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A Comparative Study among Cryptographic Algorithms: Blowfish, AES and

RSA

Conference Paper · December 2016

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 International Arab Conference on Information Technology (ACIT'2016)

A Comparative Study among Cryptographic

Algorithms: Blowfish, AES and RSA
¹Wafaa A. N. A. AL-Nbhany, ²Ammar Zahary
¹The Arab Academy for Banking and Financial Sciences – Sana'a
Computer Information Systems Department
²Faculty of Computer and IT, Sana’a University
Sana’a, Republic of Yemen

Emails: eng_wafaa_alnbhany@[Link], aalzahary@[Link]

Abstract: The encryption in the field of information technology contains the conversion of data and files from the known
formula to other types of files. Therefore, the original form of files cannot be traced without knowing the key that is used in the
encryption process. Different types of encryption algorithms can exist with different properties. The appropriate algorithm can
be chosen according to the nature of application, each application suits with a specific algorithm. In this paper, a comparative
study was conducted for three types of algorithms AES, RSA, and Blowfish. Many performance metrics were used such as
symmetric/asymmetric key, key size in bits, encryption speed, decryption speed and file size to determine the properties of each
algorithm. Results show that RSA algorithm is very slow. Blowfish and AES treat the small files very quickly however, if the file
is large, speed of algorithms will differ. The symmetric Blowfish algorithm is faster than AES and RSA algorithms. Symmetric
algorithms provide higher security and higher speed for encryption and decryption, and asymmetric algorithms provide high
security but with more processing time.

Keywords: Encryption, Decryption, Symmetric Key, Asymmetric Key, Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Blowfish.

1. Introduction between three algorithms of AES, Blowfish and RSA

Encryption is the process of converting the message so it was done.
can't be read and it is a way to secure the information
and data stored in the computer. The need for encryption 2. Cryptographic Algorithm
is to ensure the security of information. With the rapid Cryptographic algorithm is a set of technologies and
advances in information technology, the information equations that secure the data and network by
security becomes important for information storage and enforcement security. Cryptography is the science of
transport [1]. Symmetric encryption is a very important extract the appropriate ways that lead to transfer of
type of the encryptions, the same key is used for information in secure way, the only person who can
encryption and decryption, and the key must be saved perception the message is the purposed person. The
and kept protected. Asymmetric encryption is a type of encryption is very important in communication to
encryptions, in which different keys are used for prevent unauthorized from read the message [5]. The
encryption and decryption, it is called a public key process of converting the cipher text to plaintext is
encryption, it is a very important method that is used for called the decryption process [2]. Two types of security
transmit the keys of encryption and for transmit a algorithms are used, symmetric and asymmetric
security data. Asymmetric encryptions are slow and it is algorithms.
unfeasible to be used to encrypt a large amount of data.
The public key is prefer to be long as much as possible 2.1 Symmetric key algorithms
to improve the transmission security [2]. A comparison The most significant type of encryption is symmetric
key algorithms, in which the same key is used in
 International Arab Conference on Information Technology (ACIT'2016)

