SUMMARY
In principle, the image encryption algorithm produces an encrypted image. The encrypted image is composed of arbitrary patterns that do not provide any clues about plain image and its cipher key. Ideally, the encrypted image is entirely independent of its plain image. Many functions can be used to achieve this goal. Based on the functions used, image encryption techniques categorized into: (1). Block-based, (2). Chaotic-based; (3). Transformation-based; (4). Conventional-based; and (5). Miscellaneous based. This study proposes a magic cube puzzle approach to encrypt an 8-bit grayscale image. This approach transforms a plain image into a particular size magic cube puzzle, which is consists of a set of blocks. The magic cube puzzle algorithm will diffuse the pixels of the plain image as in a Rubik's Cube game, by rotating each block in a particular direction called as the transposition orientation. The transposition orientation of the block is used as the key seed, while the generation of the cipher key uses a random permutation of the key seed with a certain key length. Several performance metrics have used to assess the goals, and the results have compared to several standard encryption methods. The results of this study showed that the proposed method was better than the other methods, except for entropy metrics. For further studies, modification of the method will be carried out in such a way as to be able to increase its entropy value to very close to 8 and its application to true color images