https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0690-2326
Figures
Abstract
Data security is becoming important as the amount of video data transmitted over the internet grows rapidly. This research article aims to maximize the security of transmitted video data by proposing a novel hybrid technique for video encryption and decryption. Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) and the Modified Advanced Encryption Standard (MAES) are two encryption techniques that are included in the hybrid approach. By providing a more effective and safe method for video encryption and decryption, this research considerably advances the field of video data protection in Internet communication. In the proposed technique the video frames are extracted, and each frame is first encrypted using MAES technique and then again encrypted using ECC technique. After the encryption, the individual frames are merged to make an encrypted video. The same process is performed in reverse order to perform decryption of the video. The results of the experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the suggested scheme: higher security, better accuracy, and shorter processing times when compared to well-known techniques such as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), MAES, ECC, Simplified Data Encryption Standard (SDES), and Chaotic Map methods.
Citation: Shafiq S, Latif S, Ibrahim J, Ilyas MSB, Imran A, Kryvinska N, et al. (2024) Optimizing video data security: A hybrid MAES-ECC encryption technique for efficient internet transmission. PLoS ONE 19(11): e0311765. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0311765
Editor: M. Usman Ashraf, GC Women University Sialkot, PAKISTAN
Received: July 25, 2024; Accepted: September 24, 2024; Published: November 22, 2024
Copyright: © 2024 Shafiq et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Data Availability: All relevant data are within the manuscript.
Funding: The authors extend their appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research at Northern Border University, Arar, KSA for funding this research work through the project number “NBU-FFR-2024-2990-01”.
Competing interests: NO authors have competing interests.
Section 1: Introduction
With the expansion of internet and computer networks, video sharing in multimedia applications has now become an indispensable part of our lives. Now video data is being transferred in every field, including commercial, industrial, military, medical, etc. [1]. The security of such data has become a big concern as the data might contain some sensitive information. There is a high need to secure sensitive information from intruders [2]. Cryptography aims to guard sensitive data from unauthorized users by converting it into an unrecognizable form [3].
In the past few years, researchers have proposed many video encryption techniques, including symmetric and asymmetric techniques. Symmetric technique makes use of similar key for encryption and decryption of data, while asymmetric technique uses different keys, one is for encryption and other is for decryption of the data. These techniques are different in terms of the security they provide, complexity in terms of computational, and the time they need for encryption and decryption of the video data [4]. With improvements to its fundamental design and key scheduling algorithm, the widely used AES has evolved into the MAES. MAES is a symmetric technique that provides high security for the encryption of data in large amount [5], The purpose of this change is to strengthen encryption and make it more resistant to new types of cryptographic assaults. However, ECC is an asymmetric technique with a short key that requires less storage space and is considered suitable for encrypting small amounts of data [6]. ECC is well known for being resource-constrained, especially in environments like multimedia applications, because of its efficiency in terms of both key size and computational complexity [7].
To strengthen video content security via strong encryption and effective decryption procedures, this research paper presents a novel hybrid approach that combines two potent cryptographic techniques: ECC and the MAES. By combining the advantages of both algorithms, MAES and ECC offer a comprehensive and sophisticated solution to the problems presented by modern video encryption requirements. Our hybrid approach aims to create a strong and secure framework for video encryption and decryption by combining the advantages of MAES and ECC. This study explores the technical details of MAES and ECC, examining their unique advantages and disadvantages before suggesting an integrated system that best utilizes their complementary qualities. The research holds importance as it can aid in the creation of sophisticated cryptographic methods designed for video content, tackling the difficulties brought about by the dynamic and substantial amounts of multimedia data. This paper’s subsequent sections will examine the specific methodology, experimental findings, and comparative analyses, providing insight into the efficacy and possibility of the suggested hybrid approach in strengthening the security of video storage and communication in the digital sphere.
By combining the advantages of both techniques, we propose a hybrid technique for video encryption in which the videos are first encrypted using MAES and then the encrypted video is again encrypted using the ECC technique. Once the video is encrypted, the decryption of the video can be performed by applying both techniques to the encrypted video but in reverse order. Experimental results illustrate that the proposed hybrid technique is highly secure and takes less computational time than AES, MAES, ECC, SDES and Chaotic Map techniques.
