RFID Security

CONTENTS 6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 6.2 Basic Definitions and the Reference Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 6.3 Current Status of the Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

6.3.1 Overview of Cryptographic Primitives Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 6.3.2 Overview of Cryptoprotocols Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 6.3.3 Some Important Cryptoprotocols for RFID Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 6.3.4 Measuring Lightweight Properties of Cryptographic Protocols . . . . . . . . . 154

6.4 New Nondeterministic Cryptographic Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 6.4.1 The First ND Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 6.4.2 The Second ND Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 6.4.3 A Brief Analysis of ND Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

6.5 Open Issues in RFID Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 6.5.1 Physical Security of RFIDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 6.5.2 Cryptographic Primitives and Cryptographic Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 6.5.3 Back-End Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 6.5.4 Legal Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 6.5.5 General RFID Security Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

6.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

We are witnessing a strong proliferation of ubiquitous and pervasive computing, where devices with weak computing resources are playing an increasingly important role. A large number of these devices are various sensors, most notably radio-frequency identification

(RFID) tags. Emerging situations stimulate the permanent need for lightweight protocols to enable and preserve security in such environments, which is certainly not an easy task. This chapter, therefore, provides an extensive overview of the field of RFID security, starting with basic definitions and a reference scenario, and continuing with appropriate metric that enables quantitative evaluation of RFID security protocols. Next, the main solutions in this field are given together with the identification of their weaknesses (some of them have not been addressed so far). Based on this, new nondeterministic (ND) cryptographic protocols are presented that are designed for provision of security in RFID environments. Finally, an outlook of this area is given with a description of open issues and expected trends in the near future.