Title: Secure and interference-robust ISO/IEC 18000-63 compatible UHF-RFID tags by cryptographic authentication primitives

Authors: Sebastian Wallner; Klaus Finkenzeller

Addresses: Giesecke & Devrient GmbH, Prinzregentenstraße 159, 81607 München, Germany ' Giesecke & Devrient GmbH, Prinzregentenstraße 159, 81607 München, Germany

Abstract: Secure ISO/IEC 18000-63 compatible UHF tags have big applications and advantages in present-day logistics or transportation systems. This paper discusses two solutions for secure UHF-RFID tags supporting cryptographical authentication. The first solution is based on a strong Rabin-Montgomery public-key cryptosystem using long integer square operation for the public-key encryption of a tag ID. A second solution is based on an alternative cryptographic technology to provide secure authentication and encryption. It is motivated by the required interference robustness of UHF-RFID tags in the dedicated frequency range and resource limitations as they are often present in embedded security scenarios and RFID devices. We investigate and suggest the implementation of a low hardware complexity cryptosystem for lightweight symmetric key exchange and authentication as well as encryption based on Tree Parity Machine Rekeying Architectures (TPMRAs). First, characteristics of standard-cell ASIC design realisations in 0.18 μ CMOS technology are evaluated and an FPGA-based secure UHF-RFID prototype is presented which demonstrates the feasibility of the suggested public-key cryptosystem.

Keywords: ISO/IEC 18000-63; UHF tags; public key cryptosystems; Rabin-Montgomery; tree parity machines; secure authentication; lightweight symmetric key exchange; cryptography; RFID tags; radio frequency identification; cryptographic authentication; encryption; ASIC design; CMOS technology; FPGA; field-programmable gate arrays; logistics; transport systems; security.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRFITA.2015.070571

International Journal of Radio Frequency Identification Technology and Applications, 2015 Vol.4 No.4, pp.342 - 361

Received: 09 Oct 2014
Accepted: 28 Jan 2015
Published online: 10 Jul 2015 *

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