HyphaCrypt

HyphaCrypt is the custom cryptographic and encoding tool designed for the Seigr Urcelial-net's .seg file format. Inspired by the natural resilience and structure of hyphal networks, HyphaCrypt supports secure, efficient, and adaptable data encoding, encryption, and integrity verification. Its unique, nature-inspired approach allows the Seigr network to handle sensitive data with a robust level of security, ensuring traceability and resilience in a decentralized ecosystem.

HyphaCrypt combines senary encoding (base-6 encoding) with a multi-layered cryptographic approach. It includes features like multi-phase transformations, adaptive hashing, and dynamic salting. These enhancements protect data from unauthorized access, tampering, and reverse engineering while ensuring traceability and flexibility.

Purpose of HyphaCrypt

In a decentralized network like Seigr Urcelial-net, data security and authenticity are essential. With the modular design of `.seg` files, HyphaCrypt provides both an encoding system and cryptographic infrastructure to ensure that each `.seg` file maintains its integrity, authenticity, and accessibility throughout its lifecycle. By applying nature-inspired cryptographic principles, HyphaCrypt supports the network’s commitment to an inclusive, resilient, and transparent system.

Key Features of HyphaCrypt

HyphaCrypt introduces advanced cryptographic and encoding processes that balance security with flexibility. These features make HyphaCrypt suitable for managing and securing the `.seg` file format across diverse devices, including those with limited resources. Key features include:

Senary Encoding: Converts binary data into base-6 format for compact, accessible storage and retrieval. This encoding is unique to HyphaCrypt and is a core element in creating `.seg` files.
Progressive Senary Transformations: Each byte of data undergoes a series of transformations, including bit rotations and nonlinear permutations, to add security and complexity.
Adaptive Hashing with Multi-Primes: A robust, custom hashing function that uses multiple prime numbers, salt, and optional keys to enhance security and resistance to attack.
Dynamic Salting Mechanism: Generates salts dynamically based on factors like timestamp and entropy, ensuring each hash is unique and difficult to predict.
Secure Pseudo-Random Number Generator (PRNG): Provides entropy and randomness for HyphaCrypt’s cryptographic operations, enhancing security without relying on external libraries.

Technical Overview

HyphaCrypt integrates several cryptographic methods and encoding transformations to create a powerful, self-contained security tool. The sections below detail the technical processes and security strategies that make HyphaCrypt a trusted tool for the Seigr Urcelial-net ecosystem.

Senary Encoding and Decoding

HyphaCrypt’s senary encoding process converts binary data into base-6 format, using only the digits 0-5. This compact encoding method is efficient for distributed systems, enabling data storage in smaller, device-friendly segments.

Each byte of binary data is converted as follows:

The byte undergoes bit rotation, shifting the bits to create a more complex output.
The rotated byte is then converted to base-6.
Encoding each byte as two base-6 characters maintains consistency across the `.seg` file, creating a compact, fixed-size output.

Example of Encoding: ```plaintext Binary Input: [01010111] Bit-Rotated: [11101001] Base-6 Encoded: "32" ```

Progressive Senary Transformations

To enhance security, HyphaCrypt’s senary encoding includes progressive transformations that add complexity with each byte encoded. This progressive approach involves:

Bit Rotation: Each byte is rotated to scramble data patterns, making it more difficult to reverse-engineer the original binary data.
XOR Transformation: Each rotated byte undergoes an XOR operation, combined with data from the previous byte, creating a dependency chain between bytes and enhancing data security.
Decoding Dependency: To decode, the transformations are reversed, requiring knowledge of the entire sequence to retrieve the original data accurately.

Adaptive Hashing with Multi-Primes

HyphaCrypt’s hashing process is custom-built to handle `.seg` files securely within a decentralized network. Using multiple small prime numbers in a rolling hash structure, this adaptive hashing method provides a robust cryptographic signature for each `.seg` file.

