Strong Authentication for RFID Systems Using the AES Algorithm

International Journal of Computer Science and …, 2006

The biggest challenge for current RFID technology is to provide the necessary benefits while avoiding any threats to the privacy of its users. Although many solutions to this problem have been proposed, almost as soon as they have been introduced, methods have been found to circumvent system security and make the user vulnerable. We are proposing an advanced mutualauthentication protocol between a tag and the back-end database server for a RFID system to ensure system security integrity. The three main areas of security violations in RFID systems are forgery of the tags, unwanted tracking of the tags, and unauthorized access to a tag's memory. Our proposed system protects against these three areas of security violations. Our protocol provides reader authentication to a tag, exhibits forgery resistance against a simple copy, and prevents the counterfeiting of RFID tags. Our advanced mutual-authentication protocol uses an AES algorithm as its cryptograph primitive. Since our AES algorithm has a relatively low cost, is fast, and only requires simple hardware, our proposed approach is feasible for use in RFID systems. In addition, the relatively low computational cost of our proposed algorithm compared to those currently used to implement similar levels of system security makes our proposed system especially suitable for RFID systems that have a large number of tags.

2015

RFID technology emerged as the promising technology for its ease of use and implementation in the ubiquitous computing world. RFID is deployed widely in various applications that use automatic identification and processing for information retrieval. The primary components of an RFID system are the RFID tag (active and passive), the reader and the back-end server (database). Cost is the main factor that drove RFID tags to its immense utilization in which passive tags dominate in today's widely deployed RFID practice. Passive tags are low cost RFID tags conjoined to several consumer products (like clothes, smart cards and devices, courier, container, etc) for the purpose of unique identification. Readers on the other hand act as a source to track and record the passive RFID tag's activities (like modifications, updates and authentication). Due to the rapid growth of RFID practice in the past few years, measures for consumer privacy and security has been researched. The uncertainties that arise with the passive RFID tags are handling of user's private information (like name, ID, house address, credit card number, health statement, etc) which are posed to considerable threat from the adversary. Passive tags are inexpensive and contain less overhead and are considered good performers and consequently lack in providing security and privacy. Lightweight cryptography is an area of cryptography developed for low cost resourced environment. Mutual authentication is defined as the process of verifying an authorized tag and a reader (reader and server respectively) by an agreed algorithm to mutually prove their legitimacy with each other. Adversary is a third party who tries to hear the ongoing communication between the tag and the reader (reader and server respectively) anonymously. In this thesis, symmetric lightweight ciphers like Present and Grain are introduced as mutual authentication protocols to rescue the privacy aspects and properties of the RFID tags. These ciphers are simple, faster and suitable to implement within the passive RFID network and reasonably lay a foundation for the preservation of privacy and security of the RFID system. Lightweight ciphers use hash functions, pseudo random generators, SP networks and linear feedback shift registers to randomize data while mutual authentication scheme uses lightweight ciphers to manage authorize the legitimacy of every device in the RFID network.

TELKOMNIKA Telecommunication Computing Electronics and Control, 2024

In this paper, a proposal is made for a cryptographic algorithm designed for passive ultra-high-frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification systems. The algorithm relies on the advanced encryption standard (AES) as its fundamental encryption technique, augmented by two supplementary steps: the initial step involves generating a random key and the second is the randomization of data, this introduces an extra level of security to encryption process against attacks. The developed architecture has been optimized to minimize hardware resource consumption with faster execution speed. The algorithm has been simulated, synthesized and implemented in an xtreme digital signal processing (DSP) starter kit equipped with xilinx’s spartan-3A DSP 1800A edition and it serves the purpose of encrypting and decrypting user data on a radio frequency identification (RFID) passive tag. The main objective is to make it difficult to break the algorithm because of its multiple steps. The experimental results showed that the speed, functionality and cost of encryption and decryption make this a perfectly practical solution, providing a satisfactory level of security for today’s communications systems, or other electronic data transfer processes where security is required.

IEEE Globecom 2006, 2006

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems have provided promising solutions to effective identification of a large number of tagged objects. However, RFID systems suffer from unauthorized tag reading and potential eavesdropping, which becomes a challenging issue because of the shared radio medium and limited size and cost considerations in RFID. In this paper, based on a Linear Congruential Generator (LCG), we propose a lightweight block cipher that can meet the security and performance requirement of RFID systems. The trade-off between the security and overhead is discussed. Based on the proposed block cipher, we further propose a secure protocol for RFID that can provide data confidentiality and mutual authentication between the reader and the tag. We also provide performance analysis of our proposed block cipher.

