International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)

Volume 141 – No.9, May 2016

Implementation and Comparative Analysis of RSA and

MD5 Algorithm
Saikat Das Saugata De Rahul Kumar
VIT University VIT University VIT University
Vellore, India Vellore, India Vellore, India

ABSTRACT number. While comparing MD5 with MD4 the former

In this paper, we have made a comparative analysis of RSA provides more assurance of data security.
Algorithm and a hash algorithm i.e., MD5 (Message Digest
5). Although the commonly used hash algorithms in the field
2. LITERARY SURVEY
of information security are MD5 and SHA-1 which evolved A. The paper [1] focuses on proposing the attack on RSA
from MD4. We have implemented the logic of these algorithm. If we take a small value of e it works on
algorithms in Java, and try to find something new and ended simple RSA algorithm but as soon as an arbitrary value is
with the conclusion. taken it does not work so factoring modulus [1] is used to
get an efficient solution and is implemented in C++.
Keywords B. In the paper [2], the paper demonstrates and compares
Cryptography, Hash Algorithm, MD5, RSA. between the two hashing algorithms SHA1 and MD5.
Message digest leads to higher collision rates of the
1. INTRODUCTION above two algorithms as they consist of at least 128 bits.
Cryptography is the practice of hiding the message in a secret Simulating technology is used to check the collision rates
code. In this modern world, to provide integrity, authenticity and establishes a statistical evaluation model [paper no.]
of the messages send over the communication channel needs to compare if there is any change with the hash value.
to be provided with security. Features of using cryptography However, the conclusion drawn is SHA1 is more secure
are privacy of the data only the intended receiver can read the than MD5.
data send from the sender, authenticity can be defined as a
process of not denying one’s identity and most important is C. The paper [3] focuses on a new image retrieval method
the privacy of the data i.e., the data should not be altered in [3] which was introduced based on the combination of
any way. The three types of cryptographic algorithms used are Content Based Image Retrieval and MD5 [3]. It is
public key cryptography, private key cryptography and the basically applied by extracting the message digest of the
hash algorithms. Encryption can be defined as converting a saved image and is being stored in the database [3] at the
message or a data to a secret code known as cipher text and same time. Here the unique MD5 values of different
when the cipher text is converted back to the original message images helps in the betterment of the image accuracy and
is called decryption. message-digest of fixed length reduces search
complexity [3].
A. Symmetric key cryptography also called as a private key
cryptography. It uses only one key for the encryption and D. The paper [4] is entirely based on the research of the
decryption process. It takes the plain text then transforms MD5 algorithm, thereby analyzing the different
it into cipher text using the secret key. comparative measures of the algorithm from the program
codes. The analysis thus result in the sum up of a good
B. Asymmetric Key Cryptography is also known as Public number of recent approaches.
key Cryptography. Here, the message is taken and then
converted into cipher text using secret key and is E. In the paper [5], the paper demonstrates how we can
deciphered at the receiver’s end using another key. Most recover the password of a PDF file which is in encrypted
commonly used Asymmetric Key is the RSA algorithm. form thereby decreasing the instruction quantity which is
to be executed in the recovery process of the hashing
C. Hash Function is a one way cryptography where no key operation.
is used. It is also known as message digest. It has wide
range of applications like password encryption. The paper [15] is entirely based on the comparative study of
MD5 and SHA-1 algorithm. The paper compares the two
D. As stated earlier RSA algorithm uses two keys, one for hashing algorithms in different aspects like security point of
encryption and another for decryption. It takes two prime view, length of hash value and execution speed and finally
numbers initially and computes n and e. e is kept as concludes that SHA-1 algorithm is much more secure than
private key whereas d is the public key. MD5 algorithm since MD5’s algorithm’s message-digest is 32
E. MD5 algorithm uses checksum for 128 bit value of a bit longer than SHA-1 algorithm. RSA is a public-key
file. It may be possible that two different files can cryptosystem based on mathematical problems. It is based on
generate the same hash value. It evolved from the older asymmetric cryptography. It is used in encryption and
version i.e., MD4. MD5 requires message of at least 8 decryption of the message through network. The security is
bits. MD5 is fast but it can take a large amount of the provided in the network to send the data in securely manner to
data. It is widely applied in the secure communication the designation point without being hacked. In this algorithm
channel. MD5 function gives a 32 digit hexadecimal keys are needed which should be of at least 1024 bit for
security purpose and for maximum is your choice if you want

