A Modified KLEIN Encryption-based Knight Tour for Image Encryption

Abstract

The security considerations should be balanced with the specific use case and potential risks associated with using lightweight encryption. The security offered by lighter encryption algorithms could not be as high as that offered by heavier encryption techniques. In this paper, a Modified KLEIN Algorithm is proposed for image encryption based on the Knight Tour movement in Chessboard. The required key generation is represented by inputting an image as a key image and then applying a specific operation based on knight tour movement to produce a key scheduled in the proposed encryption algorithm. The movement of Knight Tour applied in modifying the proposed algorithm for increasing security. The experimental results explain the efficiency of a modified algorithm when comparing the histogram of the input image with the encrypted image also the correlation is tested before and after encryption in three directions horizontal, vertical, and diagonal which explains there are very low values of them in all directions. The similarity test also explains there are high differences between the plain and encrypted images. The chessboard movement might be useful when used with another encryption algorithm which increases the confidentiality of transferring data. The contribution of this work is the use of an image as a key for encryption with a specific planning method which helps in key management.