Secure Chatroom Application using Advanced Encryption Standard Algorithm

Abstract

This paper, in all its essence, is a group chat Application, between a variable number of users, who are connected to each other, by virtue of being a member of the same network. A central server acts as a service to accept messages from a user and forward it to all other users, who are participating in the group chat by being connected to the server at that point of time. Given that the server is up and running, new users can join the group chat server at any given time by providing the current local IP address and the port on which the server is running, although, this can only be done if the active members in a group chat does not exceed the specified and declared capacity of the server. If a large number of users is expected, the server can be configured to listen for a higher number of incoming connection requests, which should be carefully determined, since, performing an alteration in the capacity of the server requires the server to be restarted for the new capacity to come into effect. The main aim of this group chat server is that it is a secure group chat server which uses cryptographic algorithms Advances Encryption Standard for encrypting message. When the server is started, a random cipher key is generated for encryption and decryption of messages. This cipher key is the secret key that is confidential within the boundaries of the system. When a message originates from a user, it is encrypted before being sent to the server. The server receives this encrypted message and forwards it to the other users that are currently connected to the group chat server.