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 International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 141 – No.9, May 2016

more security then you take more no bits like 2048,4096, etc. of our own choice. Initializing the bit length by 1024 bit, a
But 2048 bit size is used for best security. It is used random value has been created and two prime no’s has been
worldwide for best security purpose. It is too slow because it taken and then a function called Prime() function has been
takes large amount of bit and data, so calculation takes more called of Big Integer class by passing bit length and random
time for encryption. value then it returns 309 digits prime no and we have stored in
variable A and B. After multiplying A and B and storing the
In RSA algorithm two key is used, private and public key. result invariable N, by using multiply function of Big. After
Public key is used to encrypt the data which is in cipher text that the calculation (A-1)*(B-1) is done and stored it in M and
or finger print, public keys are stored in database where then random and by probable Prime function is created again,
everyone can see these, while private key is used to crack or and prime no is generated and stored it in I (public). Then the
decrypt the data. Private Key is with the person who will calculation of D (private) is done by using the mod Inverse
decrypt the message. It is very difficult to create secret key function and then it also returns big integer after calculating
from public key therefore RSA is prevalent choice for data (I^-1 mod M). Finally input is taken from the user and
encryption. This algorithm is used in email, remote login, e- converted them into bytes and call encrypt method. Under this
banking etc. method I and N has been used to encrypt data (P^I mod N) for
A. RSA Algorithm Logic this Mod POW has been used. This function calculates power
STEP 1: START and after calculating power it calculates mod and return big
integer and return the data in byte array format (encrypted
STEP 2: Select two prime numbers randomly. (Let A and B) data) and (P^D mod N) has been used for decrypting the
STEP 3: Multiply prime numbers (A*B), store in another message after getting the original message. The execution
variable (Let N) result of the java program is shown in figure 3:

STEP 4: Multiply (A-1) and (B-1), store in another variable

(Let M)
STEP 5: Input any Integer (Let I) whose gcd (I, M) = 1 and 1
<I<M
STEP 6: Compute the secret exponent D, 1<D<M such that
I.D = 1(mod M)
STEP 7: Set PUBLIC KEY (I, N) and PRIVATE KEY (D, N)
STEP 8: Input Plain text (Let X), such that X < N
STEP 9: Encryption Process: Calculate Cipher text (Let C), C
= XI (mod N)
STEP 10: Decryption Process: X = CD (mod N)
STEP 11: STOP

Figure : Output of RSA Algorithm

3. THE INTRODUCTION AND WAY OF

IMPLEMENTATION OF MD5
ALGORITHM
Message-digest algorithm is also cryptography but it uses
hash function to produce 128-bit hash value which is usually
expressed in 32 digit Hexadecimal number. It is known as one
way transmission that means if by the help of hash function
which gives the result in the message digest form. It is also
called as finger print or hash value of plain text. Then we
cannot get original message by the help of hash function. In
this algorithm it is very difficult to get original text but in
RSA we can get original message then we can say that RSA is
Reversible but MD5 is irreversible.MD5 can also take in to
plain text format and even in binary digits to encrypt the data.
Check sum is generated with the form that if the hash function
gets the value between 0 and 256 it returns the same value but
if it gets higher value it takes the mod by 256 and gives the
quotient value in return. It runs faster on 32 bit or 16 bit
Figure: RSA Algorithm Architecture machine. There are many algorithms which are based on Hash
function like SHA, CRC32, etc.
B. Implementation of RSA algorithm in java
First six variable needs to be taken of type of Big Integer and A. MD5 Algorithm Logic
after that bit length is to be taken and initialized the bit length STEP 1: Append padding bits.

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 International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 141 – No.9, May 2016

STEP 2: Join Length

STEP 3: Take input from user
STEP 4: Partitioned the input into 512 bit blocks.
STEP 5: Initialized MD Buffer
STEP 6: Process blocks means, we have to take 4 MD5 buffer
and then we have performed 16 basic operations on it.
STEP 7: To get output in the form of hash value in this step, it
performs 4 operations to get 128 bit hash value.