The remaining paper is structured as follows. Section 2 comprises the literature review. Section 3 considers the proposed methodology in detail. Section 4 represents analysis of experimental results, and Section 5 provides the conclusion.
Section 2: Literature survey
The proliferation of digital video content and the increasing reliance on internet transmission underscores the critical importance of video data security. As video data traverse the internet, they face numerous challenges, including unauthorized access, data interception, and potential compromise. Therefore, the optimization of video data security is imperative to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity of transmitted content.
In this paper [8] author proposes a new hybrid multi-key cryptography technique for secure communication of video. The objective of the research is to address the concern of protecting copyright and preventing piracy in real-time video streaming systems. The proposed technique utilizes the ECC method as a pseudorandom encryption key generator to encrypt and decrypt small chunks of video files dynamically. Multiple keys are generated on video-based data, enhancing the security of the encryption process. The implementation of the proposed technique was carried out on the Android platform, with sender and recipient applications developed for streaming videos. The performance and security of the system were evaluated, and the outcomes demonstrated superiority in terms of both aspects. The results show significant improvements in terms of encryption and decryption time, as well as parameters such as SSIM, SNR, PSNR, MSE, and RMSE. In [9] author proposes a secure video communication technique based on multi-equation multi-key hybrid cryptography that helps to improve the security of video communication. The proposed technique aims to secure the content of video from unauthorized access and ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the transmitted data. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the multi-equation multi-key hybrid cryptography approach in providing enhanced security for video communication. This research [10] presents a hybrid cryptographic approach that combines the AES and DES algorithms. The paper discusses the implementation of the hybrid cryptographic technique and evaluates its performance and security. The results exhibit the effectiveness of the hybrid approach in terms of encryption and decryption speed and the level of security provided.
A video encryption scheme that utilizes hybrid encryption technology is presented in this research [11]. The focus of this research is to enhance the security of video content by employing a combination of encryption techniques. The proposed scheme aims to protect video data from unauthorized access and ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the content. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the hybrid encryption technology in providing robust protection for video content. The objective of the research in [12] is to obtain an encryption algorithm which combines the efficiency of MAES and the security of ECC. The paper describes the implementation of the EMAES algorithm in MATLAB and Android Studio, using a messaging application. The results show that EMAES is 30% more efficient in terms of encryption and decryption time compared to other algorithms. The security of EMAES is also improved when compared to other hybrid algorithms, as demonstrated by parameters like, SNR, PSNR, SSIM, MSE, and RMSE.
The author [13] proposed a real-time video security system that utilizes a chaos-improved Advanced Encryption Standard (IAES) algorithm. This research enhances the security of real-time video streaming systems by incorporating chaos-based encryption techniques into the AES algorithm. The paper describes the implementation of the IAES algorithm and its application in video encryption and decryption. The IAES algorithm utilizes chaos-based techniques to generate encryption keys, which are used to encrypt and decrypt video data in real-time. The research evaluates the performance and security of the proposed system by implementing it on devices and streaming videos. In this paper [14] author proposes a multi-level image security system that combines ECC, magic matrix, and the AES. The objective of the research is to enhance the security of image data by utilizing multiple encryption techniques.
The proposed system utilizes ECC to generate encryption keys and achieve encryption and decryption operations on the image data. Additionally, a magic matrix is employed to further improve the security of the encrypted image. The AES algorithm is used as the primary encryption algorithm in the multi-level security system. The research evaluates the performance and security of the proposed system by conducting experiments on image data.
A novel approach for multimedia encryption using a hybrid cryptographic technique is proposed in [15]. The proposed approach utilizes a hybrid cryptographic technique, which combines multiple encryption algorithms to encrypt multimedia data. The research evaluates the performance and security of the proposed approach by conducting experiments on multimedia data. The paper titled "A novel hybrid cryptosystem for secure streaming of high efficiency H.265 compressed videos in IoT multimedia applications" presents innovative hybrid cryptosystem for streaming of H.265 compressed videos securely in IoT multimedia applications. The objective of the research is to develop a secure cryptosystem that can be used for streaming high efficiency H.265 compressed videos in IoT multimedia applications. The proposed hybrid cryptosystem combines multiple encryption techniques to ensure the security of the streamed videos. The research evaluates the execution and security of the proposed cryptosystem by conducting experiments on H.265 compressed videos [16].
