Divide and Scramble - A Recursive Image Scrambling algorithm utilizing Rubik's Cube

Divide and Scramble - An image scrambling algorithm based on the Rubik's cube is presented in this paper. The strength and robustness of the algorithm are based on the number of permutations of the Rubik's cube and its simple yet chaos-inducing rotation methods. The algorithm uses a recursive approach that runs in linearithmic time. This makes the algorithm practical for real-time applications, which involve the concepts of cryptography. The algorithm begins by dividing the image into two halves and then, pixels from each half are combined to form a cube which is scrambled using the moves generated by a pseudo-random number generator function. The generated halves are further scrambled using the algorithm in a recursive manner. The scrambling algorithm is flexible enough to be paired up with any given diffusion, confusion, or substitution methods to obtain complex and secure encryption. Moreover, the pseudo-random number generator function used can also be replaced by other random number sequence generators like chaotic maps. The strength and robustness of the algorithm are backed by the obtained results from the experiments performed. Experimental results also show that the image quality is not compromised by the algorithm while resisting common crypto-attacks like differential and statistical attacks.