2014 IEEE Global Conference on Wireless Computing and Networking (GCWCN)
LRXE: Lite-RSA for XML Encryption Suitable for
Computational Constraint Devices
Anupkumar M Bongale Nithin N
Dept. of Computer Engineering Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering
Dr. D.Y. Patil College of Engineering SDM Institute of Technology
Ambi, Pune, India Ujire, Karnataka, India
ambongale@gmail.com nisarga7777@gmail.com
Abstract—Web services and cloud computing have gained
wide range of popularity. Cloud and web services are used
anywhere, by anyone, on any platform. In these fields, Extensible
Markup Language (XML) has been identified as conventional
standard for data sharing among the communicating parties.
XML Security has become an important concern in the field of
information and data sharing. In this paper, a variant of RSA
algorithm called Lite-RSA for XML Encryption (LRXE) is
proposed. LRXE uses small public key exponent for encryption.
Computational burden of LRXE decryption process is reduced
by redevising the private key of basic RSA. The
encryption/decryption is validated over several granularities of
XML file. The time to encrypt/decrypt an entire XML file using
LRXE is very less compared to normal RSA. Due to the
encryption/decryption efficiency, LRXE can be preferred over
RSA and is more suitable for devices having low battery life and
computational limitations.
Keywords— XML Encryption; RSA; LRXE; Web Services;
I. INTRODUCTION
In the year 1996, a group formed by World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) developed a structured light weighted
language called Extensible Markup Language (XML) to
transfer the data. The XML documents have both logical and
physical components. The argument of an element in an XML
document is referred as logical component. Physical
components are like entities, which begins with root or
document entity [1-6].
Cryptology is process converting plain text to cipher text
and vice versa. Specifically cryptology deals with usage of
different varieties of cryptosystems to encrypt and decrypt the
data with use of a key. The party who is having a key is only
able to encrypt or decrypt so that data is securely shared among
the trusted parties. The field of cryptography can be classified
as private and public key cryptosystems. In public key
cryptosystem there are mainly two keys. One key is public and
is shared by all the parties. Other key is private and is secret.
One key encrypts and other key is meant for decrypting the
cipher text. Private key cryptographic method is one in which
the same key is used to encrypt and decrypt the message [7-
11].
Organizations and businesses handle confidential
information such as, confidential business report, personal
information of their employees, clients, customers, etc. These
data needs to be transferred between offices, servers and
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Nirmala C R
Bapuji Institute of Engineering & Technology
Davangere, Karnataka, India
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between clients to get a particular job done. XML can be used
to share such data. But, XML inherently does not provide
security, hence sending the data as plain text over internet or
intranet is having risk like someone may take benefit of picking
up the information and this can harm the business
confidentiality. Communicating parties some time prefer to use
low power and computationally constraint devices for sharing
information. Under these circumstances, a secure
communication and at the same time computationally efficient
cryptographic systems are desirable.
XML documents can be secured by encrypting the
information at different levels of granularity [6]. The
encryption can be carried out at element level or through the
entire XML file. XML file can be partially secured such that,
part of the XML data can be read by anyone and other
information should only be read by few authorized persons.
The difference between raw encryption and xml encryption is
that, raw encryption usually is a binary operation and encrypts
the whole document. On the other hand, with xml encryption,
selected information in the document can be encrypted
separately. Because XML’s syntax is structured using markup,
one or more elements can be handled differently. This is very
useful for large and growing documents holding lots of
information for multiple parties. The accessibility to read the
encrypted information depends on the known secret key.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In section II,
related research work is described. Section III describes the
XML Security standards. Section IV presents a detailed XML
encryption granularity. Sections V provides the proposed
methodology. Then discussed result analysis in detail. Finally a
brief conclusion is given.
II. RELATED WORK
Over the years, many flavors of RSA algorithm and public-
key cryptosystems have been proposed. Some of the recent and
prominent ones are discussed below.
Dhakar et al. in [12] describes the two possible attacks on
RSA algorithm like mathematical attack and brute force attack.
Mathematical attack is possible because of factoring two large
prime numbers and brute force attack can be done by trying
possible private keys. The authors proposed new method to
improve the security level of traditional RSA algorithm using
additive homomorphic properties called Modified RSA
Encryption Algorithm (MRES). In MRES, only the public-key
and the encryption of plain texts 1 and 2 are given, one can paramount importance. In the next section, some of the
compute the encryption of 1 2. Unlike RSA, it is one- featured highlights of XML Encryption recommendation is
way, the public key is used only for encryption, and the private briefly explained.
key is used only for decryption.
IV. XML ENCRYPTION
Fang and Hongfu in [13] provided a systematic procedure
to encrypt the XML documents using RSA algorithm called First XML Encryption standard was published in the year
XRSA. They used RSA algorithm and a XML encryption 2001. In the year 2013, the encryption standard was revised by
device which is responsible for generating and merger about W3C XML Security Working Group [6]. The XML Encryption
XML encryption syntactic all elements, including keys, document specifies “a process for encrypting data and
encoding data and all attribute. It gives the RSA asymmetric representing the result in XML” [6].
encryption algorithm whole standardization process. A. Encryption Granularity:
Sea and Ng in [14] implement the XML encryption using Custom encryption algorithms take care of encryption of
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). The technic of using PKI for an entire file, which is not desirable for XML files. XML
encryption, allows us to perform encryption on various binary follows tag/element based structure to store information.
format files; e.g. mp3, jpeg, doc, etc. They make use of Encryption should not only be for the entire document but also
Encoding schemes like Base64 that encodes binary data by should be flexible enough to offer encryption at element and at
treating it numerically and translating it into a base64 content level as well. Thus, standard recommends encryption
representation. The output of the Base64 encoding is used to granularity from a selected part of an XML document to entire
generate ASCII based XML syntax document as an input for XML document.
XML Encryption processes. To better understand meaning of granularity, a sample
Abdelsalam and Uounis in [15] developed a new XML XML document shown in Fig. 1 is considered. The sample
encryption algorithm using RSA with some form of shift XML file contains payment information and credit card
ciphering scheme. They found that new algorithm provides information of John Smith. The encrypted information
more security compared with RSA and estimated 3128 years enveloped under element. The
needed to break the key of proposed algorithm. So, new element envelopes or references the raw
algorithm for XML encryption is much more secure than RSA encrypted data. The granularity levels are explained below by
against brute-force attack. considering three cases.
Nithin and Anupkumar in [16] suggested new encryption
algorithm for XML encryption called XML Batch Multi-prime
RSA (XBMRSA). They combined Batch RSA and multi-prime
RSA to encrypt the XML documents. Authors compared
proposed encryption technique with existing RSA algorithm
with different granularity levels and found that XBMRSA
gives better result in terms of file size of decrypted data and
time taken to perform encryption and decryption of XML
documents.
As per the literature survey, it is observed that several
variants of RSA algorithms are available. XML encryption is Fig. 1. Sample XML File (reference from [6]).
not touched by many researchers. In this paper, a lite version of
RSA algorithm [17] is chosen to encrypt the XML encryption. 1) Case1: Encryption of Element: In this case, entire
Since the lighter version of RSA is used, XML encryption is element has been encrypted and enveloped
more suitable for low power and computational constraint between element as shown in Fig. 2. In
devices. this case, encryption results in hiding the entire credit card
information of the user John Smith.
III. XML SECURITY
XML Signature, XML Encryption and XML Key
Management Specification (XKMS) are the several standards
recommended by W3C to ensure integrity, authentication and
privacy for XML documents [2]. XML Signature, as
recommended in [3], provides guidelines for maintaining the
integrity of the XML documents. XML Encryption
recommendation [4] specifies procedure for carrying out
encryption of XML information at various levels of
granularity. XKMS as mentioned in [5], specifies protocols for
distributing and registering public keys for the purpose of
XML Encryption and XML Signature standards. Since this
paper mainly emphasizes on encryption technique for XML
documents, understanding XML Encryption standard is of Fig. 2. Encryption of Element (reference from [6]).

