Mutual authentication with malware protection for a RFID system

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system is a remote identification technology which is taking the place of barcodes to become electronic tags of an object. However, its radio transmission nature is making it vulnerable in terms of security. Recently, research proposed that an RFID tag can contain malicious code which might spread viruses, worms and other exploits to middleware and back-end systems. This paper is proposing a framework which will provide protection from malware and ensure the data privacy of a tag. The framework will use a sanitization technique with a mutual authentication in the reader level. This will ensure that any malicious code in the tag is identified. If the tag is infected by malicious code it will stop execution of the code in the RFIF system. Here shared unique parameters are used for authentication. It will be capable of protecting an RFID system from denial of service (DOS) attack, forward security and rogue reader better than existing protocols. The framework is introducing a layer concept on a smart reader to reduce coupling between different tasks. Using this framework, the RFID system will be protected from malware and also the privacy of the tag will be ensured.