International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering (IJRTE)

ISSN: 2277-3878, Volume-8 Issue-5, January 2020

DNA Cryptography Based User Level Security for

Cloud Computing and Applications
Prasanna Balaji Narasingapuram, M. Ponnavaikko

Abstract:This paper proposed a novel cryptography method case, a person “A” wants to send a message to another
for enhancing the user level security to avoid malicious user person “B”, secretly they need to follow the above said
entering into cloud applications. Existing research works have security service mechanisms. In confidentiality the data
been proposed various cryptographic methods, algorithms and security is provided using symmetric or asymmetric method
techniques for validating the user for accessing data or operating
in two different ways such as block cipher and stream
cloud applications. But still the malicious user activity like sybil,
sinkhole, Denial of Service, Distributed Denial of Service, cipher. Symmetric method uses a single key {K} for both
Economic Denial of Sustainability, selective forwarding and so encryption and decryption, whereas in asymmetric method
on, is increasing day by day in cloud. This paper taken this uses a pair of keys {KU, KR} for encryption and decryption
problem as a major problem and motivated to provide a better process separately. Data Encryption Standard [1-4] and
solution which can eliminate the malicious user activity in cloud. Advanced Encryption Standard [1-4] algorithms belong to
To do this, this paper used DNA cryptography method for symmetric method. Rivest–Shamir–Adleman algorithm
generating a strong key for user and data encryption – decryption belongs to asymmetric method and it uses public key private
process. User information is converted into human key for encryption – decryption process. Authentication is a
deoxyribonucleic acid form for generating strong key and data
process where it validates the data/message sender. For
encryption. The implementation of the proposed approach is
carried out in DOTNET framework and the experimental results integrity a fixed length value is used for converting the plain
are verified. Based on the results the performance is evaluated by text in to unreadable format.
comparing with the existing results. That appending the fixed length value into the plain
text. In order to obtain the fixed length value Message
Keywords: Cryptography, DNA Cryptography, Cloud Digest [5], Secure Hash Algorithm -512 [6] and keyed-hash
Security, User level security, Strong Key Generation, Data message authentication code [7] algorithms are used.
Encryption, Data Decryption. Generally, integrity is, the receiver should trust the data is
not modified by anyone in the network. In the digital
I. INTRODUCTION signature algorithm, the sender used his own private key for
Security services comprises of confidentiality, encrypting the data and send to destination. It can be done
authentication and data integrity, and digital signature. In by digital signature algorithm.

Figure-1. Taxonomy of Cryptographic Algorithms (Existing)

In term of security applications, the Figure-2 shows

the taxonomy of algorithms used for security purpose.
According to the applications the corresponding algorithms
are selected to provide various kinds of security in any kind
of network applications.

Revised Manuscript Received on January 20, 2020

Prasanna Balaji Narasingapuram, Research Scholar, Computer
Science Engineering,Information Technology, Bharath Institute of Higher
Education and Research (BIHER), Chennai, India.
[email protected]
Dr. M. Ponnavaikko, Provost, Bharath University, Chennai, India.
[email protected]

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 DNA Cryptography Based User Level Security for Cloud Computing and Applications

