Quantum-Resistant Authentication Scheme for RFID Systems Using Lattice-Based Cryptography

TL;DR

This paper introduces a quantum-resistant RFID authentication protocol using lattice cryptography, ensuring security even over insecure channels and against various attacks, with formal verification and cost analysis.

Contribution

It presents the first comprehensive quantum-resistant RFID authentication scheme secure over both communication channels, leveraging lattice-based cryptography and formal security analysis.

Findings

Achieves quantum resistance via lattice-based cryptography.

Provides security against MITM, replay, impersonation, and reflection attacks.

Demonstrates strong security guarantees with cost analysis.

Abstract

We propose a novel quantum-resistant mutual authentication scheme for radio-frequency identification (RFID) systems. Our scheme uses lattice-based cryptography and, in particular, achieves quantum-resistance by leveraging the hardness of the inhomogeneous short integer solution (ISIS) problem. In contrast to prior work, which assumes that the reader-server communication channel is secure, our scheme is secure even when both the reader-server and tag-reader communication channels are insecure. Our proposed protocol provides robust security against man-in-the-middle (MITM), replay, impersonation, and reflection attacks, while also ensuring unforgeability and preserving anonymity. We present a detailed security analysis, including semi-formal analysis and formal verification using the Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications (AVISPA) tool. In addition, we analyze the storage, computation, and communication costs of the proposed protocol and compare its security properties with those of existing protocols, demonstrating that our scheme offers strong security guarantees. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first quantum-resistant authentication protocol for RFID systems that comprehensively addresses the insecurity of both the reader-server and tag-reader communication channels.