Abstract
The rapid growth of resourceconstrained devices, combined with advances in telecommunications, has significantly expanded the number of connected systems, enabling the development of affordable, energyefficient, portable, and high-performance sensors for diverse applications. However, this progress introduces security and privacy concerns related to the reliability of hardware, software, and communication infrastructure. Cryptographic hash algorithms ensure the preservation of data integrity, even as adversaries’ computational capabilities continue to advance. Lightweight cryptographic hash functions, a resource-optimized variant of conventional primitives, effectively address the challenges of securing communication in systems like RFID tags and wireless sensors. Their applicability extends to other domains with similar characteristics, such as embedded medical devices, consumer IoT, industrial IoT, and pervasive sensing systems. Moreover, this work introduces a 256 bit lightweight hash function for constrained devices. The proposed design employs the sponge construction as its mode of operation. Additionally, comprehensive software implementation results are reported across multiple metrics. The evaluation demonstrates that the proposed algorithm achieves favorable trade-offs between performance and security, making it well-suited for a wide range of devices with limited computational and storage resources.