A platform for RFID security and privacy administration

  • Authors:
  • Melanie R. Rieback;Georgi N. Gaydadjiev;Bruno Crispo;Rutger F. H. Hofman;Andrew S. Tanenbaum

  • Affiliations:
  • Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam;Delft University of Technology;Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam;Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam;Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam

  • Venue:
  • LISA '06 Proceedings of the 20th conference on Large Installation System Administration
  • Year:
  • 2006

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Abstract

This paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of the RFID Guardian, the first-ever unified platform for RFID security and privacy administration. The RFID Guardian resembles an "RFID firewall," that monitors and controls access to RFID tags by combining a standard-issue RFID reader with unique RFID tag emulation capabilities. Our system provides a platform for both automated and coordinated usage of RFID security mechanisms, offering fine-grained control over RFID-based auditing, key management, access control, and authentication capabilities. We have prototyped the RFID Guardian using off-the-shelf components, and our experience has shown that active mobile devices are a valuable tool for managing the security of RFID tags in a variety of applications, including protecting low-cost tags that are unable to regulate their own usage. More philosophically, RFID technology vividly illustrates the difficulties of security administration in a world of increasingly pervasive, decentralized, low-cost, and low-power computing. Our paper thus also offers a glimpse of what system administration may be like in the future, when laymen face the responsibility to manage systems of tiny computers that they are barely aware of.