encryption and decryption. Symmetric key have the memory size, consumption time and other criteria. The
advantage of encryption speed and low using of power study showed that the AES least commonly used
consumption [3]. Symmetric key algorithms are two memory, and the RSA takes the longest time
types, the stream cipher in which one bit is encrypted at consumption and high memory. Authors in [11]
time and the block cipher in which the algorithm treats introduced an evaluating study for the encryption
the block to be encrypted one at time, the block size is algorithms performance, which includes AES and
dependent on the algorithm [4]. blowfish, the results showed that in term of packet size,
2.1.1 Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) the blowfish showed better results than other algorithms.
It is a kind of symmetric key encryption. AES is not And in term of performance the AES is better than other
feistel cipher. It is uses a block cipher with 128 bits, key algorithms. Authors in [12] produced an evaluating
bits (128, 192 and 256) and uses Rounds of 10, 12 and study for the performance of encryption algorithms,
14 [4]. which includes AES and Blowfish. The results showed
2.1.2 Blowfish algorithm that the blowfish is the best performance. Authors in
It is a kind of symmetric key encryption that uses a [13], produced a study of various algorithms includes
block cipher and key bits from 32 bits to 448 bits. It uses AES, Blowfish. The study showed that in term of
on block cipher 64 bits. Blowfish uses a different key throughput performance the Blowfish is the best.
sizes with 64 bits block. Data encryption process is Authors in [9], introduced a performance study of
executed by 16 rounds fiestel network, each round encryption algorithms AES and Blowfish. The criteria
contain P-box and substitution s-box [10]. are time consumption and encryption performance. The
study was done on different types of files and images.
2.2 Asymmetric Key Algorithms The study conclusion was reach to that the Blowfish is
Asymmetric key algorithm is a type of the algorithms, in better performance than AES in all cases. Authors in [14]
which different keys are used for encryption and proposed a study on the performance of encryption
decryption process, called private and public key, the algorithms including AES, RSA in cloud computing.
public key used by a sender to encrypt the message and The study showed that the RSA the most time
the privet key used by the receiver to decrypt the consuming and less speed, AES is the higher speed and
message [4]. encryption speed depend on the file size, the lower the
file size the more speed of encryption.
2.2.1 RSA
The RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) algorithm is based
on a public key algorithm which is known and used on a 4. The Methodology of the Comparative
large scale. It uses a large key bit (should be more than Study
1024 bits). It is one of asymmetric encryption algorithms In this paper, data were analysed using Advanced
used two different keys for encryption and decryption Encryption Package 2015 and Oracle software. Oracle
[8]. software was used to calculate the count of character in
each RSA decryption message. Encryption Package
3. RELATED WORK 2015 was used to determine the performance (encryption
Authors in [6] introduced a study for the symmetric speed, decryption speed, file size) of each algorithm to
encryption algorithms performances, the study included make comparison among algorithms (Blowfish, AES)
algorithms of AES, Blowfish and assess the encryption and apply to different types of files such as mp4, pdf, txt,
algorithms in different environments. It includes the jpg files, and to detect RSA algorithms behaviours on
volumes of data, various types of data blocks, speed of different bits key sizes, size of message and size of
encryption and speed of decryption. The results showed output message.
that the blowfish require less time than other algorithms Figures 1, 2 show the diagrams of symmetric and
and the time consumption is effected by change in the asymmetric algorithms used in this paper.
key size. Authors in [7] presented an analysis
comparative study between encryption algorithms
includes AES and RSA. The study uses the criteria of
 International Arab Conference on Information Technology (ACIT'2016)

extension (kb) size (kb) (kb/s) (kb/s)

[Link] 0.101 0.317 0.101 0.101
[Link] 4.4 4.6 4.4 4.4
[Link] 8.13 8.34 8.13 8.13
[Link] 23.5 23.7 23.5 23.5
[Link] 68.3 68.6 68.3 68.3
[Link] 533 533 533 533
[Link] 892 892 892 892
Figure 1: Symmetric algorithms (AES, Blowfish) 2.mp4 3250 3250 3250 3250
diagram used in this paper [Link] 5390 5390 5390 5390
[Link] 6780 6780 6780 6780
[Link] 7650 7650 7650 7650
1.mp4 9100 9100 4550 4550
[Link] 42800 42800 5350 4750

From the results of Table 1 and Figures 3, 4:

