Structured design concept for cross-layered protocols; applying to near field communication (NFC)

Near Field Communication (NFC) is widely used today in many useful applications, such as contactless payment, identification, and file exchange. Due to the limitations on computation, power, and cost of NFC devices, NFC systems are often lack of encryption or weakly encrypted, leaving them exposed to security attacks. One solution for this problem is to install strong cryptographic protocols on NFC devices. However, it involves upgrading and revoking deployed NFC devices, which is costly and impractical. Moreover, encryption algorithms are usually considered expensive for resource constrained NFC devices in terms of computation overhead and energy consumption. In this paper, aiming at securing NFC from eavesdropping at physical layer, we propose SecNFC, a solution that changes the signals on the initiators to hide the communications, but does not require any changes to the targets. In this work, for the first time, we address a practical problem of synchronization offset between two NFC terminals, which can be exploited by an eavesdropper to compromise the transmitted bits. SecNFC takes into consideration the synchronization offset and solves the challenge by introducing blocking signals around the transition point when the target switches load between on and off. With this solution, even with the existence of synchronization offset, eavesdroppers cannot extract any bit information from eavesdropping. We conduct extensive simulations to evaluate the performance of SecNFC. We also build a testbed based on USRP software defined radio and off-the-shelf NFC tags to evaluate SecNFC in a real-world environment. Both simulation and experimental results show that SecNFC can efficiently prevent NFC from eavesdropping with a slight and tolerable decoding performance degradation at the initiator.

As the technology of mobile devices spreads fast, the price of mobile devices is getting cheaper. Most of the people have mobile devices, and these devices have the technology of near field communication (NFC). With the long time development and research, the mobile devices use NFC technology on the payment and authentication applications, and replace the smartcard, the access control card, and the credit card by using the card emulation mode. It helps the development of NFC applications. In recent years, more and more users begin using NFC technology on mobile payment and authentication. Many researches have proposed the related NFC authentication protocols, but their schemes are still lack of some security properties and functions, which are necessary for NFC authentication protocols. In this paper, we propose a secure and efficient NFC authentication scheme between two NFC devices by the help of the authentication server that provides mutual authentication.

Near Field Communication (NFC) has been used for short range communications in a number of applications for consumer electronics devices. Specifically, NFC has been used in electronic payment systems. To ensure secure communications, security protocols for various NFC applications have been proposed. Recently, a conditional privacy preserving security protocol was introduced. However this paper demonstrates that the protocol is vulnerable to two impersonations attacks and then proposes a new secure pseudonym-based NFC protocol that eliminates vulnerabilities of the previous security protocol. Security and performance analysis results confirm that the proposed protocol could solve security problems of the previously introduced NFC security protocol with a marginal computational cost increase <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1</sup> .

The recent advancements in the Internet of Things (IoT) has promoted for finding or localizing objects with different technologies. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology has been widely used in indoor localization applications due to its ease of deployment and low cost. With passive RFID tags, an object can be localized within less than 10cm. However, passive RFID localization systems cannot provide easy localization due to its limited reading range. Using Active RFID tags will provide longer localization range to a lost object. However, while pairing the mobile phone with the tag, the phone may capture any tag in its reading range; thus, the tag pairing process may be done improperly. Alternatively, Near Field Communication (NFC) has been proposed as an extension to the RFID technology in which the reader must be within close proximity to the NFC tag for achieving the reading task. With the deployment of NFC, several mobile phone applications have been developed employing NFC in payments and contactless systems. However, due to the short localization range of NFC, it becomes extremely difficult to find a lost item. Currently, RFID and NFC have been employed in object localization systems separately. Alternatively, in this paper we propose Radio Frequency Near Communication (RFNC) is an integrated RFID- NFC system for localization of lost item. Our experiments integrating RFID and NFC technologies confirm that NFC technology can be a complement to the RFID technology rather than an alternative.

