Enhanced hash-based RFID mutual authentication protocol

Abstract

Radio frequency identification (RFID) system is a promising automatic identification technology that uses communication via radio waves to identify and track moving objects. Privacy and security concerns inhibit the fast adaption of RFID technology for many applications. A number of authentication protocols that address these concerns have been proposed but real-world solutions that are secure and maintain low communication cost are still needed and being investigated. Recently, Cho et al. proposed a hash-based RFID mutual authentication protocol and the protocol is secure. However, this paper proposes an enhanced hash-based RFID mutual authentication protocol to remedy the desynchronization problem in the previous protocol. This protocol requires little computation and achieves both privacy and authentication, making it sufficient enough for use in supply chain management. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.