Key-based interval splitting arithmetic coding (KAC) possesses both encryption and compression capabilities. However, it possesses vulnerability to chosen-plaintext attack because the attacker can explore the relationship between the key and the codeword to deduce the secret key. In order to resist this attack, we propose to introduce perturbation into KAC. The perturbation-based KAC not only avoids the flaw of KAC that the splitting keys are usually located at the endpoint of certain codeword or at the border of two codewords but also removes the restriction that the keys are only allowed in certain sub-intervals, which result in great convenience to the key scheduler. In addition, based on generalized arithmetic coding using Generalized Luröth Series, we study the phase-space splitting of a chaotic map for generalized KAC and suggest the generalized perturbation-based KAC. This leads to the design of a joint compression and encryption scheme with more powerful cryptographic features. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.