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 2) Case2: Encryption of Child Elements: Sometimes only V. METHODOLOGY
child elements need to be encrypted. As shown in Fig. 3, A. Basic RSA Cryptosystem
, , elements
and their content is encrypted. RSA is well known asymmetric cryptography algorithm
presented in [11]. In an asymmetric cryptography system, pair
of keys is used for encryption and decryption process. RSA
cryptosystem involves three algorithms like key generation,
encryption and decryption.
1) Key generation algorithm:
Let and be two distinct large prime numbers. The
modulus is calculated as product of and as shown in
equation 1 . The size of the prime numbers are usually set
to /2.
1
The Euler’s totient function is calculated as per the
equation 2 .
Fig. 3. Encryption of
Elements (reference from [6]) 1 1 2
Let be a random integer which is relatively prime to
3) Case3: Encryption of Element Content: XML Euler’s totient function (i.e. 1< e <
encryption also suggests encryption of character contents of gcd , 1). Let be multiplicative inverse modulo
elements. As shown in Fig. 4, contents of of as specified in equation 3 . The public key is
element is alone encrypted. presented by pair of , and private key is represented
by pair of , .
ed 1 3
2) Encryption algorithm:
The encryption algorithm initiates to encrypt the message
into unreadable cipher form. For encryption, public key
pair , is used. The cipher message is computed by
as per the equation (4).
C M mod N 4
3) Decyprion algorithm:
The plain text can be obtained using the pair of , ,
the private key. is computed as per the formula 5 .
M C mod N 5

Fig. 4. Encryption of content of Element (reference from [6]) B. Lite-RSA for XML Encryption (LRXE)
LRXE is light version of RSA algorithm. The proposed
B. Type Paramater: system is inspired by the several variants of RSA algorithm
The Type parameter specified in encrypted XML file provided in [17]. Similar to RSA, LRXE contains three
usually assigned and one of the values. For element encryption algorithms - key generation, encryption and decryption.
Type is set to 'http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#Element'
1) Key generation algorithm:
and for content encryption Type parameter is set to
'http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#Content'. Thus, there is Let and be two distinct large prime numbers. The
wide level of flexibility for encryption of XML file. modulus is calculated as product of and as shown in
For further in depth details, readers are requested to refer equation 6 . The size of the prime numbers is usually set
XML Encryption document presented in [6]. With this basic to /2.
understanding of XML encryption, next section presents the 6
proposed XML encryption scheme.
The Euler’s totient function is calculated as per the
equation 7 .

