An efficient implementation of RC4 cipher for encrypting multimedia files on mobile devices

ABSTRACT

Abstract. In this paper, we implement and evaluate an efficient RC4 stream cipher, called key-pooled RC4, to transfer securely multimedia files in the wireless mobile network. In key-pooled RC4, a 1MB-sized key stream pool, which consists of 2048 or 8192, or 32768 key stream frames, is created uniquely for each client device in the registration step. When a client requests a multimedia file, the server delivers the file after encrypting it using the sequence of key stream frames which are randomly selected from the corresponding key stream pool. Our experimental results show that the proposed scheme is more time efficient than the normal RC4. Moreover, the key-pooled RC4 scheme is more secure than normal RC4.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.4 OPERATING SYSTEMS
      D.4.6 Security and Protection
          Subjects: Cryptographic controls

Keywords:
RC4 implementation, contents protection, stream cipher