Figure-2. Taxonomy of Security Application Algorithms

Pretty Good Privacy, Secure Electronic Translation, Secure Sockets Layer

Most of the people in internet/network likes to transmit To read an encrypted file, one must have access to a secret
their data or message securely. One of the methods is key which is used to decrypt the data. The process of
converting the data into unreadable format. Author in [8] encryption can be obtained using two different algorithms
used set of alphabets to replace each character in the are:
message transmitted from source node to destination node.  Asymmetric or Public Key Cryptography [14-
For example, each letter ‘A’ is replaced by D, ‘B’ by ‘E’ 17].
and so on. Some of the methods verifies and authorize only  Symmetric or Secret key cryptography [14-17].
certain people to send and receive the data in the network. In
this kind of scenario, some of the authorized people can be
II. CHALLENGES IN TRADITIONAL
converted as a sinkhole (one who holds the entire data by CRYPTOGRAPHY
himself) [9]. In recent days of IT, various techniques,
methods and approaches are used for secured data Modern computers store data using a binary format.
transmission. One of the cryptographic methods used for The size of the keys used in recent cryptographic
secured communication & data transmission for protecting applications is too big. It is very much difficult to crack a
the information is Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) key when a billion calculations perform at a second as the
cryptography [11-12]. DNA cryptography is introduced by combination to crack the key is larger and takes more time.
author in [10]. It is the procedure of changing an ordinary Quantum computation is a new phenomenon which stores
plain-text into unintelligible or unreadable text and vice data using quantum bits. This performs calculations faster
versa. It is the ancient art originated from the Egyptian and hence the codes which take more time to break can be
recorders who used non- standard secret symbol used in cracked speedily. Some of the challenges of traditional
epitaph or carving. In internet applications, protecting and cryptographic methods are, in which infrastructure it is
providing security for data while moving and at rest is more executed, key size, and the quality of the algorithm. While
difficult and imposes challenge for organizations. thinking about the infrastructure or platform, various
Cryptography is concerned with Confidentiality, Integrity traditional algorithm has been used for solving security
and Availability which is known as Confidentiality, integrity issues. Recent days cloud computing and all other
and availability (CIA) triad. Modern cryptography also networking applications need information security for
consists of an additional characteristic called non protecting the data and user validation. User validation,
repudiation. Cryptography provides the mathematical validates the user and authenticate them after validity. As
expression and techniques for the terms related to traditional encryption algorithm has severe security
information/data security such as, problems. The field of information security give importance
 Confidentiality [13], to the new way of protecting the data. The DNA based
cryptography has identified as new way of secure data in the
 Data Integrity,
form DNA molecules which uses DNA strands to hide the
 Entity Authentication And
information. The main objective of DNA cryptography is to
 Data Origin Authentication. provide confidentiality when the persons sends data over a
network. This paper discusses about DNA Cryptography,
The above said methods need to be improved difference between traditional cryptography and DNA
enormously in recent years with technological Cryptography, various works done in the field of DNA
advancements and growing computing power. In Cryptography
cryptography Encryption is a term which is defined as a The similarity between information computing and
process of encoding a message or information which is DNA computing are illustrated in Figure-3. In computing
identified only by authorized users. It is used to make the industry, the user input like numerals, alphabets and alpha-
information hidden. The unauthorized users cannot access numerals are converted as binary numbers can be identified
the data. The word encrypt refers make the data is secret and only by the processor. Similar to this, biological information
it can be written as, is represented as DNA molecules and it is coded using
AGCT (A-Adenine, C-
Cytosine, G-Guanine, T-
Thymine letters).

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 International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering (IJRTE)
ISSN: 2277-3878, Volume-8 Issue-5, January 2020

This paper focused on using DNA computing, where it to analyse the patterns of data combination or data string.
is used to created novel materials for next generation For example, data is converted into ACGT form, and into
microprocessors. In 1994, Dr. Adleman [18] solved HDPP binary or decimal number as an unbreakable password for
(Hamiltonian Directed Path Problem) using DNA. DNA is user identity and validation. It gives improved security for
not directly used in computation, rather it is acting as a user-level security and data-level security. But this paper
massive memory. He described that the solution of focused on using user-level security alone.
molecular combinations can be used to solve any
combinatorial problems. It is done by experimenting the III. PROPOSED SYSTEM
DNA-computational system as a simulation model for the
The proposed system generates a DNA based key for
combinatorial problems. Adleman proved that DNA
user authentication key to get entry or data access
computing is suitable for a greater number of combinatorial
permission in the network/cloud applications. A new
problems, where this paper also trying to use DNA
proposed encryption method is used based on random
computing for providing user level security in cloud
number generation for creating a DNA pattern. The entire
applications.
algorithm comprises of three stages such a key generation,
random key generation and encryption-decryption. Initially
the input data is encrypted and feed as input into the next
level. Second, a random number is generated for example,
Pk, is used for encryption in the next level. Finally, the
decryption process is applied. The input data is a plain text,
having set of characters. Else each single element is
considered as a character and changed into relevant
American Standard Code for Information Interchange
(ASCII) form. The ASCII character is converted into binary
form. The entire process of DNA encoding is illustrated in
Figure-4. In this encryption process, an input message
considered as and transmitted to the receiver after
encryption.
Encryption Process
The encryption process is explained in the following steps
Figure-3. DNA Computing
as:
From various experimental explanations and tutorials of
Adleman, it is understanding that DNA computing [19-20] Step-1: Original text is converted into ASCII (decimal
is used to store large volume of data using re-combinative Form)
characteristics of DNA. A small size of DNA can provide Step-2: All decimal values are considered as blocks
millions to billions of parallel interactions speedily. It is Step-3: ASCII message into binary form (0’s and 1’s)
linear processing of parallel processing. AND, OR, NOR
and NOT operations are mainly used for linking, cutting,
pasting and other operations suitable with DNA. One of the
function complementarities makes the DNA as unique. It
can be used for unique key development or in error
correction. The speed and memory occupation of DNA
computing comparing with other computers is give in Table-
1, it shows the DNA is highly suitable for high speed
parallel process over large volume of data at high speed.

