Design and Evaluation of hSpeck-WidePipe: A New Lightweight Cryptographic Hash Algorithm for Resource-Constrained Environments

Abstract

This study introduced hSpeck-WidePipe, a new, fast, and lightweight hash function. It combines ARX-based permutation and widepipe construction employing expanded internal state to strengthen security margins. Implemented across resource-constrained platforms, including Arduino Uno, Arduino Mega, and ESP8266, with RFID-based input integration. The evaluation framework combines microarchitectural profiling, hardware benchmarking, statistical analysis of randomness validation, and time and space complexity. Experiments prove  microarchitectural profiling efficiency where hSpeck-WidePipe 128 achieved ≈0.78 instruction per cycle count. The 192 and 256 variants tallied 0.82 IPC which are slightly faster at more consistent. The new algorithm delivers up to 2–6× speed improvement over conventional hash functions on Arduino Uno and 7–9× faster execution on ESP8266. Similarly, it reduces energy consumption by up to 6–9×. The proposed method produces statistically uniform outputs across Dieharder evaluations and exceeds 98.8% in NIST statistical tests. Additionally, confirms scalability recording low memory overhead ~3–4 KB exhibiting near linear time and space complexity. Overall, this work contributes a novel integration of ARX-based encryption within a Wide-Pipe hashing framework. Offering a balance between security and efficiency. The findings demonstrate suitability for secure IoT, embedded systems, and lightweight blockchain applications.