{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,1]],"date-time":"2026-09-01T13:19:44Z","timestamp":1788268784754,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,27]],"date-time":"2026-08-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787788800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi province of Guodong Li","award":["2026GXNSFAA00640099"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2026GXNSFAA00640099"]}]},{"name":"Guangxi Center for Applied Mathematics","award":["GuikeAD25069086"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["GuikeAD25069086"]}]},{"name":"Guangxi Academy of Artificial Intelligence","award":["2026YCXS144"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2026YCXS144"]}]},{"name":"Third Batch of First-Class Undergraduate Course Program of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Entropy"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Chaotic systems have been widely investigated for color image encryption because of their nonlinear dynamics, initial-condition sensitivity, and pseudorandom behavior. However, locating numerically robust parameter regions in high-dimensional hyperchaotic systems remains difficult, while many DNA-based schemes employ fixed or weakly varying rules. This study proposes a color image encryption scheme combining a 6D Lorenz\u2013Sprott system optimized by particle swarm optimization (PSO), symbol-level feedback-dependent DNA transformation, and bidirectional cross-channel chained diffusion. The second-largest Lyapunov exponent is used as the optimization objective to locate parameter sets with at least two positive exponents. The selected system has the Lyapunov spectrum (0.8118, 0.2736, \u22120.0013, \u22124.8957, \u22128.5499, \u221212.6746) and retains two positive exponents under refined numerical settings and \u00b11% single-parameter perturbations. One hundred independently initialized sequences satisfy all 15 categories of the NIST SP 800-22 test suite. Tests on six images and three secret keys achieve exact reconstruction in all 18 cases. Across 180 randomly located one-bit plaintext perturbations, the mean NPCR and UACI are 99.6089% and 33.4554%, respectively. For the tested Baboon case, perturbing any initial-state component by approximately 10\u221214 prevents meaningful plaintext recovery. Ablation results further demonstrate the contributions of dynamic DNA transformation and bidirectional diffusion. The proposed scheme therefore provides reproducible hyperchaotic parameter modulation and strong empirical statistical and differential performance.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/e28090964","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,27]],"date-time":"2026-08-27T16:47:13Z","timestamp":1787849233000},"page":"964","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["A DNA-Based Image Encryption Scheme Using Optimized Lorenz\u2013Sprott Hyperchaotic System"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"28","author":[{"given":"Wenxia","family":"Xu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Computer Science and Information Security, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin 541004, China"},{"name":"School of Mathematics and Computational Science, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin 541004, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"resources","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Liang","family":"Xue","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Mathematics and Computational Science, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin 541004, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"software","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Liping","family":"Zhu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Mathematics and Data Science, Changji University, Changji 831100, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"resources","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7336-2980","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jiaofen","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Computer Science and Information Security, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin 541004, China"},{"name":"School of Mathematics and Computational Science, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin 541004, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"resources","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1275-2982","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Guodong","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Mathematics and Computational Science, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin 541004, China"},{"name":"Center for Applied Mathematics of Guangxi (GUET), Guilin 541004, China"},{"name":"Guangxi Academy of Artificial Intelligence, Nanning 530200, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"resources","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7033","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-024-57756-x","article-title":"Image encryption scheme based on improved four-dimensional chaotic system and evolutionary operators","volume":"14","author":"Niu","year":"2024","journal-title":"Sci. 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