CipherDuel

ECC vs ElGamal — Live Performance and Security Benchmarking in Data Transmission

Generate keys. Encrypt messages. Simulate secure data transmission. Benchmark both algorithms live — no installation required.

** Live App:** https://ecc-elgamal.vercel.app
** API:** https://ecc-elgamal.onrender.com/docs

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What is CipherDuel?

CipherDuel is an open-source cryptographic benchmarking tool that compares two asymmetric encryption algorithms — Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) and the ElGamal cryptosystem — in the context of secure data transmission.

It answers a practical question: which algorithm should you use when encrypting data in transit?

You can:

• Generate ECC or ElGamal key pairs in your browser
• Encrypt any message using either algorithm
• Decrypt ciphertext and recover the original message
• Simulate encrypted data transmission between two ports (port 5000 → port 5001) with integrity verification
• Run live benchmarks measuring key generation speed, encryption speed, decryption speed, and memory consumption — with real-time charts

This project is the implementation artefact for a final year B.Sc. Computer Science project at Federal University Lokoja, Nigeria.

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Screenshots

📸 Screenshot 1 — Home page
(Full browser view of the landing page showing the CipherDuel title, algorithm comparison cards, and tab navigation)

📸 Screenshot 2 — ECC Key Generation
(The Key Generation panel after clicking "Generate Key Pair" with ECC selected, showing the PEM-encoded public and private keys)

📸 Screenshot 3 — ElGamal Key Generation
(The same panel with ElGamal selected, showing hex-encoded keys and group parameters)

📸 Screenshot 4 — Encryption Panel
(A message typed in the input, ECC selected, with the resulting JSON ciphertext displayed below)

📸 Screenshot 5 — Decryption Panel
(Ciphertext pasted into the input, private key entered, showing the recovered plaintext in the green result box)

📸 Screenshot 6 — Transmission Simulation
(The transmission panel showing port 5000 → port 5001 arrow, a completed transmission with the green "Integrity Verified" badge and SHA-256 hash comparison)

📸 Screenshot 7 — Benchmark Dashboard
(All four benchmark charts visible: key generation, encryption, decryption, and memory consumption bar charts with ECC in indigo and ElGamal in grey)

📸 Screenshot 8 — Memory Consumption Chart
(Close-up of the peak memory consumption chart showing the difference between ECC and ElGamal)

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Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	Next.js 14 (App Router), TypeScript, Tailwind CSS
Animations	Framer Motion
Charts	Chart.js + react-chartjs-2
Icons	Lucide React
Backend	FastAPI (Python 3.11)
ECC	cryptography library (OpenSSL backend) — NIST P-256
ElGamal	pycryptodome — RFC 3526 MODP Group 14 (3072-bit)
Timing	time.perf_counter() (nanosecond resolution)
Memory	tracemalloc (peak heap profiling)
Frontend Hosting	Vercel
Backend Hosting	Render

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+ — Download
• Node.js 18+ — Download
• Git — Download

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/vehutech/ecc-elgamal.git
cd ecc-elgamal

2. Set up the backend

cd backend

# Create and activate virtual environment
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate        # macOS / Linux
# venv\Scripts\activate         # Windows

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Start the development server
uvicorn main:app --reload --port 8000

The API will be running at http://localhost:8000.
Visit http://localhost:8000/docs for the interactive Swagger UI.

3. Set up the frontend

cd frontend

# Copy environment variables
cp .env.local.example .env.local
# .env.local already points to http://localhost:8000 — no changes needed for local dev

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start the development server
npm run dev

The app will be running at http://localhost:3000.

4. Open in your browser

Go to http://localhost:3000.
Both backend and frontend must be running simultaneously.

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Environment Variables

Frontend (frontend/.env.local)

Variable	Description	Default
NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL	URL of the FastAPI backend	http://localhost:8000

For production (Vercel), set NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL to your Render backend URL:
https://ecc-elgamal-api.onrender.com

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Deployment

See DEVELOPMENT.md for the complete step-by-step guide from local development to production deployment on Render and Vercel.

Quick summary:

1. Push code to GitHub (vehutech/ecc-elgamal)
2. Connect Render to the backend/ folder → auto-deploys on push
3. Connect Vercel to the frontend/ folder → auto-deploys on push
4. Set NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL in Vercel environment variables

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API Reference

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/	Service info
GET	/health	Health check
POST	/ecc/keygen	Generate ECC key pair
POST	/ecc/encrypt	Encrypt with ECC (ECIES)
POST	/ecc/decrypt	Decrypt ECC ciphertext
POST	/elgamal/keygen	Generate ElGamal key pair
POST	/elgamal/encrypt	Encrypt with ElGamal
POST	/elgamal/decrypt	Decrypt ElGamal ciphertext
POST	/transmit	Simulate encrypted port-to-port transmission
POST	/benchmark	Full comparison benchmark (both algorithms)
POST	/benchmark/ecc	ECC-only benchmark
POST	/benchmark/elgamal	ElGamal-only benchmark

Full interactive docs: https://ecc-elgamal.onrender.com/docs

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Project Structure

ecc-elgamal/
│
├── backend/
│   ├── ecc_module.py          # ECC key gen, ECIES encrypt/decrypt
│   ├── elgamal_module.py      # ElGamal key gen, encrypt/decrypt
│   ├── benchmark_module.py    # Timing + memory profiling
│   ├── transmission_module.py # Port-to-port transmission simulation
│   ├── main.py                # FastAPI app and routes
│   ├── requirements.txt
│   ├── Procfile               # Render start command
│   └── 
│
├── frontend/
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── app/
│   │   │   ├── layout.tsx     # Root layout (fonts, theme)
│   │   │   ├── page.tsx       # Main page (hero + tabs)
│   │   │   └── globals.css    # CSS variables + base styles
│   │   ├── components/
│   │   │   ├── layout/        # Navbar, Footer
│   │   │   ├── panels/        # KeyGenPanel, EncryptDecryptPanel, etc.
│   │   │   └── ui/            # Skeleton, StatCard
│   │   └── lib/
│   │       ├── api.ts         # Typed API client
│   │       ├── utils.ts       # Formatting helpers
│   │       └── theme.tsx      # Dark/light mode context
│   ├── tailwind.config.js
│   ├── next.config.js
│   └── package.json
│
├── README.md
├── DEVELOPMENT.md
├── LICENSE
└── .gitignore

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please open an issue before submitting a pull request so we can discuss the change.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature/your-feature
3. Commit your changes: git commit -m 'feat: add your feature'
4. Push to the branch: git push origin feature/your-feature
5. Open a pull request

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License

MIT License — see LICENSE for details.

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Author

Daniel Vehu Alonge — SCI21CSC229
B.Sc. Computer Science, Federal University Lokoja
Supervisor: Dr. Malik Adeiza Rufai

Built by D. Vehu Alonge
GitHub: @vehutech