VG6 Cipher - A DNA-Based Chaotic Cipher for Enhanced Security of Digital Images

The advent of internet and social media has brought ample pros and cons, but the foremost concern is security. There are numerous options available for providing security in data transmission, but one that really counts is DNA cryptography. This paper explores the integration of DNA cryptography with chaotic functions, a class of mathematical models characterized by sensitive dependence on initial conditions and inherent unpredictability. In this paper, a hybrid encryption scheme - VG6 Cipher is proposed that combines an innovative labyrinthine DNA-based Homophonic Substitution cipher with non-linear dynamics of chaotic systems (Discrete Hénon Map) to enhance the security of cryptographic protocols. The enormous key space ensures its robustness against the brute-force attacks, along with faster encryption and decryption. The quantitative metrices like NPCR, UACI, MSE & PSNR demonstrate the enhanced performance abilities of proposed cipher along with strong resistance against statistical and differential attacks.