diffusion process is also the main part of the proposed scheme.
parameters are correlation coefficient, maximum deviation
Sensitivity of the Henon map and the skew tent map to the
(MD), irregular deviation (ID), deviation from uniform
initial conditions and control parameters provides the security
histogram (Dp), Number of Pixel Change Rate (NPCR), Mean
attributes. We analyzed the scheme through performing various
Square Error (MSE) and Unified Average Change Intensity
differential and statistical tests. The experimental results are in
(UACI). These metrics are applied on the encrypted
favor of the proposed scheme. The scheme can also be easily
Cameraman image and the results are tabulated in Table 2.
manipulated for an image of unequal width and height as well.
These results prove the security, quality and validity of the
All these desired properties make the presented scheme a
proposed scheme against different kinds of attacks.
potential candidate for the real time encryption and decryption
of digital images.
E. KEY SPACE ANALYSIS
To resist against the brute-force attack, a large key space is ACKNOWLEDGMENT
required. According to IEEE floating format, the precision of
64-bit number is about 10-15. According to this format, the key This research was supported by Basic Science Research
space is (1015)4 which is around 2199. Hence this key space is Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea
large enough to resist brute force attack.
(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (2014054174) and
the Agency for Defense Development under contract
UD130057ED.
This research was also supported by the MSIP (Ministry of
Science, ICT and Future Planning), Korea, under the Global IT

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