Multi-Prime Hashing: The data is processed using a rolling hash with small prime multipliers (e.g., 31, 37, 41). Each character is hashed with a unique prime, creating a series of hash segments.
Salt and Optional Keying: A salt is dynamically generated for each hashing operation, adding a layer of uniqueness. Additionally, an optional key can be used, making it a keyed-hash (similar to HMAC) for added security.
Hash Output: The final hash is represented as a padded 64-character hexadecimal string, ensuring a consistent output length and enhanced security.

Example of Adaptive Hash Calculation: ```plaintext Data: "encoded data segment" Prime Sequence: [31, 37, 41, 43] Salt: "unique_salt_123" Adaptive Hash Output: "3a1f...9e4c" ```

Dynamic Salting Mechanism

To prevent predictable patterns, HyphaCrypt implements a dynamic salting mechanism that adds entropy from various sources, including:

Timestamp-Based Salting: Uses high-precision time (in microseconds) to create unique salts for each encoding operation.
Entropy-Based Enhancement: Combines random values from HyphaCrypt’s PRNG with the timestamp, generating salts that protect against pre-computed attacks like rainbow tables.

This dynamic salting process ensures that identical data segments will produce unique hashes, even if processed repeatedly.

Secure Pseudo-Random Number Generator (PRNG)

HyphaCrypt includes a custom PRNG designed to be secure and reliable without depending on external libraries. The PRNG produces random values for encoding and salting processes, enhancing overall security.

Time-Based Seed: The PRNG is initialized with a time-based seed, ensuring entropy and unpredictability.
Simple Linear Congruential Generator (LCG): HyphaCrypt’s PRNG uses an LCG algorithm with a multiplier and incrementer, providing a balance of simplicity and randomness.
Random Output: The generated random numbers enhance the cryptographic processes in encoding, hashing, and salting, ensuring HyphaCrypt’s overall robustness.

Example of PRNG Sequence: ```plaintext Seed: 1623456789 Random Output: 57892183 ```

Security Advantages of HyphaCrypt

HyphaCrypt provides several distinct security benefits that make it ideal for managing sensitive data in a decentralized network like Seigr Urcelial-net:

Data Obfuscation: With its bit rotations, XOR transformations, and multi-phase encoding, HyphaCrypt prevents attackers from easily decoding or reversing `.seg` files.
Tamper Detection: The adaptive hash function’s dependency on salts and prime sequences ensures that any tampering with the data can be immediately detected.
Dynamic Unpredictability: The dynamic salting and PRNG add an extra layer of unpredictability, protecting data from common cryptographic attacks, such as rainbow tables and hash collisions.
Self-Contained Cryptography: By designing a complete, custom tool, HyphaCrypt avoids reliance on external libraries, reducing dependency risks and allowing for seamless integration into Seigr Urcelial-net’s ecosystem.

Applications within Seigr Urcelial-net

HyphaCrypt plays a vital role in the Seigr Urcelial-net ecosystem, specifically through its applications in encoding, hashing, and protecting `.seg` files. Key applications include:

Encoding Data in .seg Files: Converts data into a compact senary format, enabling distributed storage that is both space-efficient and secure.
Generating Cryptographic Hashes: Creates tamper-proof hashes to maintain data integrity across distributed nodes, ensuring each `.seg` file is linked in a secure chain.
Adaptive Replication: Uses the generated hashes and replication counts to determine when additional `.seg` file copies are needed, ensuring data availability for frequently accessed files.
Traceability and Contributor Logging: Provides a secure way to log contributors within the Seigr network, supporting transparent and ethical digital rights management.

Conclusion

HyphaCrypt is more than a cryptographic tool; it is a central element in Seigr Urcelial-net’s mission to provide a secure, decentralized, and community-driven network. Its nature-inspired approach to data security, from senary encoding to adaptive hashing and salting, ensures that Seigr can manage and protect data with a balance of efficiency, integrity, and security. By supporting traceability, accessibility, and decentralized management, HyphaCrypt enables the Seigr network to grow as a trusted, resilient, and transparent ecosystem.

Whether you’re an expert in cryptography or a newcomer to decentralized systems, HyphaCrypt represents a leap forward in the design of cryptographic systems built with resilience, ethics, and accessibility in mind.