In this research, a new chaotic map, which is a modification from the composition of the MS map and an Improved logistics map, is proposed. The new map’s chaotic behavior is proven by the bifurcation diagram and Lyapunov exponent. This map will be used in chaos-based cryptography as a keystream generator, and then it will be processed in the encryption and decryption algorithms through XOR operations. The results of the encryption and decryption processes were evaluated by several tests, such as key sensitivity analysis, histogram analysis, correlation analysis, and image quality analysis. All the tests are done to evaluate the performance of the new chaotic map in the encryption of digital color images. Based on the results of several tests, a conclusion can be drawn that the encryption and decryption process is successful and difficult to attack with various kinds of attacks. The key that is built from a new chaotic map has a good sensitivity. © 2023 Author(s).