RFID Key Establishment Against Active Adversaries

TL;DR

This paper enhances a low-cost RFID key agreement protocol by incorporating integrity codes to defend against active adversaries, eliminating the need for pre-shared keys.

Contribution

It introduces a method to secure RFID key establishment protocols against active attacks using integrity codes without pre-shared keys.

Findings

Successfully protects RFID key exchange from active adversaries

Maintains low-cost and simplicity of the original protocol

Eliminates need for pre-shared keys

Abstract

We present a method to strengthen a very low cost solution for key agreement with a RFID device. Starting from a work which exploits the inherent noise on the communication link to establish a key by public discussion, we show how to protect this agreement against active adversaries. For that purpose, we unravel integrity $(I)$-codes suggested by Cagalj et al. No preliminary key distribution is required.