Application of Passive Asymmetric RFID Tags in a High-Assurance Avionics Multi-Domain RFID Processing System

Abstract:
RFID systems are an important technology that can be used for various applications as logistic processes or access control. Security is in many scenarios required to prevent manipulation and undesired disclosure of information. Symmetric cryptography is typically used in today’s systems to protect RFID tags. In more complex and distributed environments, public key cryptography offers significant advantages. Optimized usage of elliptic curve cryptography enabled public-key cryptography on resource-constraint passive RFID tags. The use of asymmetric cryptography requires, however, certificate revocation checks. When the certificate of a tag respectively of a reader is revoked, it will not be accepted anymore. So a stolen or manipulated tag or reader can be invalidated. Common revocation technologies as certificate revocation lists or online certificate status protocol are not well suited for resource-limited RFID tags. This paper presents asymmetric passive RFID tags and presents different revocation concepts adapted to the resource constraint RFID scenarios. The work is motivated by a visionary multi-domain RFID processing environment for future RFID applications in the avionics industry spanning aircraft, airline, airports and maintenance domains. The dynamic integration of on-board RFID system with different ground systems leads to dynamically changing connections between multiple administrative domains.