A lightweight hybrid cryptographic algorithm for WSN security using the Raspberry Pi as a node

• Main Authors: Abdulhameed, Hudhaifa A., Mosleh, Mahmood F., Mohammed, Alhamzah T., Abdulhameed, Ayoob A.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Algorithms; Asymmetry; Computation; Cryptography; Curves; Encryption; Integrity; Network security; Reduction; Wireless sensor networks
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0161739

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are susceptible to various attacks due to node deployment in hard and hostile environments. In order to mitigate the impact of those offensives, the security of the data in WSNs depends heavily on cryptographic techniques. As a result, different cryptographic methods ensure network security. Symmetric and asymmetric are the two methods of cryptography. However, there are still some issues. For example, the symmetric method needs more storage to distribute the key to all nodes in the network, while the asymmetric method needs more computation. In this paper, a hybrid cryptographic algorithm is proposed. It combines high security with fast decryption and encryption via the use of symmetric and asymmetric cryptographic methods to minimize memory overhead and computation. It enables the use of three cryptographic objectives: integrity, confidentiality, and authentication. The idea is to encrypt using Rivest Cipher 4 (RC4) and Blowfish, ensure integrity using Message Digest 5 (MD5), and authenticate using Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman (ECDH). A Raspberry Pi and two PCs are used to check the performance of the proposed algorithm. It is better than many other existing algorithms in terms of throughput, ciphertext size, encryption time, and decryption time. By using a Raspberry Pi and a 184,162 B plaintext size, the proposed algorithm achieves a reduction in ciphertext size of 37% when compared to an algorithm named HA, a reduction in encryption time of 88.5% when compared to an algorithm named HCA, a reduction in decryption time of 39.5% when compared to HCA, and boosts the throughput by 866% compared to HCA.