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Cryptography

On Detecting Relay Attacks on RFID Systems Using Qubits

Aysajan Abidin

Published May 8, 2020• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

As RFID technology is being widely used in access control systems to identify and track both objects and people, relay attacks on RFID systems continue to pose serious threats to security. To mitigate relay attacks, distance bounding protocols can be used. Until recently, all distance bounding protocols were based on classical cryptography and communication techniques. In this paper, we take a closer look at a recently proposed protocol by Jannati and Ardeshir-Larijani [Quantum Information Processing 2016, 18] to detect relay attacks using qubits. We first observe that the protocol has a weakness which allows an adversary to mount a successful attack on the protocol. We then propose a countermeasure to restore security and compare the fixed protocol with the state of the art.

DOI
10.3390/cryptography4020014

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As RFID technology is being widely used in access control systems to identify and track both objects and people, relay attacks on RFID systems continue to pose serious threats to security. To mitigate relay attacks, distance bounding protocols can be used. Until recently, all distance bounding protocols were based on classical cryptography and communication techniques. In this paper, we take a closer look at a recently proposed protocol by Jannati and Ardeshir-Larijani [Quantum Information Processing 2016, 18] to detect relay attacks using qubits. We first observe that the protocol has a weakness which allows an adversary to mount a successful attack on the protocol. We then propose a countermeasure to restore security and compare the fixed protocol with the state of the art.
RFID (radio frequency identification) systems, recently being used in a wide range of areas, are vulnerable to relay attack from malicious attackers. For that reason, Brands, et al. proposed a certification protocol between a certifier and a verifier based on the concept of distance-bounding, and in addition Hancke et al. introduced the concept of RFID. However, the delivery of tag IDs, one of the main RFID features, is not still available, and there are two important demerits: anonymity in the delivery of tag IDs suggested by Kim et al. and inefficiency in finding a tag ID with regard to how to check errors which may occur in the process of data exchange between readers and tags. Therefore, this study proposes a protocol that meets the requirements of tag anonymity and location untraceability, has resistance to errors which may take place in the phase of tag data exchange, and is very efficient in finding tag IDs.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a prominent technology within the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem, offering efficient and reliable object identification in various domains, including business, healthcare, and manufacturing. The security of RFID systems is of paramount importance, and recent authentication protocols have been developed to address these security concerns. In this survey paper, we explore and evaluate the latest authentication protocols designed to enhance security in RFID communications, primarily concentrating on the interaction between RFID readers and tags. We critically assess contemporary lightweight RFID authentication protocols, considering aspects such as security requirements, computational efficiency, and resilience against potential attacks. However, with the advent of quantum computing, these protocols are under scrutiny for their vulnerability. As a result, we emphasize the need for researchers to shift their focus toward post-quantum cryptography solutions to bolster the security of RFID systems. This paper serves as a comprehensive overview of recent developments in RFID authentication, shedding light on the pressing need for quantum-resistant security measures in this field.
An efficient way of handling security keys using quantum cryptography QC for increasing security in radio frequency identification RFID networks is being investigated by network security industries. To establish secure RFID network, communication between any two nodes that hold RFID tags and/or readers merged with existing networks should be protected. In order to maximize the data security and secure transmission around RFID network, theoretical model of the quantum key management KM system based on RFID is introduced as a proposed research. This model not only manages the secure keys but also it defends passive eavesdropping attacks and other potential attacks. Novelties in this research are security keys of which QC is being utilized in RFID network with continuous key updates. To establish future security around RFID networks, efficient KM protocol and QC, which deal with quantum mathematical procedures and quantum physics, should be analyzed without affecting the legacy. Computational complexities in KM are increasing with the large key sizes, which are manageable through QC. To maximize the security and minimize the complexity in KM, QC with Grover's algorithm is introduced as a method in RFID network environments. So, we have proved that a number of operations with key sizes obtained in KM are reduced. In this proposal, QC will help to reduce the complexity of algorithms used in KM protocols and maximize the security. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Time-of-flight distance-bounding protocols are potentially useful in RFID and NFC environments and are designed to discourage a number of attacks that take advantage of the inherent assumption that a token and reader that manages to communicate are located in close physical proximity to each other. These protocols are dependent on time measurements made at the physical layer of the communication channel, and thus require special high bandwidth channels with low latency. Executing a distance-bound protocol on a suitable channel in a constrained environment would potentially allow for bit errors during communication. Currently, terrorist fraud is discouraged in distance-bounding protocols by ensuring that a prover collaborating with an the attacker in this fraud has to make his secret key known to the attacker. We discuss the effect of making a protocol resistant to bit errors and show that the approach to design protocols against terrorist fraud is significantly weakened by error resistance, as a prover is potentially able to keep his key secret or hinder an attacker from learning his key.
We present a distance bounding (DB) protocol that employs quantum-bits (qubits) in the implementation of the rapid-bit exchange (a.k.a., challenge-response) phase, instead of classical bits. This is not the first attempt at using qubits in a DB protocol, as Abidin et al. proposed a way to implement DB protocols using qubits in RFIDSec 2016 [1]. We improve upon Abidin et al.'s protocol and make it resistant to photon number splitting attacks. In addition, our new protocol eliminates the need for communication from the prover to the verifier in the last authentication phase, which is necessary in the protocol by Abidin et al.