Table-1. DNA Computing Ability Comparing with other

Computing

The DNA computer the data is represented using a Figure-4. DNA Based Data Encryption
sequence of four nucleotides “A-Adenine”, “C-Cytosine”,
“G-Guanine”, and “T-Thymine”. Electrical impulses are
replaced by chemical properties of the molecules. It is used

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 DNA Cryptography Based User Level Security for Cloud Computing and Applications

The encryption process is described using a numerical

illustration as an example: the input data is BALA, the
process is expressed as:
Step 1: ASCII value of “BALA” is taken from
ASCII table given in Table-2.
B = 66
A = 65
L = 76
A = 65
Step -2: for each ASCII code the equivalent binary data is
converted as
B = 66 = 00010010 = 00 | 01 | 00 | 10 = ATAG
A = 65 = 00010001 = 00 | 01 | 00 | 01 = ATAT
L = 76 = 00011100 = 00 | 01 | 11 | 00 = ATCA
A = 65 = 00010001 = 00 | 01 | 00 | 01 = ATAT
Table-2. ASCII – Values

Figure-5. DNA Based Data Decryption

Table-3. DNA – Binary Code

Step 4: Hence the code is 147-148-149-148 and it is the
final encrypted password. This kind of password can be
generated for Bank Account number, credit / debit card
number generation.

Random Key Generation

Next stage process of DNA cryptography is a random
key generation from 1 to 256 and it is assigned as P k for
Hence the input data BALA is converted into ATAG- encryption process. In accordance to the values of P k the
ATAT-ATCA-ATAT generated values are assigned as index, which can relate to
the combination of A, T, G and C. For example, when P k =1,
the DNA code in AAAA, which is given in Table-4. The
Step-3: Each character of BALA is represented into
256-index value is created using permutation of four
DNA code pattern. Now each pattern is assigned with
characters A, T, G and C. If Pk changed then the index table
random key generated and given in 147, 148, 149, 148,
is also gets changed. The encryption process in put BALA
which is given in Table-4. It has random key and the DNA
is encrypted into ATAG-
code.
ATAT-ATCA-ATAT.

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 International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering (IJRTE)
ISSN: 2277-3878, Volume-8 Issue-5, January 2020

Decryption Process 149 - ATCA - 00 | 01 | 11 |

It is the process converting the encrypted data into 00 - 00011100 - 76 -L
original data back. It can be done only by the authorized 148 - ATAT - 00 | 01 | 00 |
user who is the owner of the data. Only the owner can do 01 - 00010001 - 65 -A
decryption since the owner only have the secret key for
decryption. In the decryption process, initially the encrypted The above described DNA cryptographic algorithm is
data is feed as input. Then Pk is generated by block. The
used for key generation (as a password) for any authorised
convert into DNA code and corresponding binary values.
user one who can operate any application or can
Then the pair of binary values is substituted by 00 for 1, 01
for T, 10 for G and 11 for G. Then the block is arranged into communicate with the other authorised user in the same
binary values to block. Then the binary value is converted network. For example, when a user entering their details into
into ASCII values. Finally, from the ASCII value is the application, like username and password, the password
converted into original data or decrypted message. The given by the user is taken as the input data and it is
entire process is given in the following steps and illustrated encrypted using DNA cryptographic method. The process is
in Figure-6. illustrated in Figure-6. During the user registration the user
provided password is crypted and given to the user as the
Decryption Process encrypted password and is also stored in the application
Step 1: Take the encrypted message 147-148-149-148 server or in the DB for further comparison. It provides a
Step 2: Substitute random generated key at an instance high security in various applications, like when the user
147 - ATAG - 00 | 01 | 00 | enters the data, it will automatically be encrypted and
10 - 00010010 - 66 -B authenticated without the knowledge of the user.
148 - ATAT - 00 | 01 | 00 |
01 - 00010001 - 65 -A

