This paper aims to review the encountered technical contradictions when an attacker meets the cipher-images encrypted by the image encryption schemes (algorithms) proposed in 2018 from the viewpoint of an image cryptanalyst. The most representative works among them are selected and classified according to their essential structures. Almost all image cryptanalysis works published in 2018 are surveyed due to their small number. The challenging problems on design and analysis of image encryption schemes are summarized to receive the attentions of both designers and attackers (cryptanalysts) of image encryption schemes, which may promote solving scenario-oriented image security problems with new technologies.

Utilizing complex dynamics of chaotic maps and systems in encryption was studied comprehensively in the past two and a half decades. In 1989, Fridrich's chaotic image encryption scheme was designed by iterating chaotic position permutation and value substitution some rounds, which received intensive attention in the field of chaos-based cryptography. In 2010, Solak et al. proposed a chosen-ciphertext attack on the Fridrich's scheme utilizing influence network between cipher-pixels and the corresponding plain-pixels. Based on their creative work, this paper scrutinized some properties of Fridrich's scheme with concise mathematical language. Then, some minor defects of the real performance of Solak's attack method were given. The work provides some bases for further optimizing attack on the Fridrich's scheme and its variants.

Since John von Neumann suggested utilizing Logistic map as a random number generator in 1947, a great number of encryption schemes based on Logistic map and/or its variants have been proposed. This paper re-evaluates the security of an image cipher based on transformed logistic maps and proves that the image cipher can be deciphered efficiently under two different conditions: 1) two pairs of known plain-images and the corresponding cipher-images with computational complexity of O(2 18 + L); 2) two pairs of chosen plain-images and the corresponding cipher-images with computational complexity of O(L), where L is the number of pixels in the plain-image. In contrast, the required condition in the previous deciphering method is eightyseven pairs of chosen plain-images and the corresponding cipher-images with computational complexity of O(2 7 + L). In addition, three other security flaws existing in most Logistic-mapbased ciphers are also reported.

Periodicity analysis of sequences generated by a deterministic system is a long-standing challenge in both theoretical research and engineering applications. To overcome the inevitable degradation of the logistic map on a finite-precision circuit, its numerical domain is commonly converted from a real number field to a ring or a finite field. This paper studies the period of sequences generated by iterating the logistic map over ring [Formula: see text] from the perspective of its associated functional network, where every number in the ring is considered as a node, and the existing mapping relation between any two nodes is regarded as a directed edge. The complete explicit form of the period of the sequences starting from any initial value is given theoretically and verified experimentally. Moreover, conditions on the control parameter and initial value are derived, ensuring the corresponding sequences to achieve the maximum period over the ring. The results can be used as ground truth for dynamical analysis and cryptographical applications of the logistic map over various domains.

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