A new permutation-diffusion-based image encryption technique using cellular automata and DNA sequence

In recent years, the security of digital images has constantly been a major topic discussed by researchers. In this paper, we proposed a new structure for image encryption using Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) and Recursive Cellular Automata (RCA). Image encryption takes place in two separate phases. At the permutation phase, a logistic map is employed for cellular shift in the image rows and columns. Then, the DNA and RCA at the diffusion phase are used to change the gray level of pixels to new values. The optimum entropy value obtained in this method was 7.9994 while the correlation coefficient was 0.0001, which indicated good results. Moreover, the newly proposed technique was demonstrated to enhance resistance against a variety of attacks through desirable image encryption.