Nowadays; the adoption of Internet of things (IoT) technologies and applications in everyday is rising. IoT technology such as Near Field Communication (NFC) is vastly adopted due to its short range frequencies, making it a good candidate for token based security access control applications such as door systems and attendance systems. However, due to the miniature size of NFC tags; its clear text contents and unprotected communication channel between tag-reader-database; NFC technology is prone to security attacks such as the man in the middle; denial of services (DOS) and etc. These attacks lead to leakage of user critical data which could impact any organization adopting NFC applications and technologies. In this paper; NFC vulnerability, causing both security and privacy attacks studies in depth. By focusing on attacks such as DOS and data corruptions; existing risk assessment models are evaluated using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach. Best practice in mitigating these attacks is presented as well. A case study on an existing NFC access control application is then used to demonstrate the effectiveness of best practice solutions proposed.  Â

Parcel loss and personal information leakage involved thereof is a critical issue. Existing parcel lockers involve the need to share the password between two. This study suggests a double-security smart parcel locker to keep parcel safe from the risk of loss and personal information leakage by using parcel invoice bar-codes as well as the near field communication (NFC) module for smart-phones. In addition, the suggested method sterilizes a parcel box by means of the ultraviolet-c radiation light emitting diode (UV-C LED) in consideration of the fact that it may be exposed to insanitary conditions for a long time. To verify the suggested smart parcel locker, tests were conducted on the invoice bar-code mechanism for password security, the near field communication (NFC) module for user authentication reliability, and the Bluetooth interaction distance between a smart-phone app and the system. Test results show that the accuracy of the near field communication (NFC)-based user authentication was 97%, bar-code and that of the parcel locker opening mechanism was 95%. Thus, the sufficient level of security was verified. The max. transmission distance for smooth communication between a smart-phone and the parcel locker upon bluetooth pairing turned out to be 5 m. Test results show that as the near field communication (NFC) and invoice bar-codes are used instead of a password, the parcel locker can be utilized as a highly secure instrument.

Development in technology bring digital world to be border-less. It's proven through a developed technology, when trade and transaction can be done not only using real money but also virtual one. Shopping process using virtual money has even more supported by existed Near Field Communication (NFC) device. This particular device works using radio frequency. In the year of 2011, Google was integrating this device into a Android-based cell phone, which made transactions using virtual money gradually developed. E-Ticket is one of the utmost services in online trading. E-ticket is basically a paper-less electronic document, which commonly used for passenger tickets of a transportation system. One of the aims in using NFC in daily life can be implemented within public transportation application. This particular research offers a application prototype for train ticket purchasing and exterminating that use a Near Field Communication (NFC) integrated cell phone. This train ticketing application integrated with NFC device that had been planted in an Android 2.3.3 Operation System based cell phone. Designed system made for passenger interface and train conductor interface. NFC technology applied within two created applications. Cell phone that is used within this research is Google Nexus S, which has been integrated with NFC device; therefore created application can provide a circumstance where applications for passenger and conductor are able to work as a single entity of train ticketing application.

Near Field Communication (NFC) is a short- range wireless communication technology that supports several features, one of which is an electronic payment. NFC works at a limited distance to exchange information. In terms of security, NFC technology has a gap for attackers to carry out attacks by forwarding information illegally using the target NFC network. A relay attack that occurs due to the theft of some data by an attacker by utilizing close communication from NFC is one of them. Relay attacks can cause a lot of loss in terms of material sacrifice. It takes countermeasures to overcome the problem of electronic payments with NFC technology. Detection of anomalous data is one way that can be done. In an attack, several abnormalities can be detected which can be used to prevent an attack. Markov Chain is one method that can be used to detect relay attacks that occur in electronic payments using NFC. The result shows Markov chain can detect anomalies in relay attacks in the case of electronic payment.

The near field communication (NFC) technology helps save both time and power when compared with Bluetooth and other similar technologies. However, NFC is vulnerable to various networking attacks such as message modification. In this work, a secure processing technique is introduced to protect the NFC devices and associated data from several attacks. A certificate record is added to the NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF) message to enhance security. The proposed processing technique in a NFC system checks the authenticity of the sender, then if appropriate, processes the incoming NDEF messages and stores them in device memory. Using MATLAB, an NFC system with the proposed processing technique is simulated. Simulation results suggest that the processing time increases linearly as the certificate size increases and the processing time remains almost the same for various record sizes. It is also observed that the proposed protocol offers better security by detecting tag manipulation, certificate modification, etc. The proposed secure processing technique for NFC can be extended to enhance security in ubiquitous computing and mobile communication.