Figure : Output of MD5 Algorithm

4. COMPARISON OF RSA AND MD5

ALGORITHM
A. Compare of bit length
RSA uses large number of bits in I and D whose range falls
between 1024 and 2048 which generates 309 digits code
which is considered strong enough for virtually all
applications while MD5 uses very little no bit comparison to
RSA. It uses 128 bits which generates 32 digits.
B. Attack on RSA surpassed by MD5
There are mainly two kinds of attacks on RSA
1. Mathematical Attacks
2. Implementation Attacks
Mathematical Attack:
It attacks on the structure of the RSA functions. The intuitive
attack efforts to factor the mod N. because knowing the factor
one can easily decrypt the process and the D can be
determined. There are three more categories under
Mathematical Attack
a) Elementary Attack: This attack is done openly to
misuse of RSA.
b) Small Private Key Attack: To increase the
performance of decryption in RSA, value is taken
smaller i.e. small private key and is decrypted easily
by the attackers.
c) Small Public Key Attack: Similar to private key, to
improve the performance of encryption under RSA,
value is taken smaller i.e. small public key. The
base attack is done by the Hastad’s Broadcast attack
and the same encryption code is distributed among
the different users.
Figure: MD5 Chart of Processing d) Implementation Attack: This is known as time
B. Implementation of MD5 algorithm in java attack. The attack which falls under this category
implements hidden cryptosystem which is a trivial
First input is taken from user in binary or text/String format
task.
then the MD5 function is called by passing this input. In MD5
function the instance of Message Digest class is created by While in MD5 algorithm all attack is surpassed and
passing the algorithm name and then it returns an object of there is no issue of cipher text, private or public key
class Message Digest that implements the algorithm which is attack.
passed to the parameter of that class. After that the Message
Digest object is updated by calling the function update and C. Comparison of execution time
passing the array of bytes of input, starting point and input MD5 takes very less time in comparison to RSA because of
length. Then the hash calculation is completed by performing large prime numbers. In RSA algorithm there is need of two
the last operation like padding. After that the hash value is large prime numbers which will be converted into 1024 bits
converted into Big Integer by calling Big Integer constructor and then processor takes more time for calculation and hence
and by passing the bit and array of bytes and finally it is it becomes slow.
converted into String and then it is returned to the function.
The execution result of the java program is shown in figure:

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 International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 141 – No.9, May 2016

D. Comparison of Utilization of CPU Implementation in Simple –O Authentication Based

Security System,” Universitas Indonesia, IEEE, pp. 99-
MD5 utilizes CPU better than RSA because of fast calculation 104, 2013
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down. Application,” Yan’an University Computing Center,
2010
E. Comparison of Security
[8] Quist-Aphetsi Kester, Lauret Nana, Anca Christine
In security point of view, MD5 is better than RSA because Pascu, Sophie Gire, “A New Encryption Cipher for
RSA provides powerful security to small file but in the case of Securing Digital Images of Video Surveillance Device
large file, it is not compressed well compared to MD5 and using Diffle-Hellman-MD5 Algorithm and RGB pixel
hence in the case of large fiMD5 is better. shuffling,”European Modelling Symposium, pp. 305-
F. Comprehensive Comparison 311, 2013
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[13] William Stallings, “Cryptography and Netwok Security:
Principles & Practice,” 5th EditionPrentice Hall; 5 edition
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT (January 24, 2010)
We are highly thankful to our parents for their constant
[14] R. Rivest, “The MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm,”
support and we also want to thank Prof. Navaneethan C for
Network Working Group, 1992
his guidance of the paper.
[15] Zhengi Wang, Lisha Cao, “Implementation and
6. CONCLUSION Comparison of Two Hash Algorithms,” International
In this paper the logic of two algorithms i.e., RSA and MD5 Conference on Computational and Information Sciences,
has been implemented in Java. The differences between these pp. 721-725, 2013
two algorithms has been concluded and how is the working
principle. In future, our aim will be to implement SHA [16] X. Wang, D.Feng, X.Lai and H.Yu, “Collisions for Hash
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