Author in [17] used the Advance Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm for video encryption. In their approach different sets of round keys were derived from the cipher keys and the plain text was initialized in a state array. The initial round key was then added to the start of the state array and ten different rounds were performed for the state modification. After these rounds, the final state array was copied as cipher text output. Different video lengths ranging from 18 to 52 seconds were used for experiments. In this paper [18] researchers highlighted the limitations of the AES technique for video encryption including high calculations, computation overhead and time consumption. They proposed an AES technique with modifications and named it as Modified Advance Encryption Standard (MAES). Experiments in [18] were performed using the same video lengths that were used in [17] and the comparison showed that the MAES technique worked faster as compared to the AES technique.
Shrutika et al. [19] presented a scheme which consisted of three modules. These modules are data embedding, video encryption, and data extraction. The video encryption was performed using the RC4 method, which is a stream cipher and produces improve results as compared to a block cipher. The RC4 algorithm was provided with a secret key to generate a key stream. XOR operation was then performed on the generated key stream and the video stream to perform video encryption. Although, the RC4 algorithm is a block cipher but is more vulnerable to the attacks and this technique cannot be easily implemented on small streams of data. In [20] author proposed a method of video encryption using the SDES and chaotic map schemes. In the proposed scheme, video was converted from RGB to Y-Cb-Cr color space to make encryption simpler. After the conversion, only the Y component was encrypted through a selection mechanism using the SDES, and the encryption on remaining frames was performed using a chaotic map scheme. For exchanging the keys, the RSA public key cryptosystem was used. At last, the merging of Y-Cb-Cr frames was done to make a video. The resultant video was then changed back to RGB to get an encrypted RGB video. The proposed technique takes much time for conversion from R-G-B to Y-Cb-Cr color space of videos which makes it a time-consuming technique.
In [21], researchers proposed a method called Unequal Secure Encryption (USE), which encrypts different portions of videos using different cryptographic techniques. The proposed scheme was divided into two modules. The First module was based on the classification of the video data, and the second module was based on USE. Two segments were generated in the video classification module which they named as “important” and “unimportant” video segments. After the division, the important video segments were encrypted using the AES technique and the unimportant video segments were encrypted using the Fast Leak Extraction (FLEX). After encrypting with FLEX, they were subjected to an XOR operation to reduce computational costs. Although the scheme offered advantages like low computational cost, but it is a quite complex technique. Authors used ECC technique for real time video encryption in [22]. The suggested approach focuses on analyzing the performance of several ECC curves for real-time video encryption before recommending an appropriate ECC curve for the best outcomes. The suggested method is based on a client-server architecture in which the server encrypts the video frame by frame as the client sends the initial request for video. It was determined that the X9.62 272-bit binary curve and the NIST-recommended 256-bit prime curves are appropriate for real-time video encryption after looking at 18 different curves. The suggested method was developed only on an institutional network and is only mentioned for real-time video streaming. The literature review is discussed more in Table 1 with their contribution.
Section 3: Proposed methodology
Video encryption technique must be secure, fast and easy to implement so that it can be used in real world. After reviewing different video encryption techniques, our proposed methodology is a hybrid video encryption and decryption technique in which the advantages of Modified Advance Encryption Standard (MAES) and ECC algorithms are used. In the proposed technique the video is split into multiple frames for encryption and decryption and an array of bitmap images is created which holds the frames of the video. After that each video frame is first encrypted using MAES algorithm and then again encrypted using ECC algorithm. The flowchart of proposed technique is given below shown in Fig 1.
MAES algorithm uses the concept of row shifting and ECC follows column shifting of pixels present in a frame. Shifting of pixels will depend on the grayscale value of each 4th pixel in both vertical and horizontal direction which will be calculated using the equation 1.