1. The size of encrypted files is bigger than the size of
source files for small files, however the size of
encrypted files is equal to the size of sources files for
large files.
2. The encryption algorithm treats the small files so
quickly, the speed of encryption is equal to the file size
Figure 2: Asymmetric algorithm (RSA) diagram per second, but if the file is large, the speed of the
used in this paper algorithm will be different.
3. The decryption algorithm treats the small files so
5. RESULTS STUDY AND EVALUATION quickly, the speed of decryption is equal to the file size
This section presents the results and evaluation of the per second, but if the file is large, the speed of the
comparative study conducted in this paper for the three algorithm will be different.
cryptographic algorithms namely Blowfish, AES, and 4. Speed of encryption is more than speed of decryption.
RSA. The following performance metrics (algorithm
(symmetric or asymmetric), Security, key size in bit,
encryption speed, decryption speed) were used.
Encryption Package 2015 encryption software was used
to determine the performance of (encryption speed,
decryption speed, file size) of each algorithm to make
comparison among algorithms (Blowfish, AES) and to
detect RSA algorithm behavior on different key bit size,
size of message and size of output message, oracle
software was used to calculate the count of character in
each RSA decryption message.
5.1 Blowfish Algorithm Figure 3: Summary of the different sizes between
Blowfish algorithm was tested by the following metrics sources and encrypted files
(448 key bits, block size 64 bits, 16 rounds)

Table 1: Results summary of Blowfish encryption

and decryption
Blowfish encryption and decryption
File name File Encrypte Encryption Decrypti
with size d File speed on speed
 International Arab Conference on Information Technology (ACIT'2016)

Figure 5: Summary of the different sizes between

sources and encrypted files
Figure 4: Summary of Blowfish encryption and
decryption results

5.2 AES Algorithm

It is a kind of symmetric key encryption. AES algorithm
was tested by the following metrics (256 key bits, block
cipher with 128 bits, 14 rounds).

Table 2: Results summary of AES encryption and

decryption
AES encryption and decryption Figure 6: Summary of AES encryption and decryption
results
File From the results of Table 2 and Figures 5, 6
name File Encrypted Encryption decryption 1. The size of encrypted files is bigger than the size of
with Size File size speed speed
extensi (kb) (kb) (kb/s) (kb/s)
source files for small files, however the size of
on encrypted files is equal to the size of sources files for
large files.
[Link] 0.101 0.317 0.101 0.101
2. The encryption algorithm treats the small files so
[Link] 4.4 4.6 4.4 4.4
[Link] 8.13 8.34 8.13 8.13 quickly, the speed of encryption is equal to the file size
[Link] 23.5 23.7 23.5 23.5 per second, but if the file is large, the speed of the
[Link] 68.3 68.6 68.3 68.3 algorithm will be different.
[Link] 533 533 533 533 3. The decryption algorithm treats the small files so
[Link] 892 892 892 892 quickly, the speed of decryption is equal to the file size
2.mp4 3250 3250 3250 3250
[Link] 5390 5390 5390 5390
per second, but if the file is large, the speed of the
[Link] 6780 6780 6780 6780 algorithm will be different.
[Link] 7650 7650 7650 3830 4. The speed of encryption is more than the speed of
1.mp4 9100 9100 4550 4550 decryption.
[Link] 42800 42800 4750 4750
5.3 RSA Algorithm
It is one of asymmetric encryption algorithms. RSA
algorithm was tested by the following metrics (512 bits
key, 678 bits key, 1024 bits key and 2048 bits key). The
results were obtained by Copy the message that
generated by RSA encryption, oracle database was used
 International Arab Conference on Information Technology (ACIT'2016)

