A cryptanalytic attack on the knapsack cryptosystem using binary Firefly algorithm

This paper presents a binary Firefly Algorithm (FA), for cryptanalysis of knapsack cipher algorithm so as to deduce the meaning of an encrypted message (i.e. to determine a plaintext from the cipher text). The implemented algorithm has been characterized, in this paper, by a number of properties and operations that build up and evolve the fireflies´ positions. These include light intensity, distances, attractiveness, and position updating, fitness evaluation. The results of the Firefly algorithm are compared with the results shown by Genetic Algorithm (GA), to discover the plaintext from the cipher text. Experimental results show that binary firefly algorithm is capable of finding correct results more efficiently than GA.