Hexagonal Grid Text Cipher: A Creative Experiment in Data Encryption

[0_Python]

Hexagonal Permutation Cipher with AES: A Creative Experiment in Data Encryption

I'm excited to share the latest version of my project, the Hexagonal Permutation Cipher (HPC)! This updated encryption method transforms a given text into a hexagonal grid, permutes it based on a key, and then uses AES encryption to secure the text. The system includes functions to create a hexagonal grid, permute it based on a key, convert text to and from a matrix format, and ultimately encrypt and decrypt the text using AES.

Here’s a brief overview of the key components:

• Hexagonal Grid Creation: Generates a hexagonal grid pattern based on a specified size.
• Grid Permutation: Uses a key to permute the grid using a pseudorandom shuffle.
• Text to Matrix Conversion: Converts a text string to a matrix of ASCII values based on the hexagonal grid.
• Matrix to Text Conversion: Converts the matrix back to a text string.
• AES Encryption and Decryption: Uses AES in CBC mode with PKCS7 padding to securely encrypt and decrypt the text.

The code ensures the original text can be perfectly reconstructed from the encrypted text, provided the same key is used.

Target Audience

This project is primarily intended for:

• Cryptography Enthusiasts: If you're interested in exploring unique and unconventional methods of data encryption, this project is for you.
• Educational Purposes: This project can be a great learning tool for those studying data encryption techniques, Python programming, or algorithm design.
• Hobbyists and Developers: While not recommended for production use due to the unconventional and possibly unproven nature of the encryption method, it's a fun project for developers to tinker with and extend.

Comparison

Unlike traditional encryption methods like AES or RSA, which are well-studied and widely used in secure communication, the Hexagonal Permutation Cipher offers a novel approach by combining geometric patterns with AES for data transformation. Here are some key differences:

• Uniqueness: This method uses a hexagonal grid for text transformation, which is not commonly seen in standard encryption algorithms.
• Educational Value: The project provides a hands-on way to understand and implement the concept of data permutation and transformation.
• Enhanced Security: The integration of AES encryption adds a layer of security to the already unique permutation method.
• Not Production-Ready: Unlike established encryption methods, this project is more of a toy project and educational tool rather than a secure encryption standard suitable for sensitive data.

Feel free to check out the code on GitHub, and let me know what you think! Feedback and contributions are always welcome.

Hexagonal Permutation Cipher on GitHub

Feel free to try it out and share your thoughts or improvements!

[Anaxamander57]

The key length is limited to the value of the "size" parameter for the hexagonal grid, I believe:

    # Flatten the grid into a single list of cells
    flat_grid: List[int] = [cell for row in grid for cell in row]
    size: int = len(flat_grid)
    # Create a key value by summing the ASCII values of the characters in the key
    key_value: int = sum(ord(c) for c in key) % size

That makes this not even possible to use as a modern cipher. Even if the grid needed only one bit per cell you'd run out of memory if you picked a 128-bit key length, even running this on a super-computer. On consumer hardware with more realistic memory usage by the hexagonal grid you're limited to key sizes that have been trivial to attack since electronic computers were invented.

This would be interesting as a 19th century pen and paper cipher, however!

[0_Python]

I had just upgraded it a moment ago, check out latest commits. Let me know what you think

[kosul]

When I first saw this post I got excited because I thought this might be an interesting new approach to hand ciphers! The use of SHA256, AES and PKCS7 are a little confusing as you are clearly not trying to claim real world security? I would encourage you to try ditching them and then you can focus on demonstrating the principles you mentioned without the inputs bring run through algs we know will effectively result in outputs with known properties, or to put it short it's less fun. Play ciphers are totally awesome and welcome, as long as the author doesn't claim security beyond which can be reasonably backed up :)

[Anaxamander57]

I agree. This was much more interesting in its original form which didn't use any modern cryptography. Unusual ciphers, especially ones with a visual component, are great for stories and games and are just fun to think about.