RFID Mutual Authentication Protocols based on Gene Mutation and Transfer

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a technology that is very popular due to the simplicity in its technology and high adaptability in a variety of areas. The simplicity in the technology, however, comes with a caveat – RFID tags have severe resource restrictions, which make them vulnerable to a range of security attacks. Such vulnerability often results in the loss of privacy of the tag owner and other attacks on tags. Previous research in RFID security has mainly focused on authenticating entities such as readers / servers, which communicate with the tag. Any security mechanism is only as strong as the encryption keys used. Since RFID communication is wireless, critical messages such as key exchange messages are vulnerable to attacks. Therefore, we present a mutual authentication protocol that relies on independent generation and dynamic updates of encryption keys thereby removing the need for key exchange, which is based on the concept of gene mutation and transfer. We also present an enhanced version of this protocol, which improves the security offered by the first protocol. The novelty of the proposed protocols is in the independent generation, dynamic and continuous updates of encryption keys and the use of the concept of gene mutation / transfer to offer mutual authentication of the communicating entities. The proposed protocols are validated by simulation studies and security analysis.