Alternative Hash Function based on NP-hard Problem

Abstract

Secure hash function is used to protect the integrity of the message transferred on the unsecured network. Changes on the bits of the sender's message is recognized by the message digest produced by the hash function. Hash function is mainly concerned of data integrity, where data receiver needs to verify whether the message has been altered by eavesdropping by checking the hash value appended with the message. To achieve this purpose, we have to use secure hash function able to calculate the hash value of any message. In this paper we introduce an alternative hash function based on NP-hard problem. The chosen NP-hard problem is known as Braid Conjugacy problem. The braid conjugacy problem forms the core of the hash function. The aim of using this hard problem is to make sure that the hash function is irreversible and secure against cryptanalysis attacks. The results shows that the proposed hash function is secure mathematically, and it provides huge key search space.