Abstract Very well evolved, information technology made so easy the transfer of all types of data over public channels. For this reason, ensuring data security is certainly a necessary requirement. Scrambling data is one solution to hide information from non authorized users. Presenting matrix content, image scrambling can be made by only adding a mask to the real content. A user, having the appropriate mask, can recognize the image content by only subtracting it. Chaotic function is recently used for image encryption. In this paper, an algorithm of image scrambling based on three logistic chaotic functions is proposed. Defined by its initial condition and parameter, each chaotic function will generate a random signal. The set of initial conditions and parameters is the encryption key. The performance of this technique is ensured for two great reasons. First, using masks on the image makes unintelligible its content. Second, using three successive encryption processes makes so difficult attacks. This point reflects, in one hand, a sufficient key length to resist to brute force attack. In the other hand, it reflects the random aspect of the pixel distribution in the scrambled image. That means, the randomness in one mask minimizes the correlations really existent between neighboring pixels. That makes our proposed approach resistant to known attacks and suitable for applications requiring secure data transfer such as medical image exchanged between doctors.

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[16] Zhang Q., Guo Y., Li W., and Ding Q., “Image Encryption Method Based on Discrete Lorenz Chaotic Sequences,” Journal of Information Hiding and Multimedia Signal Processing, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 576-586, 2016. Naziha Khlif received her diploma in Electrical Engineering in 2006, the master degree in Electronics in 2011 and the PhD in Electrical Engineering in 2016 from the National Engineering School of Sfax University of Sfax. She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at Sfax University. Her research interests include image processing, video coding, cryptography and data security. Ahmed Ghorbel received his diploma in Electrical and Automation Engineering in 2012 and the master degree in Automation and intelligent technology in 2013 from the National Engineering School of Gabes University of Gabes. He is currently a PhD student at the National Engineering School of Sfax, Sfax University since September 2014. His research interests include face recognition. Walid Aydi received the degree of Engineering in Electrical Engineering in 2008, Masters Degree in Engineering in the major of electronics and telecommunication 2009, and a Ph.D degree in Electronic Engineering in 2013, from the National Engineering School of Sfax. From 2014 to 2017, he held the position of Assistant Professor in the Higher Institute of Computer Science and Multimedia, Gabes, Tunisia. He has been employed as an assistant professor in The Prince Sattam bin Abdullaziz University in Saudi Arabia since 2017. His research interests focus on image processing, pattern recognition, and computer vision. Nouri Masmoudi received his electrical engineering degree from the Faculty of Sciences and Techniques Sfax University in 1982, the DEA degree from the National Institute of Applied Sciences Claude Bernard University Lyon in 1984. He received his PhD degree from the National Engineering School of Tunis (ENIT) in 1990. He is currently a professor in the electrical engineering department in the National Engineering School of Sfax. His research activities include Design, Telecommunication, Embedded Systems, Information Technology, Video Coding and Image Processing.