Once encryption is done, the encrypted frames will be combined to generate a complete encrypted video. On the other hand, while performing decryption the encrypted video will be split into multiple frames and each frame will be decrypted using ECC and MAES algorithm and then combined into an understandable digital video. This section further provides an overview of encryption, decryption and key generation steps used in the proposed technique.
3.1. Encryption process in proposed methodology
Fig 2 represents the encryption process of the proposed technique where random keys are generated including MAES shared key, ECC public and ECC private key. These keys are used for the encryption and decryption of the video frames and to enhance the security to the video data, the MAES shared key and ECC private key are encrypted using Rail Fence Cipher [15]. The pseudocode of the proposed technique is described below:
To perform encryption, first the video is split into multiple frames and then each frame is first encrypted by MAES algorithm using its key. Once frame get encrypted using MAES algorithm, again encryption is performed on it using the public key of ECC algorithm to further encrypt the video frames. As each frame gets encrypted by MAES and ECC algorithms, it will be stored in a bit map array. When all the frames of video get encrypted, the bitmap array will be converted into encrypted version of the original video.
3.2. Decryption process in proposed technique
Fig 3 shows the decryption process of the encrypted video where the key file and encrypted video is used. To perform the decryption of video, the keys are first decrypted. The encrypted video is again split into frames and each frame is first decrypted using ECC algorithm and the decrypted frame is then again decrypted using MAES algorithm to get the original video.
3.3. Operation on each individual frame
In the proposed technique MAES technique is used for row shifting of individual frames of video. In MAES, the value of gray value of 1st row and 1st column is checked. If the gray value of the 1st row and the 1st column is even, then no shift will be performed in the 1st and 4th row however 2nd row is shifted towards the right three places cyclically, and the 3rd row is shifted towards the left five places cyclically as shown in Fig 4.
On the other hand, if the value of 1st row and 1st column is odd, then the 1st and 3rd row remain unchanged but the 2nd row is shifted towards left by one place and the 4th row is shifted towards left three place as shown in Fig 5. The same operation will perform on each frame 14 times i.e. 14 rounds for MAES encryption.
Once the MAES encryption is performed, the MAES encrypted frame will be further encrypted using ECC’s algorithm. In the proposed technique ECC algorithm is used to perform the column shifting of the pixels in the video frames which is made in pixels vertically upward or downward.
Algorithm 1:MAES and ECC encryption on each frame of a video
def encrypt_video(video_frames):
frameCount = len(video_frames)
e = keyGeneration(ECC_keys)
m = keyGeneration(MAES_key)
encrypted_frames = []
for i in range(frameCount):
frame = video_frames[i]
# MAES encryption
frame = shiftRow(frame, m)
frame1 = MAES_encryption(frame)
# ECC encryption
frame1 = shiftColumn(frame1, e)
frame2 = Hybrid_encryption(frame1)
encrypted_frames.append(frame2)
return encrypted_frames
Section 4: Results
In the proposed methodology a hybrid technique is proposed which comprises of two different algorithms including MAES and ECC for encryption and decryption of a video. The proposed technique is developed using C sharp. Experimentation is performed on the proposed technique using different video sizes that are already used in the different research papers and the analysis of results is discussed in this section.
Table 2 represents the comparison of encryption time required for encrypting a video using AES algorithm and our proposed hybrid technique. Result revels that our system takes much less encryption time as compare to the existing technique [17].
Table 3 shows the comparison of the encryption and decryption time required for encrypting and decrypting a video using MAES [18] algorithm and proposed technique.
Table 4 represents the comparison of the encryption and decryption time required to encrypt and decrypt different video length using the Hybrid technique 2018 (SDES and Chaotic Map Scheme) [19] and our proposed system. Result shows that our proposed hybrid approach takes less time for encryption and decryption of same video length.
Table 5 shows the comparison of hybrid technique (including AES and ECC algorithm) discussed in [23] and our proposed technique.
Another hybrid technique is proposed in [24] comprises of AES and ECC algorithm. Table 6 shows the comparison of time required to encrypt and decrypt a video using technique discuss in [24] and our proposed technique.
