A Secure Code-Based Authentication Scheme for RFID Systems

Abstract—Two essential problems are still posed in terms of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems, including: security and limitation of resources. Recently, Li et al.'s proposed a mutual authentication scheme for RFID systems in 2014, it is based on Quasi Cyclic-Moderate Density Parity Check (QC-MDPC) McEliece cryptosystem. This cryptosystem is designed to reducing the key sizes. In this paper, we found that this scheme does not provide untraceability and forward secrecy properties. Furthermore, we propose an improved version of this scheme to eliminate existing vulnerabilities of studied scheme. It is based on the QC-MDPC McEliece cryptosystem with padding the plaintext by a random bit-string. Our work also includes a security comparison between our improved scheme and different code-based RFID authentication schemes. We prove secrecy and mutual authentication properties by AVISPA (Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications) tools. Concerning the performance, our scheme is suitable for low-cost tags with resource limitation. Index Terms—RFID, Security, McEliece cryptosystem, authentication scheme, QC-MDPC codes. I