Volume 8, Issue 9, September – 2023 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology

ISSN No:-2456-2165

Enhanced Security using Elliptic Curve Cryptography

Combined with Hill Cipher
Dr. T. Madhavi Kumari1; K. Shyam Kumar 2
1
(Professor of ECE, JNTUH University College of Engineering, Science and Technology Hyderabad, India)
2
(ECE, JNTUH University College of Engineering, Science and Technology Hyderabad, India)

Abstract:- Technology has improved significantly, and Steganography is used to conceal data and eliminate the
usage of smart systems has increased the risk to secure possibility that it contains sensitive information [6]. The
data and privacy. Since most operating systems come assurance of secure information becomes crucial, especially
with built-in apps that aren't secure, there is rapid for economic data like money and interest rates. To increase
increase in risk of information or data cloning, forgery, security and data privacy, several approaches have been
tampering, counterfeiting, etc. End users will suffer an enhanced.
unrecoverable loss as a result, particularly with regard to
social media personal data and banking applications. An II. LITERATURE REVIEW
efficient and robust technique which has Hill cipher
combination with elliptic curve cryptography is proposed An improved safe cryptographic system based on the
to deal with major threats and improve data security. Paillier cryptosystem was presented by S. Xiang and X. Luo
This technique uses LSB (Least Significant Bit) [1]. Mirroring Ciphertext Group (MCG) and modular
watermarking to embed DCT coefficients of an image and multiplicative inverse operation are utilized to recover the
ciphertext of message into base image. Using Hill Cipher data in this system. A technique that combines information
algorithm, the ciphertext is produced. Elliptic Curve concealing and encryption was suggested by Xinyi Zhou et
cryptography (ECC) and combination with Hill cipher to al. in [2]. The Rivest Shamir Adleman (RSA) algorithm is
increase complexity, considering the fact that it has poor used to transform the key message into the bitstream before
data security and is readily cracked. The key is generated encrypting it. Secret data and the smallest amount of green
by using ECC algorithm, and this key is used with the are XORed in logic, and the outcome is embedded in the
Hill cipher technique to produce ciphertext. smallest amount of red or blue. When compared to the
Cryptography and Steganography both combined conventional Least Significant Bite (LSB) method, the Peak
provide the data with greater legitimacy and ownership Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) improved. Through a partition-
for media applications. Without a proper key, it proves wise quantification Singular Value Decomposition (SVD),
difficult to get the hidden message and the image. For Tao Wang et al. [3] devised a technique for scrambling a
multimedia applications, the performance of hiding data picture and embedding a watermark. Two types of amplitude
and image in image data has been analyzed. modulation-based watermarking techniques were given by
Anil K. Jain et al. in their paper [4]. The user's face data is
Keywords:- Steganography, Cryptography, Elliptic Curve kept in fingerprint representations in the second case,
Cryptography, Hill Cipher, Self-Invertible Matrix, Discrete whereas fingerprint minutiae data is stored in the first case. A
Cosine Transform, Least Significant Bit. watermarking approach based on the Integer Discrete Cosine
Transform (DCT) method was presented by Ayush Vashistha
I. INTRODUCTION et al. in [5]. The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) filter was used
to improve the fingerprint's binary image, which was then
As multimedia items like photographs, audio clips, and segmented and binarized. A hybrid encryption scheme
video files take up a lot of storage space when uploaded to employing the Advanced Encryption Standard and RSA
the cloud [1], the risk to data security and privacy has grown algorithm was presented by M. Elhoseny et al. in [6]. The
as more digital information and data are exchanged over the suggested method starts by utilizing 2D-DWT-1L or 2D-
internet [2]. Due to the risk of unauthorized copying, DWT-2L to encrypt the secret data and then conceal the end
copyright protection and ownership identification are result in a cover picture. A technique where the input data is
becoming crucial issues [3]. In comparison to knowledge- encrypted and decrypted using the RSA algorithm was
based procedures like identity cards, passwords, etc., proposed by Y. K. Singh et al., [7]. A stego picture is created
biometric-based authentication systems are becoming more by placing the encrypted data in an image and then using the
and more successful[4]. The approach needed to remedy this DCT method, enhancing the stego image. From Elliptic
issue is digital watermarking [5]. However, this paper Curve Cryptography, the Key is generated and cipher-text is
focuses on improving the data privacy, security. generated by Hill Cipher using this key. Elliptic Curve
Cryptography and Hill Cipher (ECCHC) combination not
only increases the security but it also makes system more
efficient compared to the traditional Hill cipher Algorithm.