Fig 6 represents the graphical comparison of time required for encryption using AES and our proposed hybrid scheme.
Fig 7 represents the graphical comparison of the encryption and decryption time required for encrypting and decryption same video lengths using the Hybrid Scheme 2018 (SDES and Chaotic Map scheme) and our proposed technique.
Section 5: Conclusion
This research paper has presented a novel approach for optimizing video data security through the development of a hybrid MAES-ECC encryption technique tailored for efficient internet transmission. By integrating Modified Advanced Encryption Standard (MAES) and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), the proposed technique offers enhanced security measures while ensuring computational efficiency and facilitating seamless transmission over the internet. Throughout the study, we have elucidated the rationale behind key design decisions, including the selection of appropriate key sizes and encryption rounds, to address the unique challenges posed by video data encryption. Through extensive experimentation and analysis, the effectiveness and performance of the hybrid encryption technique have been demonstrated, underscoring its potential for safeguarding video data in diverse internet transmission scenarios. Moving forward, further research avenues may explore optimizations and enhancements to refine the proposed technique, thereby advancing the realm of video data security in the context of internet transmission.
Acknowledgments
The first author is thankful to all co-authors who contributed to carrying out the proposed work.
References
- 1. Nauman A., Qadri Y. A., Amjad M., Zikria Y. B., Afzal M. K., and Kim S. W., "Multimedia Internet of Things: A comprehensive survey," IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 8202–8250, 2020.
- 2. Aqeel M., Ali F., Iqbal M. W., Rana T. A., Arif M., and Auwul M. R., "A review of security and privacy concerns in the internet of things (IoT)," Journal of Sensors, vol. 2022, 2022.
- 3. Sarkar A., Chatterjee S. R., and Chakraborty M., "Role of cryptography in network security," in The "essence" of network security: an end-to-end panorama. pp. 103–143, 2021.
- 4. Padhiar S. and Mori K. H., "A Comparative Study on Symmetric and Asymmetric Key Encryption Techniques," in Implementing Data Analytics and Architectures for Next Generation Wireless Communications, IGI Global, pp. 132–144, 2022.
- 5. Hafsa A., Sghaier A., Malek J., and Machhout M., "Image encryption method based on improved ECC and modified AES algorithm," Multimedia Tools and Applications, vol. 80, pp. 19769–19801, 2021.
- 6. Ullah S., Zheng J., Din N., Hussain M. T., Ullah F., and Yousaf M., "Elliptic Curve Cryptography; Applications, challenges, recent advances, and future trends: A comprehensive survey," Computer Science Review, vol. 47, p. 100530, 2023.
- 7. Khan M. N., Rao A., and Camtepe S., "Lightweight cryptographic protocols for IoT-constrained devices: A survey," IEEE Internet of Things Journal, vol. 8, no. 6, pp. 4132–4156, 2020.
- 8. Fouzar Y., Lakhssassi A., and Ramakrishna M., "A Novel Hybrid Multikey Cryptography Technique for Video Communication," IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 15693–15700, 2023.
- 9. Fouzar Y., Lakhssassi A., and Mundugar R., "Secure Video Communication Using Multi-Equation Multi-Key Hybrid Cryptography," Future Internet, vol. 15, no. 12, p. 387, 2023.
- 10. Kanshi A., Soundrapandiyan R., Sofia V. A., and Rajasekar V. R., "Hybridized Cryptographic Encryption and Decryption Using Advanced Encryption Standard and Data Encryption Standard," Cybernetics and Information Technologies, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 63–78, 2023.
- 11. Han Q., Wang L., Lee Y., and Qin J., "Video encryption scheme using hybrid encryption technology," International Journal of Internet Protocol Technology, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 1–8, 2020.
- 12. Somaiya R., Gonsai A., and Tanna R., "Implementation and evaluation of EMAES–A hybrid encryption algorithm for sharing multimedia files with more security and speed," International journal of electrical and computer engineering systems, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 401–409, 2023.
