article · Scientific Reports
Secure image encryption is essential for safeguarding sensitive information such as satellite imagery used in environmental monitoring and national security. Conventional methods often struggle with traffic analysis vulnerabilities, limited randomness, and poor attack resistance. To resolve these challenges, a new multiple image encryption algorithm integrates hyperchaotic systems, Singular Value Decomposition, counter mode RC5, a chaos-based Hill cipher, and a custom substitution box produced by a modified Blum Blum Shub method. The workflow begins by merging multiple satellite images into an augmented image to prevent traffic analysis. The combined colour image is separated into RGB channels, and each channel undergoes four distinct phases: additive confusion with an SVD-transformed memristor hyperchaotic key, counter mode RC5 encryption with XOR operations, Hill cipher encryption using a six-dimensional hyperchaotic key, and substitution. Experimental tests demonstrate high efficiency, improved randomness, and strong defences against cryptanalytic, differential, and brute-force attacks.
Satellite images play a vital role in national security and environmental management, making their safe transmission critical. Current encryption techniques frequently remain vulnerable to intercept analysis and computational attacks. This method demonstrates how combining chaos theory with advanced cryptographic primitives can effectively protect multiple complex images simultaneously, keeping sensitive spatial data confidential across modern communications networks.
The method targets security for satellite imagery in areas such as defence and environmental observation. Prospective users include satellite operators, defence agencies, and remote sensing data providers. Based on the abstract, the research is applied and experimentally tested, with stated potential for real-time applications, though it remains at an algorithmic validation stage prior to commercial software integration or hardware deployment.
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Secure image encryption is critical for protecting sensitive data such as satellite imagery, which is pivotal for national security and environmental monitoring. However, existing encryption methods often face challenges such as vulnerability to traffic analysis, limited randomness, and insufficient resistance to attacks. To address these gaps, this article proposes a novel multiple image encryption (MIE) algorithm that integrates hyperchaotic systems, Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), counter mode RC5, a chaos-based Hill cipher, and a custom S-box generated via a modified Blum Blum Shub (BBS) algorithm. The proposed MIE algorithm begins by merging multiple satellite images into an augmented image, enhancing security against traffic analysis. The encryption process splits the colored image into RGB channels, with each channel undergoing four stages: additive confusion using a memristor hyperchaotic key transformed by SVD, RC5 encryption in counter mode with XOR operations, Hill cipher encryption using a 6D hyperchaotic key and invertible matrices mod 256, and substitution with a custom S-box generated by a modified BBS. Experimental results demonstrate the proposed algorithm's superior encryption efficiency, enhanced randomness, and strong resistance to cryptanalytic, differential, and brute-force attacks. These findings highlight the MIE algorithm's potential for securing satellite imagery in real-time applications, ensuring confidentiality and robustness against modern security threats.
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DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-92065-x
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