Cryptographic Computation Using ElGamal Algorithm in 32-bit Computing System

Abstract

Abstract-Smart Computing provides ease of use in term of mobility in the low power computing devices such as smartphone, tablet and experimental board (e.g. RaspberryPi). Low power constraint and low computation capability require a lightweight security system and networking protocol. This paper presents an analysis of ElGamal encryption system for securing data communication through the computer. The objectives of this paper are to study ElGamal algorithm in 32-bit integer computation and to implement data encryption using the ElGamal algorithm using 32-bit integers. ElGamal is a continuation of Diffie-Hellman key exchange algorithm. However, ElGamal encryption system uses asymmetric key encryption and decryption. ElGamal uses a public key to encrypt and private a key to decrypt messages where private key and public key are different. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the maximum number of integers that can be computed in 32 bit computer system using standard 32 bit GCC compiler in Debian 6. Furthermore, an exploration of computing capabilities and performance measurement of the ElGamal algorithm using C language is presented in this paper.