Enhanced Cloud-Native Digital Forensic Framework using XChaCha20-Poly1305, BLAKE3, and Distributed Parallel Orchestration

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-616-6_96How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Digital Forensics; XChaCha20-Poly1305; BLAKE3; Cloud Security; Parallel Processing; Forensic Readiness

Abstract

Cloud forensics requires strong cryptographic assurance and scalable processing to handle large volumes of evidence within limited timeframes. This paper presents an Enhanced Cloud-Native Digital Forensic Framework that integrates XChaCha20-Poly1305 streaming authenticated encryption, BLAKE3 tree-based parallel hashing, and distributed orchestration using Apache Spark and Kubernetes. The proposed model introduces three key contributions: (1) a formally defined and hardened nonce-derivation strategy to ensure unique encryption streams in concurrent environments; (2) a tamper-evident hash-chained audit logging protocol with rigorous integrity verification against distributed compromise; and (3) a quantitative analysis of orchestration overhead, including data serialization, scheduler latency, and network transfer cost. The implementation, combining a FastAPI-based backend and React frontend, demonstrates improved throughput and strong tamper detection on multi-terabyte forensic datasets. Experimental evaluation shows up to 3.2× higher throughput compared to AES-GCM baselines with overhead contained below 10%. The framework provides a practical, auditable, and scalable design for secure digital forensics in cloud environments.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Puspita Dash
AU  - J. Kavinila
AU  - G. Ramya
AU  - G. Mathumitha
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/03/31
TI  - Enhanced Cloud-Native Digital Forensic Framework using XChaCha20-Poly1305, BLAKE3, and Distributed Parallel Orchestration
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Secure Data Analytics (ICAISDA 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 1308
EP  - 1319
SN  - 1951-6851
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-616-6_96
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-616-6_96
ID  - Dash2026
ER  -