RFID tags are devices of very limited computational capabilities, which only have 250-3K logic gates that can be devoted to securityrelated tasks. Many proposals have recently appeared, but all of them are based on RFID tags using classical cryptographic primitives such as PRNGs, hash functions, block ciphers, etc. We believe this assumption to be fairly unrealistic, as classical cryptographic constructions lie well beyond the computational reach of very low-cost RFID tags. A new approach is necessary to tackle this problem, so we propose an extremely efficient lightweight mutual-authentication protocol that offers an adequate security level for certain applications and can be implemented even in the most limited low-cost RFID tags, as it only needs around 150 gates.

2008

This thesis examines the security issues of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, one of the most promising technologies in the field of ubiquitous computing. Indeed, RFID technology may well replace barcode technology. Although it offers many advantages over other identification systems, there are also associated security risks that are not easy to address. RFID systems can be classified according to tag price, with distinction between high-cost and low-cost tags. Our research work focuses mainly on low-cost RFID tags. An initial study and analysis of the state of the art identifies the need for lightweight cryptographic solutions suitable for these very constrained devices. From a purely theoretical point of view, standard cryptographic solutions may be a correct approach. However, standard cryptographic primitives (hash functions, message authentication codes, block/stream ciphers, etc.) are quite demanding in terms of circuit size, power consumption and memory size, so they make costly solutions for low-cost RFID tags. Lightweight cryptography is therefore a pressing need. First, we analyze the security of the EPC Class-1 Generation-2 standard, which is considered the universal standard for low-cost RFID tags. Secondly, we cryptanalyze two new proposals, showing their unsuccessful attempt to increase the security level of the specification without much further hardware demands. Thirdly, we propose a new protocol resistant to passive attacks and conforming to low-cost RFID tag requirements. In this protocol, costly computations are only performed by the reader, and security related computations in the tag are restricted to very simple operations. The protocol is inspired in the family of Ultralightweight Mutual Authentication Protocols (UMAP: M2AP, EMAP, LMAP) and the recently proposed SASI protocol. The thesis also includes the first published cryptanalysis of xi SASI under the weakest attacker model, that is, a passive attacker. Fourthly, we propose a new protocol resistant to both passive and active attacks and suitable for moderate-cost RFID tags. We adapt Shieh et.'s protocol for smart cards, taking into account the unique features of RFID systems. Finally, because this protocol is based on the use of cryptographic primitives and standard cryptographic primitives are not supported, we address the design of lightweight cryptographic primitives. Specifically, we propose a lightweight hash function (Tav-128) and a lightweight Pseudo-Random Number Generator (LAMED and LAMED-EPC). We analyze their security level and performance, as well as their hardware requirements and show that both could be realistically implemented, even in low-cost RFID tags.

International Journal on Cryptography and Information Security, 2014

In this paper, we present RBS (Redundant Bit Security) algorithm which is a low-complexity symmetric encryption with a 132-bit secret key. In this algorithm redundant bits are distributed among plaintext data bits to change the location of the plaintext bits in the transmitted data without changing their order. The location of redundant bits inside the transmitted data represents the secret key between sender and receiver. The algorithm provides integrity and authentication of the original data as well. The implementation comparison of this algorithm with other algorithms confirms that it a good candidate for resource-constraint devices such as RFID systems and wireless sensors.

Proceedings of 2012 UKACC International Conference on Control, 2012

The emergence of RFID applications has huge influence to become pervasive in modern life. However the vulnerability of the transmission through the air and the unique identification number of RFID tag are the drawbacks that impact the popularity of RFID technology. In this paper, a mutual authentication protocol is proposed based on the challengeresponse model. The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is used as a cryptographic primitive to secure the data. The experimental works are carried out to validate the protocol in term of security and privacy. The timing analysis is also presented and applied to a case study of conveyor belt system.

2009

Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) is emerging in a variety of applications as an important technology for identifying and tracking goods and assets. The spread of RFID technology, however, also gives rise to significant user privacy and security issues. One possible solution to these challenges is the use of a privacy-enhancing cryptographic protocol to protect RFID communications.

… of the 3rd ACM workshop on …, 2005

A Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) allows effective identification of a large number of tagged objects without physical or visual contact. RFID systems are a promising technology for supply chain management and inventory control. As individual item tagging becomes a reality, privacy concerns over RFID use come to the fore. The shared radio medium allow eavesdropping and unauthorized tag reading which poses threats to individual's privacy. Moreover, due to the mode of use of RFIDs, new threats emerge. For example, an intruder may be able to track the movement of an individual by repeatedly querying an RFID attached to the item that this individual carries. The limited size and cost considerations do not allow to implement conventional cryptographic systems on RFIDs. In this paper we propose an efficient RFID tag identification algorithm that incorporates reader-authentication. Our algorithm is secure against the anticipated threats to RFID systems. Our algorithm does not require computationally expensive cryptographic mechanisms, it relies on rather simple matrix multiplication. To further enhance the utility of our algorithm we propose a scheme that allows for the algorithm to carry out secure identification of multiple tags simultaneously.