Table-4. Random Key Generation for DNA code

Based on this DNA cryptography, most of the password of both the users A and B are verified in the Data
enterprise applications shared in online by a greater number Base, whether the encrypted password is available or not. If
of users can be authenticated by verifying their DNA key. it is available for the corresponding user name, then only
For example, if two users A and B needs to share their data, they (A and B) are permitted to access the application or
they need to enter their password, and it is encrypted using they can share their official information.
DNA cryptographic method. After encryption, the encrypted

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 DNA Cryptography Based User Level Security for Cloud Computing and Applications

Figure-6. User Assigned Password Converted into DNA Crypted Password

Figure-7. Two Users Can Share Their Data After DNA Crypted PWD Based Authentication

This functionality is illustrated in Figure-7. This process Pseudocode _ DNA_Encryption( )

can be used in any network application or cloud application
for authenticating the users. In certain cases, the encrypted {
key is used for encrypting the data or message transmit from
one user to another user in the network. DNA cryptography
can be used for both encrypting small size data to large size
data files which do not affect the memory or time taken for
encryption and decryption process. Comparing with other
cryptographic methods, DNA is fast and easy in process. It
does not make more complexity regarding computational
processes. Also, it can be implemented and executed in any }
computer programming languages like C, C++, JAVA,
DOTNET, Python, and etc. Hence it is not language
dependent. The entire functionality of the encryption and Pseudocode _ DNA_Decryption( )
decryption process of the proposed DNA cryptography {
method is given in the form of pseudo code above. Which
can be programmed directly in any computer programming
language and the efficiency can be verified. In this paper
the proposed DNA cryptographic algorithm is implemented
in DOTNET based internet application and the performance
is compared with the other existing approaches. It can also
be implemented and experimented in Python. }

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 International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering (IJRTE)
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IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION easy conversion. In order to obtain the encryption, there are
two values such as the input data and P k values need to be
The proposed DNA cryptographic algorithm is
transmitted. To evaluate the performance of the proposed
implemented in C#.NET language of DOTNET Frameworks
DNA cryptography method the execution time complexity is
over Windows-10. The algorithm is considered as a
calculated and compared with other existing algorithms. The
symmetric key encryption algorithm, because it uses single
comparison results are given in the following Figure-8.
key for encrypting the data character by character. One of
From the results, it is decided that the security performance
the features used in the proposed system is, it does not
is good and satisfactory. Also, it is concluded that the
require DNA chromosome or any other data same to DNA
proposed DNA cryptography is highly suitable for any
sequence for data processing. In order to simplify the
network / cloud applications in terms of authentication.
process, the private key P k range is taken from 1 to 256 for

Figure-8. Time Complexity Comparison

Figure-9. Time Complexity of Different Stages of the Framework

The time complexity is compared with the existing that ADNA is better than the other approaches, this
Asymmetric DNA algorithm discussed in [13], and it is proposed DNA is compared to
proved that the asymmetric DNA is compared with the prove the betterness.
DEX, TDES, Blowfish, and AES. Since it has been stated Comparing with the other
approaches our proposed DNA

