Simpozionul ştiinţific studenţesc

EMING ediţia a III-a

Reşiţa 03 - 05 decembrie 2015
P-ţa Traian Vuia, nr. 1-4, 320085-Reşiţa, www.uem.ro

The ’’RDM-CRYPT’’

Author: std.sg. Pohonţu Alexandru, an III NHEN,

Facultatea de Inginerie Marină, Academia
Navală “Mircea cel Bătrân” Constanţa

Coordinator: Conf.univ.dr. Ciobanu Camelia

Keywords: criptography, secret, military security;

Abstract: For this project I have built a prototype of a device which can be used for encrypting secret
messages into decimal values. The most important thing about it is that it generates different codes for the
same text beeing encrypted multiple times, so the main algorith can hardly be broken. I have programmed
an ArduinoMega2560 board for this project because after uploading the main code, it can not be
recovered, makeing the device immune to an eventual hack of it.
 Simpozionul ştiinţific studenţesc
EMING ediţia a III-a
Reşiţa 03 - 05 decembrie 2015
P-ţa Traian Vuia, nr. 1-4, 320085-Reşiţa, www.uem.ro

GENERAL CONCEPTS ABOUT ENCRYPTION

In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding messages or information in such a way

that only authorized parties can read it. Encryption does not of itself prevent interception, but denies
the message content to the interceptor. In an encryption scheme, the message or information, referred
to as plaintext, is encrypted using an encryption algorithm, generating ciphertext that can only be read
if decrypted. For technical reasons, an encryption scheme usually uses a pseudo-random encryption
key generated by an algorithm. It is in principle possible to decrypt the message without possessing
the key, but, for a well-designed encryption scheme, large computational resources and skill are
required. An authorised recipient can easily decrypt the message with the key provided by the
originator to recipients, but not to unauthorised interceptors.
In public-key encryption schemes, the encryption key is published for anyone to use and encrypt
messages. However, only the receiving party has access to the decryption key that enables messages to
be read. Public-key encryption was first described in a secret document in 1973; before then all
encryption schemes were symmetric-key (also called private-key).
A publicly available public key encryption application called Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) was
written in 1991 by Phil Zimmermann, and distributed free of charge with source code; it was
purchased by Symantec in 2010 and is regularly updated.
Encryption has long been used by militaries and governments to facilitate secret communication. It
is now commonly used in protecting information within many kinds of civilian systems. For example,
the Computer Security Institute reported that in 2007, 71% of companies surveyed utilized encryption
for some of their data in transit, and 53% utilized encryption for some of their data in storage.
Encryption can be used to protect data "at rest", such as files on computers and storage devices (e.g.
USB flash drives). In recent years there have been numerous reports of confidential data such as
customers' personal records being exposed through loss or theft of laptops or backup drives.
Encrypting such files at rest helps protect them should physical security measures fail. Digital rights
management systems, which prevent unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted material and
protect software against reverse engineering (see also copy protection), is another somewhat different
example of using encryption on data at rest.
Encryption is also used to protect data in transit, for example data being transferred via networks
(e.g. the Internet, e-commerce), mobile telephones, wireless microphones, wireless intercom systems,
Bluetooth devices and bank automatic teller machines. There have been numerous reports of data in
transit being intercepted in recent years. Encrypting data in transit also helps to secure it as it is often
difficult to physically secure all access to networks.
Encryption, by itself, can protect the confidentiality of messages, but other techniques are still
needed to protect the integrity and authenticity of a message; for example, verification of a message
authentication code(MAC) or a digital signature. Standards for cryptographic software and hardware
 Simpozionul ştiinţific studenţesc
EMING ediţia a III-a
Reşiţa 03 - 05 decembrie 2015
P-ţa Traian Vuia, nr. 1-4, 320085-Reşiţa, www.uem.ro

to perform encryption are widely available, but successfully using encryption to ensure security may
be a challenging problem. A single error in system design or execution can allow successful attacks.
Sometimes an adversary can obtain unencrypted information without directly undoing the encryption.
See, e.g., traffic analysis, TEMPEST, or Trojan horse.
Digital signature and encryption must be applied to the ciphertext when it is created (typically on
the same device used to compose the message) to avoid tampering; otherwise any node between the
sender and the encryption agent could potentially tamper with it. Encrypting at the time of creation is
only secure if the encryption device itself has not been tampered with.

AES
The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), also known as Rijndael is a specification for the of
electronic data established by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in
2001.
AES is based on the Rijndael cipher developed by two Belgian cryptographers, Joan
Daemen and Vincent Rijmen, who submitted a proposal to NIST during the AES selection
process. Rijndael is a family of ciphers with different key and block sizes.
The design and strength of all key lengths of the AES algorithm (i.e., 128, 192 and 256) are
sufficient to protect classified information up to the SECRET level. TOP SECRET information will
require use of either the 192 or 256 key lengths. The implementation of AES in products intended to
protect national security systems and/or information must be reviewed and certified by NSA prior to
their acquisition and use

ARDUINO MEGA 2560

The Arduino Mega 2560 is a microcontroller board based on

the ATmega2560 . It has 54 digital input/output pins (of which 15 can be
used as PWM outputs), 16 analog inputs, 4 UARTs (hardware serial ports),
a 16 MHz crystal oscillator, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP
header, and a reset button. It contains everything needed to support the micro
controller; simply connect it to a computer with a
USB cable or power it with a AC-to-DC adapter or battery to get started.
The ATmega2560 has 256 KB of flash memory for storing code (of which 8 KB is used for the
bootloader), 8 KB of SRAM and 4 KB of EEPROM (which can be read and written with the EEPROM
library).
The ATmega2560 on the Arduino Mega comes preburned with
a bootloader that allows you to upload new code to it without the use of an external
hardware programmer. It communicates using the original STK500 protocol
(reference, C header files).
 Simpozionul ştiinţific studenţesc
EMING ediţia a III-a
Reşiţa 03 - 05 decembrie 2015
P-ţa Traian Vuia, nr. 1-4, 320085-Reşiţa, www.uem.ro

The ’’ RDM-CRYPT’’

RDM-CRYPT is an automatic system used for encrypting secret data into decimal values.
The device runs on a microcontroller, and main advantage of using it is that after uploading the
main code, it can not be recovered because of the compile process. This helps to keep safe the
encrypting algorithm by not allowing to read the main code . It also includes a card module and
requires a micro SD card whit a specific pass key stored into it, in order to protect the device
against an eventual hack
The RDM-CRYPT runs a C++ algoritm that provides random codes in order to crypt datas. For
example, the word “secret” after being encrypted twice, the Arduino board generated:
 Simpozionul ştiinţific studenţesc
EMING ediţia a III-a
Reşiţa 03 - 05 decembrie 2015
P-ţa Traian Vuia, nr. 1-4, 320085-Reşiţa, www.uem.ro

For the same text, the device would generate different codes every time it is encrypted.
In short, it is a portable device for data security that does now allow decoding than in the case of using a
second encrypting terminal.

Future references:

In the future, after having done more investments into this project, the “Random encryptor” will use an
SIM900 shield in order to make possible the mutual safety communication between two terminals by using
GSM signal and a RFID senzor.

Bibliography

http://arduino.cc//
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Encryption_Standard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encryption
http://www.robofun.ro/