Implementation and Performance Assessment of Enhanced RC5 Cryptosystem Applied to Different File Types

This paper focuses on the implementation and performance assessment of the Enhanced RC5 Algorithm (ERC5a). A software implementation on Windows platform was written in C language as File Encryption Utility with a toggle switch for ERC5a and classic RC5. The design of the file structure is very simple and uses only one (1) byte of extra header as part of the underlying encrypted format. Performance assessment has been conducted based on encryption and decryption speed, throughput, and power consumption. Result shows an average performance increase of 32.3% on encryption and 22.1% on decryption of the proposed ERC5a over classic RC5. This can significantly boost the RC5 cryptographic viability especially in lightweight environments.