Zahraddeen Abubakar Pindar

A Survey on the Cryptographic Encryption Algorithms

Security is the major concern when the sensitive information is stored and transferred across the internet where the information is no longer protected by physical boundaries. Cryptography is an essential, effective and efficient component to ensure the secure communication between the different entities by transferring unintelligible information and only the authorized recipient can be able to access the information. The right selection of cryptographic algorithm is important for secure communication that provides more security, accuracy and efficiency. In this paper, we examine the security aspects and processes involved in the design and implementation of most widely used symmetric encryption algorithms such as Data Encryption Standard (DES), Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES), Blowfish, Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and Hybrid Cubes Encryption Algorithm (HiSea). Furthermore, this paper evaluated and compared the performance of these encryption algorithms based on encryption and decryption time, throughput, key size, avalanche effect, memory, correlation assessment and entropy. Thus, amongst the existing cryptographic algorithm, we choose a suitable encryption algorithm based on different parameters that are best fit to the user requirements.

An Improved Low Contrast Image in Normalization Process for Iris Recognition System

Iris recognition system is one of the most predominant methods used for personal identification in the modern days. Low quality iris image such as low contrast and poor illumination presents a setback for iris recognition as the acceptance or rejection rates of verified user depend solely on the image quality. This paper presents a new method for improving histogram equalization technique to obtained high contrast in normalization process thereby reducing False Rejection Rate (FRR) and False Acceptance Rate (FAR). The proposed technique is developed using C++ and tested using four datasets CASIA, UBIRIS, MMU and ICE 2005. The experimental results show that the proposed technique has an accuracy of 95%, as compared to the existing techniques: CLAHE, AHE, MAHE and HE which have an accuracy of a 93.0, 85.7, 92.8 and 90.71% respectively. Hence it can be concluded that the proposed technique is a better enhancement technique compared to the existing techniques for image enhancement.

All-or-Nothing Key Derivation Function Based on Quasigroup String Transformation

Traditionally, Cryptographic ciphers (Block and Stream) uses Key Derivation Function (KDF) to generate cryptographic keys for encryption purpose. These KDFs are usually designed based on existing Hash functions and ciphers as primitives, to achieve better security. However, this method of construction can be costly to resources- constrain environments. The main function of KDFs is to generate random and unpredictable secret keys. Therefore, the use of predefined public string increases the predictability level and provides some partial knowledge of the key to cryptanalyst, thus jeopardies the security. This paper proposed a new algorithm to minimize the use of cryptographic Hash function and ciphers as a key derivation function and to optimally mitigate the use of predefined public string in KDF. The proposed KDF is entirely key-dependent and cryptanalyst has to correctly predict all the elements in the key string otherwise he got nothing. To achieve that, a new definition of Quasigroup string transformation, a Quasigroup- based expansion function, and key-metadata expansion function as well as reduction function are integrated together in the design of the proposed KDF. The proposed algorithm will be evaluated using statistical test for Randomness developed and recommended by the National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST), Avalanche, Brute Force and Correlation Assessment test. The proposed algorithm will ensure not only confidentiality of information but integrity as well.