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 1 1 7 granularities i.e. encryption at element level, content level and
for an entire XML file.
Let be a random integer which is relatively prime to
Euler’s totient function (i.e. 1< e < The encryption time for several XML files are recorded to
gcd , 1). The public key is presented by pair of compare the performance of XML encryption using RSA and
, . LRXE algorithms. Fig. 5 represents the comparison of RSA
and LRXE cryptosystems with respect to XML file size vs.
The decryption key is calculated in two parts , as encryption time. The observation made is that, LRXE
shown in equation 8 and 9 . consumes less encryption time. The encryption time for LRXE
varies from 53ms to 186ms, while for, RSA it is 104ms to
1 8 337ms. The huge improvement of LRXE is due to the usage of
1 9 small public key exponent.

2) Encryption algorithm: Fig. 6 represents XML file size vs. decryption time. The
decryption time of LRXE is between 35ms to 84ms. While the
The encryption algorithm is similar to basic RSA decryption time for normal RSA is 104ms to 337ms. It can be
cryptosystem but with use of smaller public exponent e. noticed that, LRXE decryption process is almost 4 times faster
The size of exponent is fixed to 2 1 as suggested compared to normal RSA cryptosystem. The enormous
in [17]. Choosing a smaller public key exponent will boost improvement in the performance of LRXE is achieved by
the encryption process by reducing the time. Plain message individual computation of p and q as explained the in the
M is encrypted as per the equation (3) section V.
3) Decyprion algorithm:
XML File Size Vs. Encryption Time
The process decryption is dependent on both the prime
numbers p and q. Modified decryption process is specified 400
below from equation 10 to 13 . The decryption process RSA
350
is process called CRT-Decryption process, and decryption LRXE
300
Encryption Time
key is triplet , , instead of pair of , . (milli seconds)
250
mod p 10
200
mod q 11 150
12 100
50
p 13
0
As encryption exponent is smaller, cryptosystem should
1.1 2.2 3.03 4.11
result in faster encryption. And similarly, decryption uses
independent and instead of using their products. This also XML File Size (Kilo Bytes)
results in lower computational requirements. Thus, proposed
system may be suitable for computational constraint devices.
The suggested cryptosystem is inspired by the work presented Fig. 5. XML File Size vs. Encryption Time
in [17]. The contribution of this paper is to use this
cryptosystem in XML encryption.
XML File Size Vs. Decryption Time
VI. SYSTEM SETUP AND EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION
400
A. System Setup: RSA
350
Decryption Time

The RSA and LRXE algorithms are developed as a simple 300 LRXE
(milli seconds)

web application using C# programming language in Microsoft 250

Visual Studio 2010 which is installed over the system having 200
configuration of Intel core i3 CPU with 2GB RAM. A simple
150
Graphical User Interface (GUI) application is developed. The
application provides interface for encryption and decryption of 100
input XML file. Time taken to encrypt/decrypt the XML file 50
and total file size of encrypted file is calculated. 0
B. Results: 1.1 2.2 3.03 4.11
For the experimental evaluation, XML file shown in the XML File Size (Kilo Bytes)
Fig. 1 is used as the input. As specified in the section IV, the
cryptosystem is tested by considering all the levels of
Fig. 6. XML File Size vs. Decryption Time

206
 The encryption and decryption time of RSA
R and LRXE is XML file. This leads to fasterr encryption compared to basic
compared by considering XML files of diffferent sizes. Since RSA algorithm. On the otherr hand decryption of LRXE is
LRXE can provide faster encryption and decryption, it is nearly four times faster comparred to basic RSA algorithm. The
suitable for devices with low compuutational abilities. results are analyzed in dettail over the three different
Normally, these devices are battery operated. Faster granularities of XML file and found that LRXE is suitable for
encryption and decryption leads to lesss battery power computational constraint devicees.
compared to regular RSA. Thus LRXE allso ensures better
battery utilization. Under certain conditions thee proposed algorithm may fail to
provide stronger security beecause of smaller public key
Fig. 7 shows graph of XML encryptioon granularity vs. exponent. In the near futuree a much stronger encryption
encryption time. The graph shows that, enccryption time for algorithm will be devised annd compared with some other
both RSA and LRXE is almost same with respect to popular encryption techniques to further assess the quality of
encryption of element and its content. But while considering the existing system.
encryption of an antire XML file, RSA coonsumes 5ms and
LRXE consumes 4ms. Similarly, from Fig. F 8 it can be REFER
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