Implementation of an improved chaotic encryption algorithm for real-time embedded systems by using a 32-bit microcontroller

Abstract

Currently, several embedded applications in military, industry, banking transference, e-commerce, biometric systems and others use insecure communication channels such as Internet to transmit or store confidential information. Therefore, the integrity and security of information are an important issue in continuous research. In last years, chaotic systems have been proposed in cryptography due they have several properties related with cryptography properties such as extreme sensibility on initial conditions with confusion and ergodicity with diffusion. In this paper, we present a 32-bit microcontroller implementation of an improved text encryption algorithm (based on Murillo-Escobar’s algorithm [13]) for real-time embedded systems and we present a complete security analysis such as key size analysis, key sensitivity, plain text sensitivity, floating frequency, histograms, N-grams, autocorrelation, information entropy, robustness against classic attacks, randomness analysis, and security characteristics. In addition, the digital implementation and performance are analyzed such as programming details, memory required, frequency system, implementation costs and encryption time. In contrast with recent approaches presented in literature, we present a complete security analysis in both statistical and implementation level, to justify the proposed scheme in a real application. Based in the results, the proposed embedded text encryption system is secure, effective and at low cost, and it could be implemented in real-time cryptosystem based on microcontroller.