Enhanced key generation algorithm of hashing message authentication code

Abstract

The keyed-HMAC is a security tool primarily used to ensure authentication and data integrity in information systems and computer networks. In this study, the authors proposed a new key generation using HMAC-MD5 using XOR and circular left shifting. Findings reveal that the proposed method could generate a key with only 420 ms. As to avalanche effect, it achieved 55.05% which passed the criteria of encryption. Also, the approximate time to successfully retrieve the encrypted key is 3.2845E+62 years. This means that the hash value cannot be easily cracked or hacked using powerful brute-force attack. Results also show that the performance of the proposed method is better than the existing methods. Thus, improved its security level compared to other methods.