Cryptanalysis and Improved Image Encryption Scheme Using Elliptic Curve and Affine Hill Cipher

Abstract

In the present era of digital communication, secure data transfer is a challenging task in the case of open networks. Low-key-strength encryption techniques incur enormous security threats. Therefore, efficient cryptosystems are highly necessary for the fast and secure transmission of multimedia data. In this article, cryptanalysis is performed on an existing encryption scheme designed using elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) and a Hill cipher. The work shows that the scheme is vulnerable to brute force attacks and lacks both Shannon’s primitive operations of cryptography and Kerckchoff’s principle. To circumvent these limitations, an efficient modification to the existing scheme is proposed using an affine Hill cipher in combination with ECC and a 3D chaotic map. The efficiency of the modified scheme is demonstrated through experimental results and numerical simulations.

Keywords

• affine Hill cipher
• brute force attack
• cryptanalysis
• elliptic curve
• Kerckchoff’s principle
• 3D Arnold transform