Muthanna Journal of Engineering and Technology
Volume (14), Issue (2), Year (2026), Pages (25-43)
DOI:10.52113/3/eng/mjet/2026-14-02-/25-43
Research Article By:
Bushra Jaber M. Jawad
Corresponding author E-mail: bushra.j@uokerbala.edu.iq
ABSTRACT
High-performing authenticated encryption schemes are essential for modern communication systems to provide both confidentiality and authentication. However, although many schemes have been evaluated for their performance and are in wide-spread use today, there are relatively few examples of comparative studies showing how authenticated encryption schemes compare against each other with respect to their security bounds or resistance to forgery. Furthermore, most performance comparisons have been made between abstract modes of operation that do not provide guaranteed security from either authenticated encryption or integrity protection; and thus there is no definitive security assessment for these modes of operation. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive analytical and experimental comparison between three algorithms and three modes of operation (GCM, CCM, and EAX), using multiple variables related to performance (encryption time, decryption time and throughput), as well as formal performance metrics (authentication strength, probability bounds of forgery, and integrity through tag manipulation). The results of the study illustrates that there are significant differences in performance between GCM, CCM, and EAX regarding their throughput. The EAX value recorded using the AES algorithm was the best performer, while Blowfish had the second best performance, and the CAST algorithm had the lowest. For all comparisons, the authentication failure probability was always below the established cryptographic threshold for authentication success. This research provides a comparative performance-security outline for each algorithm-mode, and the findings can serve as a reference for choosing the appropriate algorithm-mode for authenticated encryption systems.
Keywords:
Symmetric Cryptography; Block cipher algorithms; Modes of Operation; GCM Modes; CCM Modes; EAX Modes.