Securing Online Quiz Management through Blockchain Technology and Three-Tier Cryptography with Hash-based Authentication

The Online Quiz Management System (OQMS) is a digital platform used by educational institutions for administering and conducting quizzes online. However, traditional OQMS systems have several significant limitations that hinder their performance. It is susceptible to security vulnerabilities and data breaches, putting the sensitive information of students and teachers at risk. Additionally, traditional OQMS depend on centralized systems prone to single-point failures, leading to service disruptions and decreased transparency. The conventional OQMS faces various challenges in online quizzes, such as secure storage of quiz results, non-repudiation, authentication, access control, and preventing result tampering. These problems highlight the need for a more secure and trustworthy OQMS. This study introduces a Blockchain-based Online Quiz Management System (BOQMS) that incorporates Three Tier Cryptography (TTC) and Hash-based Authentication to ensure secure quiz data storage and access control to address these issues. BOQMS implements a combination of Optimized AES algorithm-based image key cryptography, Optimized RSA algorithm-based asymmetric key cryptography, and Optimized RC4 algorithm-based symmetric key cryptography to provide strong security. In addition, the system features role-based access control (RBAC) and hash-based authentication to limit access to quiz management, and smart contracts are used to verify user authenticity during login. BOQMS enables teachers to create quizzes, students to participate, and teachers and administrators to view results securely through an encrypted process using TTC. Only authorized users with appropriate decryption keys can access quiz data, ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of data. Experimental results indicate that BOQMS generates hashes faster, with a time of 98 milliseconds for 100 blocks. TTC cryptography used in BOQMS takes significantly less time for encryption and decryption than other cryptography combinations, with 12.194 seconds for 96-bit data. These results demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of BOQMS in providing secure online quiz management.