- 13. Hafsa A., Fradi M., Sghaier A., Malek J., and Machhout M., "Real-time video security system using chaos-improved advanced encryption standard (IAES)," Multimedia Tools and Applications, pp. 1–24, 2022.
- 14. Raju D., Eleswarapu L., Pranav M. S., and Sinha R. K., "Multi-level image security using elliptic curve and magic matrix with advanced encryption standard," Multimedia Tools and Applications, vol. 81, no. 26, pp. 37783–37803, 2022.
- 15. Iyer S. C., Sedamkar R. R., and Gupta S., "A novel idea on multimedia encryption using hybrid crypto approach," in Proc. Comput. Sci., vol. 79, pp. 293–298, Jan. 2016.
- 16. Alarifi A., Sankar S., Altameem T., Jithin K., Amoon M., and El-Shafai W., "A novel hybrid cryptosystem for secure streaming of high efficiency H.265 compressed videos in IoT multimedia applications," IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 128548–128573, 2020.
- 17. Dumbere D. M. and Janwe N. J., "Video encryption using AES algorithm," in Second International Conference on Current Trends In Engineering and Technology-ICCTET 2014, pp. 332–337, July 2014.
- 18. Deshmukh P. and Kolhe V., "Modified AES based algorithm for MPEG video encryption," in International Conference on Information Communication and Embedded Systems (ICICES2014), pp. 1–5, February 2014.
- 19. Giradkar S. S. and Bhattacharya A., "Securing compressed video streams using RC4 encryption scheme," in 2015 Global Conference on Communication Technologies (GCCT), pp. 640–644, April 2015.
- 20. Hole R. N. and Kolhekar M., "Robust encryption of uncompressed videos with a selective frame scheme," in 2018 3rd International Conference for Convergence in Technology (I2CT), pp. 1–7, April 2018.
- 21.
Fan Y., Wang J., Ikenaga T., Tsunoo Y., and Goto S., "A new video encryption scheme for H. 264/AVC," in Advances in Multimedia Information Processing–PCM 2007: 8th Pacific Rim Conference on Multimedia, Hong Kong, China, December 11–14, 2007. Proceedings 8, pp. 246–255, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2007.
- 22. Sen N., Dantu R., Vempati J., and Thompson M., "Performance analysis of elliptic curves for real-time video encryption," in 2018 National Cyber Summit (NCS), pp. 64–71, June 2018.
- 23.
Shaik S. B., Devi D. S., Sujithra M., Sarika G., Tripathi V., and Kapila D., "Secure Image Steganography Technique based on Hybrid Transforms and Enhanced AES," in 2022 International Conference on Augmented Intelligence and Sustainable Systems (ICAISS), pp. 01–06, November 2022. IEEE.
- 24. Khan J. S. and Ahmad J., "Chaos based efficient selective image encryption," Multidimensional Systems and Signal Processing, vol. 30, pp. 943–961, 2019.
- 25. Naji A. K., "Elliptic curve video encryption in mobile phone based on multi-keys and chaotic map," Al-Mustansiriyah Journal of Science, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 106–116, 2018.
- 26. Ahmed S. T., Hammood D. A., Chisab R. F., Al-Naji A., and Chahl J., "Medical Image encryption: A comprehensive review," Computers, vol. 12, no. 8, p. 160, 2023.
- 27. Paul A. J., "Recent advances in selective image encryption and its indispensability due to COVID-19," in 2020 IEEE Recent Advances in Intelligent Computational Systems (RAICS), pp. 201–206, 2020.
- 28. Vijaykumar S. and Thyagaraj S. P., "Optimizing multimedia communication in internet of thing network for improving quality of service," The Indonesian Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (IJEECS), vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 1201–1210, 2023.
- 29. Lalithambigai B. and Chitra S., "Segment Based Compressive Sensing (SBCS) of Color Images for Internet of Multimedia Things Applications," Journal of Medical Imaging and Health Informatics, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 1–6, 2022.
- 30. Wen H., Lin Y., Yang L., and Chen R., "Cryptanalysis of an image encryption scheme using variant Hill cipher and chaos," Expert Systems with Applications, p. 123748, 2024.