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Volume 8, Issue 9, September – 2023 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
III. PROPOSED METHOD achieves a great level of data security, privacy. Without a
proper cryptoanalysis, it is very hard to retrieve the plain text
Cryptography, the study of the process of encoding and from a stego-object. Using Hill Cipher, we can encrypt the
decoding information, has evolved as an effective tool for text. But the problem with this approach is, the ciphertext is
protecting digital communication’s privacy, integrity, and easily broken and has less adequate security. So, to add some
validity. Cryptographic techniques use mathematical complexity, ECC is combined with Hill cipher. At first using
procedures to convert plain text, readable data into ECC, the key is generated and using this key, generate the
ciphertext, which seems random and unintelligible. Only key matrix for Hill Cipher algorithm and this hill cipher
authorized person with the right decryption algorithm or key generates the ciphertext. After performing this encryption
may reverse this procedure and access the original algorithm, there is a need of proper key to decrypt ciphertext.
communication. Steganography goes beyond cryptography The ciphertext generated is taken as JSON object and
by masking data, making it impossible for unauthorized encrypted into the base image.
parties to decode the secret message. Steganography, which
is derived from Greek terms ”steganos” (which means This method's subsequent step is to combine a picture
”covered or concealed”) and ”graphein” (which means into a base image. We initially apply a DCT to the picture
”writing”), has a long history dating back thousands of years. and take into account the DCT coefficients for that. We
Steganography works on the basis of that the human vision translate these DCT coefficients, which vary from 0 to 255,
and other sensory perception systems are restricted in their using basic mathematical operations. The DCT coefficients
ability to notice small changes in digital material. are converted to a JSON object, and then using the Least
Significant Bit technique, the full JSON object is embedded
The proposed method is a combination of cryptography into the base picture. We can simply use a bit xor technique
and steganography techniques by embedding a text/image to extract our JSON item during decryption while utilizing
into an image. Encrypting embedded information is the same LSB. Fig 1 Depicts the Suggested Method's Layout.
considered too more efficient and secure. This method

Fig 1 Block Diagram to Proposed Method

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Volume 8, Issue 9, September – 2023 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
ECC is an asymmetric cryptographic technique that is Here K11, K12, K21, K22 are 2 X 2 matrices of Km. where
entirely based on elliptic curve arithmetic. We employ ECC
over finite fields for cryptography. The primary benefits of
ECC are lower computation power and quicker and shorter
key generation. The security of a 160 bit ECC encryption key
is the same as that of a 1024 bit RSA encryption key. Steps
involved in the ECC are:

A. Key Generation
The first and most critical step is the production of
public and private keys. Because ECC is an asymmetric
algorithm, the message is encrypted by the sender using the
receiver's public key, and the message is decrypted by the In above ’I’ is the identity matrix and ’N’ is any random
receiver using its private key. The random numbers 'a' and 'b' number then the self-invertible matrix is as follows
are chosen to represent the sender and recipient private keys.
The following equation is used to produce the public key.

Here ’O’ is the point agreed by sender and receiver on

the curve and ’a’,’b’ are the private keys of the sender (User
B. Encryption
A) and receiver (User B) respectively and the PA, PB are the
Let M represent the message that has to be encrypted.
public keys of sender and receiver respectively.
The message’s ASCII values are divided into blocks of size
4, and each block is multiplied by the self-invertible key
The user will multiply their private key with other users
matrix.
public key to initially get key K.
To obtain the ciphered values, use modulo 127. To
obtain the ciphered text, these ciphered values are then
mapped to the appropriate character. Consider a image that
Then computes. needs to be encrypted, and then apply DCT to the image.
Accept DCT coefficient values and normalize them to fall
between 0 and 255. The 16-bit format is chosen since these
values are floating-point numbers.