to calculate a count of characters in each RSA Table 4: Summary of the results of RSA decryption
decryption message. algorithms
As RSA algorithm is very slow, so small messages sizes Key Length of encrypted Length of decrypted
(rang from 1 to 20 characters) were used to examine the bit message (character) message (character)
performance of RSA algorithm with different keys sizes
512 516 1
(512, 768, 1024, and 2048). 512 532 10
Generate public and privet key: 512 532 20
At the first generate the public and private key by uses 768 557 1
the Encryption Package software. 768 581 10
RSA algorithm encryption: 768 581 20
1024 601 1
After the public and private keys were created, the RSA 1024 622 10
encryption algorithm was performed. The results were 1024 622 20
obtained by copy the message that generated by RSA 2048 772 1
encryption. Oracle database was used to know the 2048 792 10
number of characters in each message. 2048 797 20
Oracle database steps:
1. Create a Table.
2. Insert the message that created from RSA encryption
algorithm into a Table.
3. Perform a select query to determine the number of
characters in each encrypted message. The summary of
the results of RSA encryption algorithm will be
presented here. The results of Table 3 were obtained by
different key bits and different lengths of input. Oracle
database was used to calculate the count of characters in
each RSA encryption message. Figure 7: Summary of the results of RSA
decryption algorithms
Table 3: Summary of the results of RSA encryption
algorithm From the results of Tables 4, 5 and Figure 7:
Key Length of source Length of encrypted The increase in the key length will increase the length
bit message (character) message (character)
of encrypt message and security.
512 1 516
512 10 532
512 20 532 5.4 Comparison of Encryption Techniques
768 1 557 A comparison between algorithms was done by analysis
768 10 581 the results of the comparison algorithms. As RSA
768 20 581 algorithm is very slow, so small messages sizes (rang
1024 1 601 from 1 to 20 characters) were used. The Blowfish and
1024 10 622 AES algorithms were tested with a different data types
1024 20 622
2048 1 772
such as (text, pdf, mp4, jpg, flv) and sizes (rang from
2048 10 792 101 byte to 42.8 Megabyte) to make comparison
2048 20 797 between algorithms. Table 5 shows the results of
encryption algorithms (AES, Blowfish) and Table 6
The summary of the results of RSA decryption shows the results of decryption algorithms (AES,
algorithm will be presented here. As shown in Table 4, Blowfish).
the results of key bit, length of input encryption message
and length of output decryption message were obtained.
 International Arab Conference on Information Technology (ACIT'2016)

Table 5: Comparison between AES and Blowfish [Link] 5390 5390 5390
[Link] 6780 6780 6780
encryption algorithms
[Link] 7650 3830 7650
AES and Blowfish encryption algorithms
[Link] 9100 4550 4550
AES Blowfish
File name [Link] 42800 4750 4750
File Size encryption encryption
with
(kb) speed speed
extension
(kb/s) (kb/s)
[Link] 0.101 0.101 0.101
[Link] 4.4 4.4 4.4
[Link] 8.13 8.13 8.13
[Link] 23.5 23.5 23.5
[Link] 68.3 68.3 68.3
[Link] 533 533 533
[Link] 892 892 892
2.mp4 3250 3250 3250
[Link] 5390 5390 5390
[Link] 6780 6780 6780
[Link] 7650 7650 7650
1.mp4 9100 4550 4550
[Link] 42800 4750 5350

Figure 9: Comparison between AES and Blowfish

decryption algorithms

From the results of Tables 5, 6 and Figures 8, 9:

1. The algorithms of AES and Blowfish treat the small
files so quickly, the speed of algorithms is equal to the
file size per second, but if the file is large, the speed will
be different.
2. The size of encrypted files is bigger than the size of
source files for small files, however the size of
encrypted files is equal to the size of sources files for
Figure 8: Comparison between AES and Blowfish large files
encryption algorithms 3. The speed of encryption is more than the speed of
decryption in both algorithms of AES and Blowfish.
Table 6: Comparison between AES and Blowfish 4. The encryption speed of Blowfish algorithm is more
decryption algorithms than the speed of AES encryption algorithm.
AES and Blowfish decryption algorithms
5. The decryption speed of Blowfish is more than the
decryption speed of AES.
AES
File name Encrypted Blowfish
decryption 6. CONCLUSION
with File Size decryption speed
speed
extension (kb) (kb/s) This paper presents a comparative study among different
(kb/s)
[Link] 0.317 0.101 0.101 cryptographic algorithms Blowfish, AES and RSA using
[Link] 4.6 4.4 4.4 many metrics such as symmetric or asymmetric key, key
[Link] 8.34 8.13 8.13 size in bits, and encryption and decryption speed. For
[Link] 23.7 23.5 23.5 Blowfish and AES algorithms, results show that the size
[Link] 68.6 68.3 68.3 of encrypted files is bigger than the size of source files
[Link] 533 533 533 for small files, however the size of encrypted files is
[Link] 892 892 892 equal to the size of sources files for large files. It was
[Link] 3250 3250 3250
 International Arab Conference on Information Technology (ACIT'2016)

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