Architectural Choices for Implementing a Secure ECC-based Lightweight RFID Tag

Abstract

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) allows the remote identification of objects or people through a reader that captures the information contained in an RFID tag. If the transmission between the tag and the reader is not properly protected, it is then possible for an unauthorized user to access the transmitted data. To protect the transmission between the tag and the reader, the best solution is to implement a public key based cryptosystem. This cryptosystem will ensure the mutual authentication of the tags and the readers. However, it is also necessary consider both Side Channel Attacks (SCA) exploiting the cryptosystem leakage and the Fault Attacks exploiting the tag faulty behaviors. In this paper, we make a comparative study between some authentication protocols based on ECC cryptography and choose the most secured one for low cost and low power RFID tags. Then, we choose a scalar multiplication algorithm robust against the SCA and FA and taking into account the low resources available in the RFID tags. This work contains the main guidelines for implementing a low cost and low power RFID tag based on ECC cryptography and secure against SCA and FA.