C. Decryption
The LSB technique extracts the DCT coefficients and
the ciphertext from the stego image. The receiver can create
Now the key matrix K used for Hill cipher algorithm is the self-invertible key by employing the ECCHC decryption
technique with the correct sender private key. The original
text may be obtained by multiplying the four-blocks-long
ciphertext with this matrix. By applying Inverse Discrete
Cosine Transform (IDCT) to the obtained DCT coefficients,
the hidden image may be recovered. Using the LSB-based
method, the original base image may be recovered by
The text is decrypted using the inverse matrix of this calculating XOR values between the original image and the
key matrix, however it might not always be present. The text stego image.
could not then be decrypted by the recipient. Therefore, the
idea of a self-invertible matrix, or K = K-1, which is the key D. Embedding Process
matrix itself is the inverse of the matrix, is employed to Both Cryptography and steganography are two main
overcome this problem. Therefore, during the decryption stages of the embedding process.
phase, there is no need to compute the inverse matrix.
 Cryptography Steps:
Self-invertible matrix Km is
 First step is Key generation which is responsible to
perform User Authentication.
 The Steps involved for key generation are

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Volume 8, Issue 9, September – 2023 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
 Sender and receiver agrees on a point ’O’ on the elliptic
curve.
 Private key and public key are generated for sender.
 Private key and public key are generated for receiver.
 Secret key is generated for sender and receiver based on
the condition that both sender and receiver must know the
private each other.

 Using Hill cipher, the text which is the secret message is

encrypted with the key generated using the ECC
algorithm.
 DCT is performed to the secret image which is to be
encrypted and these DCT coefficients are embedded.
Fig 2 Generation of Private and Public Key for
 Steganography Steps: Sender and Receiver

The creation of the secret key, as depicted in Fig. 3, is

 The encrypted data is embedded into the base image
the step that follows. Using the private key of user1 and the
using the LSB method.
public key of user2, the secret key of user1 is formed, and the
 The LSB of an image’s pixel value and the secret data to
secret key of user2 is produced using the private key of user2
be concealed are combined using the XOR method. The
and the public key of user1. If both the sender’s and the
outcome is stored in the base image’s least significant bit.
receiver’s private keys are known to one another, two users
are verified to transmit the message. This figure also shows
Since the total shift is negligible, the human visual
the self-invertible matrix generated using mathematical
system is unable to detect the modification in the original
equations discussed in key generation concept.
image. This approach is strongly advised because to its
simplicity and little image quality reduction.

E. Extracting Process

 The receiver receives the stego image.

 The secret key is created from the sender’s private key if
the one receiving has been verified using the ECC
parameters (D1 and D2).
 Multiplying the secret key with encrypted ciphertext will
reveal the hidden message.
 The extracted DCT coefficients allow for retrieval of
hidden image.

F. Advantages of Proposed Method

Fig 3 Secret Key and Self-Invertible Matrix Generation
 Using both methods in succession improves data privacy,
ownership, and security. Figure 4 depicts the encryption of the provided text
 ECC use lowers overall processing overhead. ’Shyam Kumar Kurapati @123$’ to ciphertext using an
 The security against assaults are increased when ECC ECC-generated key and the Hill Cipher cryptography
and Hill cipher method are used together. technique.

IV. RESULTS

The first step in this mechanism is that both the sender

and receiver must know their private keys. The private key
should be lesser than the agreed point on the curve by both Fig 4 Encryption at Sender side
sender and receiver. Generation of private and public key for
both sender and receiver are illustrated in Fig.2. Using
private key and the point agreed, the public key is generated.

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Volume 8, Issue 9, September – 2023 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
 Fig5 is Secret Image that Needs to be Hidden in the base  The base Image is Shown in Fig.7 and the Embedded
Image Image is shown in Fig.8.

Fig 5: Secret Image Fig 8: Embedded Image

(Data and Image Coefficients are Encrypted into this Image)
In Fig 6 shows secret image DCT coefficients. These
DCT coefficients and text encrypted are embedded using At decryption side, with the help of receiver’s private
LSB approach into base image. key and using LSB approach encrypted data is retrieved. The
decrypted text is shown in Fig 9.

Fig 9: Decrypted Text from Embedded Image

 The Secret Image is Saved as Nature.png and it is shown

in Fig10.

Fig 6 DCT Coefficients of Nature Image (Secret Image)

Fig 10: Reconstructed Secret Image using IDCT

(Inverse Discrete Cosine Transform)

V. CONCLUSIONS

The secret data to be sent (text and picture) is

encrypted, and the crypto data is embedded in the base
image. On the receiver side, after decryption , secret data
which is encrypted is extracted from the stego image. Text
encryption was accomplished employing a combination of
Fig 7 Base Image elliptic curve cryptography algorithm and the Hill cipher,

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Volume 8, Issue 9, September – 2023 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
which reduced computing cost. The hidden picture is
subjected to DCT, and these DCT coefficients were included
in the base image. The encrypted message and coefficients of
DCT for secret image were embedded in the picture using the
LSB technique. Data privacy and ownership have been
improved by combining the properties of cryptography with
steganography.

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