A Secure RFID Search Protocol Protecting Mobile Reader's Privacy Without On-line Server

Recently, Tan et al. introduced a serverless search protocol in which a mobile reader maintains a tag authentication list and authenticates a tag using the list without connecting authentication server. A serverless RFID system is different from general RFID systems which use on-line server models. In the serverless RFID system, since the mobility of a personalized reader must be considered, we have to protect not only the privacy of a tag but also the privacy of a mobile reader. In this paper, we define new security requirements for serverless RFID search system and propose a secure serverless RFID search system. In our system, since tag authentication information maintained by a reader is updated in every session, we can provide the backward untraceability of a mobile reader. Also we use an encrypted timestamp to block a replay attack which is major weakness of search protocols. In addition, we define a new adversary model to analyze a serverless RFID search system and prove the security of our proposed system using the model.