A Simple and Cost-effective RFID Tag-Reader Mutual Authentication Scheme

Cloned fake RFID tags and malicious RFID readers pose a major threat to RFID-based supply chain management system. Fake tags can be attached to counterfeit products and medicines. Malicious readers can corrupt and snoop on genuine tags. These threats can be alleviated by incorporating a RFID tag-reader mutual authentication scheme. In this paper we propose a simple, cost-effective, light-weight, and practical RFID tag-reader mutual authentication scheme. Our scheme adheres to two ratified standards: EPCglobal Architecture Framework specification and EPCglobal Class 1 Gen 2 UHF RFID Protocol. This scheme utilizes the tag’s Access and Kill Passwords and achieves the following three goals: detect cloned fake tags, ward off malicious snooping readers, and in the process, a manufacturer can also implicitly keep track on the whereabouts of its genuine products.