Secure Mutual Authentication Protocol for RFID Based on Elliptic Curve Cryptography

Abstract

In recent times, radio frequency identification-based systems are one of the most widely spread applications for tagging and keep tracking purposes. This is due to their powerful features compared to their counterparts of similar techniques such as barcodes. In contrast, radio frequency identification systems suffer from various attacks and security threats. The wireless channel used for communication is responsible for the majority of these vulnerabilities. In this paper, we propose a new radio frequency identification authentication protocol based on elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) in order to eliminate these vulnerabilities. In addition, we use elliptic curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) key agreement protocol to generate a temporary shared key used to encrypt the later transmitted messages. Our protocol achieves a set of security properties likes mutual authentication, anonymity, confidentiality, forward security, location privacy, resistance of man-in-the-middle attack, resistance of replay attack and resistance of impersonation attack.