Analysis of External Factors on the Performance of Cryptographic Algorithms in Medical Systems Based on ESP32

Adilzhanova S. Tyulepberdinova G. Kunelbayev M. Amirkanova G. Sybanova D. Rakhysh A.
2025 Engineering and Technology Publishing

Journal of Advances in Information Technology
2025 #16 Issue 12 1706 - 1723 pp.

This paper investigates the influence of real-time physiological and environmental variables on the computational performance of cryptographic algorithms deployed in wearable medical systems powered by the ESP32 microcontroller. The proposed system integrates biometric sensors to capture heart rate, skin temperature, and galvanic skin response, from which a composite Stress Index (SI) is calculated. This SI dynamically modulates encryption behavior to adapt to the user’s physiological state. An experimental dataset comprising 300 samples from 10 participants was collected over ten days under semi-controlled environmental conditions. Six widely used cryptographic algorithms—AES-256, HMAC-SHA256, SHA-256, SHA-3, BLAKE3, and ChaCha20—were evaluated based on execution time, CPU load, and estimated energy consumption under varying stress levels. To quantify algorithmic robustness, we introduced the Crypto Stress Tolerance Score (CSTS), a custom metric combining performance stability, stress correlation, and resource efficiency. The findings reveal that elevated body temperature and stress index values significantly affect cryptographic performance, with execution time increasing by up to 35% under high-stress conditions. AES-256 exhibited the highest sensitivity and variability, whereas BLAKE3 and ChaCha20 delivered consistent, low-latency performance with minimal fluctuation. A comparative analysis and scoring table are provided to guide optimal algorithm selection for constrained medical Internet of Things (IoT) environments. This work contributes a novel framework for adaptive, stress-aware encryption in embedded healthcare devices, offering improved reliability, energy efficiency, and security personalization in patient-centric monitoring systems.

adaptive encryption , biometric encryption , Crypto Stress Tolerance Score (CSTS) , cryptographic performance , ESP32 , medical Internet of Things (IoT) , physiological stress index , wearable security

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Cybersecurity and Cryptology Department, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Department, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan

Cybersecurity and Cryptology Department
Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Department

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