Title: An improved co-designed AES-ECC cryptosystem for secure data transmission

Authors: Amal Hafsa; Anissa Sghaier; Medien Zeghid; Jihene Malek; Mohsen Machhout

Addresses: Department of Physics, Electronics and Micro-Electronics Laboratory, LR99ES30 EµE Lab, Faculty of Sciences, Monastir University, Monastir, Tunisia ' Department of Physics, Electronics and Micro-Electronics Laboratory, LR99ES30 EµE Lab, Faculty of Sciences, Monastir University, Monastir, Tunisia ' Department of Computer Engineering and Networks, College of Engineering at Wadi Addawasir, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia ' Department of Electronics, Sousse University, Higher Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology, LR99ES30 EµE Lab, Sousse, Tunisia ' Department of Physics, Electronics and Micro-Electronics Laboratory, LR99ES30 EµE Lab, Faculty of Sciences, Monastir University, Monastir, Tunisia

Abstract: Asymmetric cryptography is inherently slow because of its associated complex computing, while symmetric cryptography is speedy. However, the latter is suffering from a serious gap which is secure key exchange. To deal with this problem, we suggest an efficient hybrid AES-ECC cryptosystem combining the benefits of the symmetric advanced encryption standard (AES) to speed-up data encryption and the asymmetric elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) to secure the symmetric key session interchange. The proposed hybrid AES-ECC cryptosystem uses a co-design approach and relies on AES-ECC optimisations. We fundamentally mix the matrix multiplication of the AES MixColumns with the S-box allowing for very fast software implementation (on NIOS-II processor). Then, we propose an optimised ECC hardware architecture based on López-Dahab scalar multiplication (on Cyclone IV.E). The implementation results of the proposed cryptosystem afford an interesting trade-off between area, speed, and power and can be used for information and computer security.

Keywords: advanced encryption standard; AES; elliptic curve cryptography; ECC; co-design; secure data transmission; NIOS II processor; Cyclone IV.E; information and computer security.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICS.2020.108145

International Journal of Information and Computer Security, 2020 Vol.13 No.1, pp.118 - 140

Received: 03 May 2018
Accepted: 18 Mar 2019
Published online: 03 Jul 2020 *

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