Securing against brute-force attack: A hash-based RFID mutual authentication protocol using a secret value

  • Authors:
  • Jung-Sik Cho;Sang-Soo Yeo;Sung Kwon Kim

  • Affiliations:
  • Division of Computer Science and Engineering, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea;Division of Computer Engineering, Mokwon University, Seoul, Republic of Korea;Division of Computer Science and Engineering, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

  • Venue:
  • Computer Communications
  • Year:
  • 2011

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Abstract

Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID ) system is a contactless automatic identification system using small, low-cost RFID tags. It enables recognition of the tag information via radio frequency communication, by attaching an RFID tag to an animate or inanimate object. Since an RFID system has the advantage of simultaneously recognizing massive amounts of information, it is expected to replace the bar-code system. The most important problem with an RFID system is that an adversary can access the tag information, which gives rise to privacy and forgery problems. This paper presents a hash-based mutual authentication protocol as a solution. The proposed protocol is designed to send a random number generated by a tag to a back-end server without disclosure. Moreover it substitutes a random number with a secret value, which is employed in a response message. The properties of the proposed protocol enable constant creation of distinct response messages without interferences from intended or meaningless requests generated by an adversary, while the secret value is not directly transmitted. Our proposed protocol make is difficult for an attacker to launch successful brute-force attacks against our approach.