Enhancing the Security of Ultra-Light Weight Protocols for RFID Application

Abstract

Every new invention has somehow changed the world either in a good or bad way. Similarly RFID technology has a great impact on the world. RFID is a technology to identify objects or people automatically and has received many application in recent years. Few decades ago, barcodes and magnetic strips on items or cards was a common practice. RFID has become superior due to bulk reading and high efficiency. RFID products contain more memory and can be read from a distance which leads to its biggest disadvantage. Transmitting over a wireless channel is never secure and since RFID is mostly used in application to enforce security this is a great concern. The protocols by which the transmission is done needs to be highly secure. Over the years many protocols have been researched and developed some easily broken but some still standing the test of time. This shows that the world of RFID is still evolving. In the field of information security it is known that nothing can always be secure one day or the other it will be broken and the more research done in a field on its security enhances its chances of being secure for a longer time. This thesis is also focused on enhancing the security of an RFID system. After some research we have selected an RFID protocol that claimed security from different attacks. Our main objective will be to find out any weakness if that protocol has and to improve its security by removing those vulnerabilities.