An image encryption algorithm for colour images based on a cellular neural network and the Chua's chaotic system

In the internet era, image encryption technology plays a crucial role in ensuring the security of image information. Aiming at the problem that low-dimensional chaotic encryption has a relatively small key space and is vulnerable to chosen-plain attacks, this paper proposed a novel colour image block encryption algorithm based on the cellular neural network and the Chua's chaotic system. Firstly, the plain is separated into three primary colours. And Fourier transform is applied to achieve optical transformation, generating six chaotic sequences iteratively. Secondly, the chaotic sequences were combined in pairs. And then combined with the plain to form three sequences, which were used in the diffusion process. Finally, the improved Chua's chaotic system is used to scramble the image. Both diffusion and scrambling are performed synchronously during encryption. Through the above operation, we get the final colour encrypted picture. The experimental results show that the algorithm has excellent encryption effect and can resist common attacks.