74 IEEE INTERNET OF THINGS JOURNAL, VOL. 2, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2015
backscatter modulation to send messages. The active tag
is equipped with a small battery and a radio transceiver. It
can communicate directly with the reader.
2) RFID reader: An RFID reader is composed of a radio
transmitter, a radio receiver, a control unit, and a memory
unit. The main function of an RFID reader is to enable the
RFID tag and the server to exchange messages between
each other and achieve mutual authentication. Usually, the
RFID reader’s computing capacity is higher compared to
that of the RFID tag.
3) Server: A server is a trusted entity. To achieve the goal
of mutual authentication, it stores all the RFID tag’s iden-
tification information in its database when the system is
set up. Using the stored identification information, the
server could determine the validity of the tag. Usually,
the server’s computing capability and memory capacity
are high.
B. Security Requirements for RFID Communication
RFID authentication is one of the most important steps to
ensure secure communication in the RFID system. However,
messages transmitted between the RFID tag and the RFID
reader are exposed to many kinds of security threats. Previous
research efforts on RFID security have identified the following
security requirements that must be satisfied to ensure secure
RFID communications in addition to a robust and efficient
authentication scheme in place [57], [60], [61], [66], [67].
1) Mutual authentication: It is essential that mutual authen-
tication among the RFID tag, the RFID reader, and the
server should be achieved before a session starts. In our
system architecture, the communication channel between
the RFID reader and the server is secure. In this case,
only mutual authentication between the RFID tag and the
server is required.
2) Confidentiality: It is essential that the secret information
(such as identity and password) stored in the RFID tag
cannot be retrieved by the adversary when it is transmit-
ted through the communication channels. The adversary
could impersonate the tag to the server if access to the
secret information is possible. The information must be
encrypted before transmission.
3) Anonymity: It is essential that an RFID authentication
scheme should provide anonymity. The adversary will
violate the owner’s privacy and trace his/her action if the
tag’s identity becomes known. The tag’s identity must be
encrypted as part of the mutual authentication process.
4) Availability: It is essential that the authentication process
of an RFID authentication scheme be executed during
the lifecycle of the RFID tag. To provide anonymity, the
RFID tag and the server in most of RFID authentication
schemes update the secret information shared between
them when the authentication scheme is executed. If an
adversary destroys the synchronization of the update, the
authentication scheme will be invalid.
5) Forward security: It is essential that an RFID authenti-
cation scheme provides forward security. In many RFID
authentication schemes, the adversary could trace back
the past location of the tag if the secret information from
the RFID tag is successfully retrieved by the adversary.
This will seriously violate the owner’s privacy.
6) Scalability: It is essential that an RFID authentication
scheme should be scalable. To authenticate the RFID tag,
the s erver in the RFID system has to find the matching
record from its database. If the computational workload
of the searching algorithm increases significantly as the
number of RFID tags increases, the system will not scale.
7) Attack resistance: To guarantee secure communication
within the RFID system, the RFID authentication pro-
cess should be secure against various attacks including the
replay attack, the tag masquerade attack, the server spoof-
ing attack, the man-in-the-middle attack, the tag cloning
attack, and the modification attack.
III. R
EVIEW OF SEVERAL NOVE L ECC-BASED RFID
A
UTHENTICATION SCHEMES
Wolkerstorfer [31] introduced the concept of ECC-based
RFID authentication scheme in 2005. However, he did not pro-
pose any specific authentication scheme. Tuyls and Batina [32]
adopted Schnorr’s identification protocol [33] and proposed the
first ECC-based RFID authentication scheme in 2006. Later,
Batina et al. [34] adopted Okamoto’s identification protocol
[35] and proposed another ECC-based RFID authentication
scheme in 2007. However, Lee et al. [36] pointed out that both
Tuyls and Batina’s scheme [32] and Batina et al.’s scheme
[34] cannot provide anonymity. To enhance security and ensure
anonymity, Lee et al. [36] proposed a provably secure ECC-
based RFID authentication scheme. However, Bringer et al.
[37] found that Lee et al.’s scheme cannot withstand track-
ing attack (the adversary could track the tag’s action) and the
tag impersonation attack (where the adversary can imperson-
ate the tag to the server). To withstand those two attacks,
Bringer et al. [37] proposed a new RFID authentication scheme
called randomized Schnorr scheme. Later, Lee et al. [38] also
proposed an ECC-based RFID authentication scheme to with-
stand the tracking attack and the tag impersonation attack
against their previous schemes [36]. However, Deursen and
Radomirovi [39] pointed out that all of Lee et al.’s schemes
[38] cannot withstand the man-in-the-middle attack and the
tracking attack. Deursen and Radomirovic [48] pointed out
that Lee et al.’s schemes were vulnerable to the man-in-the-
middle attack. Sandhya and Rangaswamy [40] and Martinez
et al. [41] proposed two other authentication schemes using
the zero-knowledge proof and ECC. Zero-knowledge proof is
a method by which one party can prove to another party that
a given statement is true, without conveying any information
apart from the fact that the statement is indeed true. Later, Lv
et al. [42] pointed out that Martinez et al.’s scheme is vulnerable
to the tracking attack.
To overcome weaknesses in t heir previous schemes, Lee
et al. [43] proposed three improved ECC-based RFID
schemes. Later, Fan et al. [44] pointed out that all the
three schemes [43] were not secure against man-in-the-middle
attack. Subsequently, Lee et al. [45] analyze the privacy chal-
lenges in RFID systems and proposed three ECC-based RFID