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 DNA Cryptography Based User Level Security for Cloud Computing and Applications

does not provide more complexity in terms of time, where it 6. Eastlake, Donald E. 3rd, and Jones, Peter, US Secure Hash Algorithm
1 (SHA1) (online), Internet Engineering Task Force, 2001, Available
can also reduce the cost complexity. Another factor which
at: tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3174 Accessed on: 2013-26-01.
determines the performance of the proposed algorithm is 7. Bellare, Mihir, Canetti, Ran, and Krawczyk, Hugo, Keying hash
time taken for parameter / key generation. In this paper the functions for message authentication (online), University of
key generation is the main stage and important process. California San Diego, Computer Science and Engineering, 1996,
Available at: http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~mihir/papers/kmd5.pdf
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Accessed on 2013-07-03.
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Electrical Curve Cryptographic (ECC) and Hyperelliptic Available: https://fisher.osu.edu/~muhanna.1/pdf/crypto.pdf.
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comparison result is given in Figure-9 and it shows that the
cryptography_tutorial.pdf.
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complexity than the other ECC and HECC approaches. Notes in Computer Science, Springer. 2004.
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IFMBE Proceedings. 26:223–226, 2009.
key size and the time complexity is verified. The key size
12. Borda M. & Tornea O. DNA secret writing techniques [C]. In COMM
calculated in the experiment is 32, 52, 64 and 128 bits. (2010), Chengdu: IEEE, June 10-12, 2010: 451–456.
Finally, for 52 bits the results are compared and given in 13. Stallings, W., Network security essentials, Prentice Hall, Fourth
Figure-9. From the results, it is found that the proposed edition, 2011.
14. Anurag Roy and Asoke Nath, “DNA Encryption Algorithms: Scope
DNA method obtained less time complexity than the other
and Challenges in Symmetric Key Cryptography”, IJIRAE 2016.
existing ECC, HECC methods which did the similar kind of 15. John H Reif, Michael Hauser, Michael Pirrung and Thomas LaBean,
research work. The proposed DNA obtained 189ms, 245ms, “Application of Biomolecular Computing to Medical Science: A
and 212ms for password generation, user registration and Biomolecular Database System forStorage, Processing & Retrieval of
Genetic Information & Material”, Duke University, 2006.
authentication process respectively and it is highly small
16. Junling Sun, “Sequence Splicing Techniques and Their Applications
when comparing with the other existing approaches, given For Information Encryption”, International Conference on Advanced
in Figure-9. Hence the proposed DNA is considered as an Mechatronic Systems, Tokyo, Japan, September I S-21, 2012.
efficient method for cloud / network applications. 17. V. M. M. Shyam, N. Kiran, “A novel encryption scheme based on
DNA computing,” In 14th IEEE International Conference, Tia, India,
Dec. 2007.
V. CONCLUSION 18. Leonard. M. Adleman, (1994), “Molecular computation of solutions
to combinatorial problems”, (1994).
The main objective of this research work is to design 19. Xing Wang and Qiang Zhang, “DNA computing-based
and implement a novel security algorithm for tightening the cryptography”, in the IEEE proceeding of Fourth International
user-level security. It is an authentication model for any Conference on Bio-Inspired Computing, pp.1 – 3, Oct 2009.
kind of network or cloud applications which has user 20. Vijayakumar P., Vijayalakshmi V. and Zayaraz G., “DNA Computing
based Elliptic Curve Cryptography” in the International Journal of
authentication process. User authentication process is one of Computer Applications, vol.36, no.4, pp.18-21, Dec.2011.
the main process and it is very essential process in a secured 21. Radu Terec, Mircea-Florin Vaida, Lenuta Alboaie, Ligia Chiorean,
data transmission application, validates the user as (2011), “DNA Security using Symmetric and Asymmetric
authorised or malicious user and ensure that the particular Cryptography”, International Journal on New Computer Architectures
and Their Applications, Vol.1, No. 1, pp. 34-51.
user can access the data or not. In order to do that
authentication process is used as the main process and it is
carried out as the initial stage of the research work. The
security (user validation) is provided by DNA cryptography
based key generation, assignment and verification to the
user for authentication. The merits of the DNA
cryptographic method are explained in detail and
experimented. The results are compared with the existing
approach results and proved that the proposed DNA is better
than the other cryptographic approaches in terms of time and
computational complexity.
In the next level of the research work, infrastructure
level security is provided by membrane computing method
which is suitable for cloud security.

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