Title: A message encryption scheme inspired by Sudoku puzzle

Authors: Shadi R. Masadeh; Hamza Abbass Al-Sewadi; Mohammad Abbas Fadhil Al-Husainy

Addresses: Department of Cyber Security, Faculty of Information Technology, Isra University, Amman, Jordan ' Computer Technology Engineering Department, Iraq University College, Basrah, Iraq ' Faculty of Engineering, Al-Maaqal University, Basrah, Iraq

Abstract: Lightweight cryptographic systems are recently sought for applications with limited computation capabilities, storage space, and power constraints. Such applications include radio-frequency identification devices, remote sensing networks, health care instruments, smart cards, etc. This paper proposes a lightweight symmetric stream cipher cryptosystem that is inspired by the Japanese game 'Sudoku' puzzle for encrypting text messages. This puzzle offers a huge range of dynamic possibilities that will be utilised as secret encryption key. It involves pre-processes for creating two index tables, then a couple of substitution and transposition processes are performed on the message to fulfil Shannon's concept of confusion and diffusion. The design's flexibility offers the advantage of using the algorithm for any character set size. The dynamic permutation is used for the transposition processes. Experimentation indicated an enhancement for text messages' security compared with other considered lightweight cryptosystems, making it a potential candidate for practical applications.

Keywords: symmetric cryptosystems; Sudoku puzzle; pseudo-random numbers; lightweight cryptography; dynamic permutation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICS.2023.132739

International Journal of Information and Computer Security, 2023 Vol.21 No.3/4, pp.399 - 413

Received: 24 Jan 2022
Accepted: 14 Feb 2022
Published online: 09 Aug 2023 *

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