An Effective Lightweight Cryptographic Algorithm to Secure Resource-Constrained Devices

Sohel Rana,Hasan Imam,Dr Mohammod,Saddam Hossain

doi:10.14569/ijacsa.2018.091137

Abstract

In recent years, small computing devices like embedded devices, wireless sensors, RFID tags (Radio Frequency Identification), Internet of Things (IoT) devices are increasing rapidly. They are expected to generate massive amount of sensitive data for controlling and monitoring purposes. But their resources and capabilities are limited. Those also work with valuable private data thus making security of those devices of paramount importance. Therefore, a secure encryption algorithm should be there to protect those vulnerable devices. Conventional encryption ciphers like RSA or AES are computationally expensive; require large memory but hinder performances of those devices. Simple encryption techniques, on the other hand are easy to crack, compromising security. In this paper a secure and efficient lightweight cryptographic algorithm for small computing devices has been proposed. It is a symmetric key block cipher, employing custom substitution-permutation (SP) network and a modified Feistel architecture. Two basic concepts from Genetic algorithm are used. A Linux based benchmark tool, FELICS is used for the measurement and MATLAB for the purpose of encryption quality testing. An improvement over the existing algorithm, the proposed algorithm reduces the use of processing cycles but at the same time provides sufficient security.

Highlights

Lightweight cryptography [1] is a sub-category in the field of cryptography that intends to provide security solutions for resource-constrained devices
At the core of lightweight cryptography there is a trade-off between security and lightweightness: that is how anyone can achieve a good level of security in small computing devices? Recently, academic communities have been doing a significant amount of work related to lightweight cryptography; to implement conventional cryptography standards efficiently, to design and analyze new lightweight algorithms and protocol
New security and privacy considerations arise as one shift from desktop computer to small devices

Summary

Introduction

Lightweight cryptography [1] is a sub-category in the field of cryptography that intends to provide security solutions for resource-constrained devices. At the core of lightweight cryptography there is a trade-off between security and lightweightness: that is how anyone can achieve a good level of security in small computing devices? Academic communities have been doing a significant amount of work related to lightweight cryptography; to implement conventional cryptography standards efficiently, to design and analyze new lightweight algorithms and protocol. Many conventional cryptographic algorithms, was optimized for desktop and server environments. Optimization in terms of security, performance and resource requirements makes those algorithms difficult or impossible to implement in resourceconstrained devices. Even if they can be implemented, they hinder the performance on the small devices. Lightweight cryptography aims at wide variety of hardware and software spectrum in which an algorithm can be implemented.

Methods

Results

Conclusion