Modified Advanced Encryption Standard Algorithm for Information Security

Oluwakemi Christiana Abikoye,Ahmad Dokoro Haruna,Noah Oluwatobi Akande,Emmanuel Oluwatobi Asani,Abdullahi Abubakar

doi:10.3390/sym11121484

Oluwakemi Christiana Abikoye, Ahmad Dokoro Haruna + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/sym11121484

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Abstract

The wide acceptability of Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) as the most efficient of all of the symmetric cryptographic techniques has further opened it up to more attacks. Efforts that were aimed at securing information while using AES is still being undermined by the activities of attackers This has further necessitated the need for researchers to come up with ways of enhancing the strength of AES. This article presents an enhanced AES algorithm that was achieved by modifying its SubBytes and ShiftRows transformations. The SubBytes transformation is modified to be round key dependent, while the ShiftRows transformation is randomized. The rationale behind the modification is to make the two transformations round key dependent, so that a single bit change in the key will produce a significant change in the cipher text. The conventional and modified AES algorithms are both implemented and evaluated in terms avalanche effect and execution time. The modified AES algorithm achieved an avalanche effect of 57.81% as compared to 50.78 recorded with the conventional AES. However, with 16, 32, 64, and 128 plain text bytes, the modified AES recorded an execution time of 0.18, 0.31, 0.46, and 0.59 ms, respectively. This is slightly higher than the results obtained with the conventional AES. Though a slightly higher execution time in milliseconds was recorded with the modified AES, the improved encryption and decryption strength via the avalanche effects measured is a desirable feat.

Highlights

The advancement in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has made internet one of the major mediums through which information is being shared in this 21st century
The modified Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and the conventional AES were evaluated in terms of the avalanche effect and execution time
The avalanche effect is a desirable property of block ciphers that ensures a single bit flip in input text produces at least 50% change in the output text

Summary

Introduction

The advancement in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has made internet one of the major mediums through which information is being shared in this 21st century. The confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information shared over public network still remains an open issue [1]. Information hiding techniques using watermarking and steganography as well as cryptography have been widely explored to ensure the security of information transmitted over an unsecured network. Information security is guaranteed by making a secret message unreadable to a third party, but accessible by the sender and recipient alone while using one or more secret keys. Symmetric cryptographic techniques are the most appropriate when a large amount of data is to be secured [3]. Of the available symmetric cryptographic techniques, such as Data Encryption Standard

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