A Novel Hash Function Based on a Chaotic Sponge and DNA Sequence

Abstract

Many chaos-based hash functions have convoluted designs that are not based on proper design principles, complicating the verification of security claims. We address this problem by proposing a hash function based on a chaotic sponge construction and DNA sequence. DNA sequence is used to design state transition rules of a deterministic chaotic finite-state automata (DCFSA), a chaotic structure that enhances the chaoticity of digital chaotic maps. We use a DCFSA configuration consisting of four states associated with logistic maps. Analysis shows that the DCFSA configuration is efficient and has high chaotic complexity. Both DCFSA and DNA are used to design the sponge-based hash function. An input message is transformed into a DNA sequence and divided into fixed-length blocks. Each block is absorbed into a sponge structure via DNA-XOR. The sponge state is then updated with a new DNA sequence by iterating DCFSA as a compression function. Statistical evaluations indicate that the proposed hash function has near-ideal diffusion, confusion, collision resistance and distribution properties. The proposed hash can also extend the provably secure notions of the sponge construction, specifically the indifferentiability from random oracles. Furthermore, the hash function has a high level of performance as compared to other chaos-based hash functions.