Method and apparatus to provide authentication and privacy with low complexity devices
View Patent ↗A method and apparatus to provide a cryptographic protocol for secure authentication, privacy, and anonymity. The protocol, in one embodiment, is designed to be implemented in a small number of logic gates, executed quickly on simple devices, and provide military grade security.
1. A method comprising:
receiving a challenge at a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag from an RFID tag reader;
initializing the RFID tag based upon a first public key of a first key pair, a second public key of a second key pair, and a tag ID n received from the RFID tag reader;
calculating S=f (s, O E ), U=f (u, O O ), B=E (n, k E ), G=f (A, k O ), where
A is a function of the challenge and a private key of the RFID tag,
s and u are random numbers,
k E and ko are functions of the first public key and the second public key, respectively, and
O E and O O are originators, provided by the reader; and
returning S, U, B, and G from the RFID tag to the reader, the returned data being unique for each response even when responding to an identical challenge.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the originators O E and O O are points on an elliptical curve.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the originators O E and Oo are generators for large primes.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, from the RFID reader, a private key of a third key pair, the private key of the third key pair being stored only by the RFID tag.
5. A system comprising:
a transceiver configured to transmit and receive data, the transceiver further configured to receive a challenge from a reader system;
an initialization module configured to initialize a tag based upon a first public key of a first key pair, a second public key of a second key pair, and a tag ID n received from the reader system;
a cryptographic logic module configured to perform cryptographic calculations including calculating S=f (s, O E ), U=f (u, O O ), B=E (n, k E ), G=f (A, k O ), where
A is a function of the challenge and a private key of a low processing power system (LPPS),
s and u are random numbers;
n is an identifier of the LPPS,
k E and k O are functions of a first public key and a second public key of the reader respectively, and
O E and O O are originators, provided by the reader;
the transceiver further configured to return S, U, B, and G to the reader system, the returned data being unique for each response even when responding to an identical challenge.
6. The system of claim 5 , further comprising a secured memory to store the private key of the system and an identifier of the system.
7. The system of claim 5 , wherein the cryptographic logic module is further configured to generate the random numbers s and u.
8. The system of claim 5 , further comprising:
a memory to store initialization data, the initialization data including the public keys of the reader, and the identifier of the system.
9. The system of claim 5 , wherein the originators OE and 00 are points on an elliptical curve.