Session key based fast, secure and lightweight image encryption algorithm

Nowadays, most of the communications in IoT enabled devices are done in the form of images. To protect the images from intruders, there is a need for a secure encryption algorithm. Many encryption algorithms have been proposed, some of the algorithms are based on symmetric-key cryptography and others are based on asymmetric key cryptography. This work proposed a fast, secure, and lightweight symmetric image cryptographic algorithm based on the session key. In this work, for every image encryption, a new session key is generated. Here session keys are generated with the help of crossover and mutation operators of genetic algorithm. This proposed algorithm uses a 64-bit plain text and requires an 80-bit key, where 64-bits of a key is generated via symmetric hexadecimal key and the remaining 16-bits of a key are randomly added, to encrypt the image. Here crossover and mutation operators are used to generate random 64-bits of a key. The proposed algorithm will work for both color and grayscale images. The proposed algorithm is simulated on MATLAB 2017 platform and compared with similar types of the existing algorithm on various parameters.

Automated summary

Most of the communications in IoT enabled devices are done in the form of images, which necessitates a secure encryption algorithm to protect them from intruders. This study proposes a fast, secure, and lightweight symmetric image cryptographic algorithm based on session keys, generated using crossover and mutation operators of genetic algorithm. The proposed algorithm uses 64-bit plain text and requires an 80-bit key for image encryption, with 64-bits generated via symmetric hexadecimal key and 16 additional randomly added bits.