SECUREFILECHAIN: A BIOMETRIC-DRIVEN AND CHACHA ENHANCED FRAMEWORK FOR PRIVACY-PRESERVING DATA SHARING IN CYBER-PHYSICAL-SOCIAL SYSTEMS

This research presents a secure, biometric‐enabled file‐sharing platform that combines Elliptic Curve Integrated Encryption Scheme (ECIES) with ChaCha20 symmetric encryption to balance confidentiality and performance. Users register by submitting a SHA‐256–hashed username, plaintext password, and a fingerprint image (also hashed). On login, biometric verification ensures that only legitimate users gain access. When a file is uploaded, ECIES encrypts the content under the registered user’s public key, producing ciphertext stored in a protected static directory. Simultaneously, ChaCha20 encryption is executed on the same file to measure computation time. Metadata about each file—owner, filename, and access type (“Public” or “Private”)—is stored in a MySQL database. Private files are accessible only by their owner, while public files may be downloaded by any authenticated user. A performance‐comparison module captures the time taken by ECIES and ChaCha20 for each upload and generates a Matplotlib bar chart. Results demonstrate that ChaCha20 outperforms ECIES by approximately 3×–5× on average for typical file sizes (e.g., 5–20 MB), with ChaCha20 completing encryption in under 0.5 seconds versus 2–3 seconds for ECIES on mid‐range server hardware. This significant performance advantage suggests that ChaCha20 is well suited for scenarios requiring low‐latency encryption of large files. However, ECIES remains essential for secure key distribution and ensuring that only authorized recipients can decrypt content. By making ChaCha20 performance transparent through real‐time graphing, administrators can make informed decisions about adopting hybrid encryption strategies, such as using ECIES to exchange a ChaCha20 session key. The combination of biometric hashing, ECIES, and ChaCha20 provides strong authentication, data confidentiality, and efficient computation. This approach is especially applicable to environments with stringent security requirements—such as healthcare, legal, and financial sectors—where rapid, secure file sharing is critical.