Secure ubiquitous authentication protocols for RFID systems

Morshed, Atkins Anthony, Yu, Yu Hongnian

Description

In this article, the possible privacy and security threats to the radio frequency identification (RFID) systems are investigated and new authentication protocols are proposed which provide the identified privacy and security in a very efficient manner for a ubiquitous computing environment. The approach utilizes the concepts of two very different, widely known RFID protocols, i.e. the "low-cost authentication protocol (LCAP)" approach and the "one-way hash-based LCAP " approach. The resulting protocols combine the advantages of both protocols and eliminate the problems from these. The approaches are evaluated using a variety of criteria that are relevant in practice. The proposed protocols use random numbers and a hash function to encrypt the key to protect the RFID system from the adversary attacks. The hash value is used as a hash address to reduce the search time to locate the tag in the database from a large number of records. A simulation experiment is conducted to verify some of the privacy and security properties of the proposed protocols.

Sujets

• RFID
• Security
• Authentication protocol
• Omnipresence

Informations

• Publié par: biomed
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 20
• Langue: English

Extrait

Morshed et al . EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking 2012, 2012 :93 http://jwcn.eurasipjournals.com/content/2012/1/93

R E S E A R C H Open Access Secure ubiquitous authentication protocols for RFID systems Md Monzur Morshed * , Anthony Atkins and Hongnian Yu

Abstract In this article, the possible privacy and security threats to the radio frequency identification (RFID) systems are investigated and new authentication protocols are proposed which provide the identified privacy and security in a very efficient manner for a ubiquitous computing environment. The approach utilizes the concepts of two very different, widely known RFID protocols, i.e. the “ low-cost authentication protocol (LCAP) ” approach and the “ one- way hash-based LCAP “ approach. The resulting protocols combine the advantages of both protocols and eliminate the problems from these. The approaches are evaluated using a variety of criteria that are relevant in practice. The proposed protocols use random numbers and a hash function to encrypt the key to protect the RFID system from the adversary attacks. The hash value is used as a hash address to reduce the search time to locate the tag in the database from a large number of records. A simulation experiment is conducted to verify some of the privacy and security properties of the proposed protocols. Keywords: RFID, security, authentication protocol, ubiquitous, hash address

1. Introduction interrogating reader. Active tags contain batteries to Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags emerge as the  power their transmission. RFID readers with antennas successor of barcodes and are used in many applications are devices used to read or write data from or to the such as in automation of automobiles, animal tracking,  RFID tags. The readers send query to a tag to obtain highway toll collection and supply-chain management  information from the tag. The database stores the infor- [1]. An RFID tag has some advantages over an optical mation about the tags and the readers [4]. barcode that makes it more suitable in automation. A The RFID tag in the form of electronic product code barcode indicates the type of the object on which it is  (EPC) tag is the most popular standard and is specified by printed but the RFID tag gives a unique serial number an organization called EPCglobal Inc. [5]. An EPC tag tra- that distinguishes the object uniquely from many millions  ditionally contains some information such as a product of similar types of products. Another advantage of an type identifier, a manufacturer identifier and a unique RFID tag is that it does not require line-of-sight contact serial number those are ex posed to the reader. This with the readers as in optical barcodes. RFID is a technol- unique serial number works as a unique identifier ( ID ). ogy to identify objects or people automatically [2]. An  Due to this unique serial number in an RFID tag, it is pos- RFID system consists of three components: tag, reader sible to track the tag uniquely. Due to this, the information and back-end database [3]. It is a small and extremely  in an RFID system is vulnerable to unauthorized readers. low-priced device consists of a microchip with very lim- An RFID system is vulnerable to various attacks such as ited functionality and data storage and an antenna for eavesdropping, traffic analysis, spoofing and denial of ser- wireless communication wit h readers. An RFID tag can  vice. These attacks may reveal sensitive information of be passive or active depending on the powering techni- tags and hence break a person ’ s privacy. Another type of que. In general, passive tags are inexpensive. They have privacy violation is traceability which establishes a relation no on-board power; they get power from the signal of the  between a person and a tag. If a link can be established between a person and the tag, the tracing of the tag makes s on [e-mail] F * a C cu o l r t r y e o p fCo de m n p c u e t : in m g . , m E . n m g o ineeringandTechnology,StaffordshireUniversity, t a h c e y t i r n ac a in n g R o F f I t D he s p y e s r t s e o m n , p a os t s a i g ble ne [1 e ] d . s T t o o p a r u ot t e h c e t n t t h i e ca p t r e iv a - Stafford, UK

© 2012 Morshed et al; licensee Springer. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.