A new hash-based RFID mutual authentication protocol providing enhanced user privacy protection

Abstract

The recently proposed Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) authentication protocol based on a hashing function can be divided into two types according to the type of information used for authentication between a reader and a tag: either a value fixed or one updated dynamically in a tag. In this study we classify the RFID authentication protocol into a static ID-based and a dynamic-ID based protocol and then analyze their respective strengths and weaknesses and the previous protocols in the static/dynamic ID-based perspectives. Also, we define four security requirements that must be considered in designing the RFID authentication protocol including mutual authentication, confidentiality, indistinguishability and forward security. Based on these requirements, we suggest a secure and efficient mutual authentication protocol. The proposed protocol is a dynamic ID-based mutual authentication protocol designed to meet requirements of both indistinguishability and forward security by ensuring the unlinkability of tag responses among sessions. Thus, the protocol can provide more strengthened user privacy compared to previous protocols and recognizes a tag efficiently in terms of the operation quantity of tags and database. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.