Android AES-128 encryption/decryption of file is very slow. How can I increase the speed

Question

I am developing an android app that secures images and videos like Vaulty and Keep safe. I am trying to use AES-128 encryption/decryption technique to store images and videos. I tried it by taking 3 sample images of size 5.13, 4.76 and 5.31 respectively. But the time it is consuming to encrypt is 25s, 22s, 27s respectively and time to decrypt is 31s, 30s, 34s respectively. I am testing it on HTC One X.

Such speed wont be feasible for my app as users will scroll and view images quickly without interruption. Can you please suggest me how can I improve the performance(speed) or should i switch to other algorithms? Can you please suggest me any other techniques through which i can encrypt/decrypt images and videos quickly without compromising security too much.

I tried Vaulty and Keep safe, and they are very quick. Vaulty is said to be using AES-256, but it is still very fast and responsive in terms of encrypting and viewing images. How is it possible that vaulty is that quick using AES-256?

Code I am using is:

 static void encrypt(String filename) throws IOException, NoSuchAlgorithmException,
        NoSuchPaddingException, InvalidKeyException {

    // Here you read the cleartext.
    File extStore = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory();
    startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    Log.i("Encryption Started",extStore + "/5mbtest/"+filename);
    FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(extStore + "/5mbtest/"+filename);
    // This stream write the encrypted text. This stream will be wrapped by
    // another stream.



    FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(extStore + "/5mbtest/"+filename+".aes", false);

    // Length is 16 byte
    SecretKeySpec sks = new SecretKeySpec("MyDifficultPassw".getBytes(),
            "AES");
    // Create cipher
    Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/CBC/PKCS7Padding");
    cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, sks);
    // Wrap the output stream
    CipherOutputStream cos = new CipherOutputStream(fos, cipher);
    // Write bytes
    int b;
    byte[] d = new byte[8];
    while ((b = fis.read(d)) != -1) {
        cos.write(d, 0, b);
    }
    // Flush and close streams.
    cos.flush();
    cos.close();
    fis.close();
    stopTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    Log.i("Encryption Ended",extStore + "/5mbtest/"+filename+".aes");
    Log.i("Time Elapsed", ((stopTime - startTime)/1000.0)+"");
}

static void decrypt(String filename) throws IOException, NoSuchAlgorithmException,
        NoSuchPaddingException, InvalidKeyException {
    File extStore = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory();
    Log.i("Decryption Started",extStore + "/5mbtest/"+filename+".aes");
    FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(extStore + "/5mbtest/"+filename+".aes");

    FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(extStore + "/5mbtest/"+"decrypted"+filename,false);
    SecretKeySpec sks = new SecretKeySpec("MyDifficultPassw".getBytes(),
            "AES");
    // Create cipher
    Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/CBC/PKCS7Padding");
    cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, sks);
    startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    CipherInputStream cis = new CipherInputStream(fis, cipher);
    int b;
    byte[] d = new byte[8];
    while ((b = cis.read(d)) != -1) {
        fos.write(d, 0, b);
    }

    stopTime = System.currentTimeMillis();

    Log.i("Decryption Ended",extStore + "/5mbtest/"+"decrypted"+filename);
    Log.i("Time Elapsed", ((stopTime - startTime)/1000.0)+"");

    fos.flush();
    fos.close();
    cis.close();
}

Answer 1

One thing that is making your code run slow is the size of your buffer:

byte[] d = new byte[8];

You should bump it up by a few orders of magnitude if you want it to run fast. Given the size of your files I would suggest using at least 1 MB but nowadays you can realistically set it to a few MBs, even on Android. Try changing it to:

byte[] d = new byte[1024 * 1024];

and let us know how much did that improve the speed by.

Answer 2

Use a larger buffer as suggested by @MikeLaren, and also wrap the FileOutputStream in a BufferedOutputStream. When decrypting, wrap the FileInputStream in a BufferedInputStream. Or do both in both cases: no harm done.

No need for heroic buffer sizes like a megabyte: 8k or 32k is sufficient.