RSEL: Revocable secure efficient lightweight RFID authentication scheme

Abstract

Radio frequency identification (RFID) has been regarded as one of the 10 important technologies in the 21st century. Because of its capability to rapidly and accurately collect and process data in real-time, RFID has been widely applied in many areas, such as Internet of Things and Smart Grid. However, the existing security threats become more severe toward RFID authentication scheme. The traditional security mechanisms cannot be used in RFID directly because of the limitations of processing capability, storage space, and power supply of RFID tags. In this paper, we propose a revocable secure efficient lightweight RFID authentication scheme (RSEL). To achieve authentication efficiency, the key of the tag is chosen to reduce the number of hash computing in the database. Furthermore, the key is stored in the database and updated constantly with the tag to prevent the tracking and synchronization attacks. The valid period of each tag is stored in the database so that RSEL can revoke the expired tag. The correctness of RSEL has been proved using GNY logic. The performance of RSEL in terms of security and efficiency is evaluated. Compared with other existing approaches, RSEL achieves stronger security and higher efficiency. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.