Nowadays, Near Field Communication (NFC) technology is being experimented for payment systems to perform purchase transactions without physical contact, without entering a PIN code or a signature. An NFC purchase transaction is mainly executed between a client's payment device (NFC bank card or NFC smartphone) and a merchant's payment device. The latter may be either an NFC point of sale machine for big traders (in a department store for example), or a simple NFC payment terminal attached to the outside of a smartphone for small traders. In this paper, we propose a new secure cloud-based NFC payment architecture for small traders: which allows them to benefit from their smartphones integrating NFC technology for use directly as NFC merchant payment devices, without needing to buy an external NFC payment terminal. In addition, the proposal introduces a new protocol aiming to secure NFC payment transactions.

The NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF) is a standardized format for storing formatted data on NFC (Near Field Communication) tags and for transporting data across a peer-to-peer NFC link. Through NDEF and its various record types, events can be triggered on an NFC device by simply touching an NFC-enabled object. The number of use cases and real applications around NFC and NDEF technology increases continuously. However, existing applications provide hardly any protection against (malicious) manipulation of NDEF data. Digital signatures are a means of providing authenticity and integrity of NDEF data. Therefore, the NFC Forum - which is responsible for the specification of data formats, protocols and applications in regard to the NFC technology - is working on adding digital signatures to their NDEF format. While their signature record type is still in draft status and has not been released to the public, this paper discusses the various aspects of digitally signing NDEF records. First, we introduce the readers to the NFC Data Exchange Format, its use cases and its potential security threats. After that, we describe the potential of digital signatures for NDEF messages. Finally, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of various ways to digitally sign an NDEF message.

Point of Sale (POS) terminals are used in almost all retail shops for commercial transactions by a wide range of users. The recent wireless payment method, Near Field Communication (NFC) is focused in this study. We aimed to study the experience gained by the user at POS terminals on privacy and security scales, while using NFC payments. The study revealed that the users have different mental models about NFC which hinders the success of the system. The results also portrays that the user experience gained from NFC payment system can be further improved. We suggest that designing/modifying the NFC payment system based on user experience will improve the privacy and security related experience gained by the user.

Near Field Communication (NFC) is used for a wide range of security-critical applications such as payment or access control. Although such applications require secured data transfer, the NFC protocol does not include transport layer security. Other protocols that are built on top of NFC, such as the NFC data exchange format (NDEF), only provide insufficient security measures. Therefore, implemented security solutions are often application specific and do not follow well-established standards. To facilitate NFC usage in the Internet of Things (IoT) where millions of devices need to be secured, an efficient and sufficiently secured NFC-based protocol needs to be developed. In this paper, we present the Quick and Secured NFC (QSNFC) protocol. Our protocol is capable of performing more efficient key agreements for recurring connections, and thus, can be used as an efficient alternative to the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol.

Near Field Communication (NFC) provides means to close-range contactless identification and communication for mobile phones and other devices alike. NFC is a new technology but it is maturing fast as it is being standardized. The first NFC services have mostly been simple applications but with the expansion of NFC technology and its application areas there is an urgent need to move from stand-alone applications to operator driven service creation and delivery model. In this paper we present a new NFC gateway protocol for network driven services. It is designed to allow network based service creation and delivery for operators and lightweight applications for end users. We also demonstrate and evaluate our implementation of the proposed NFC gateway protocol.

As one of the most important techniques in IoT, NFC (Near Field Communication) is more interesting than ever. NFC is a short-range, high-frequency communication technology well suited for electronic tickets, micropayment, and access control function, which is widely used in the financial industry, traffic transport, road ban control, and other fields. However, NFC is becoming increasingly popular in the relevant field, but its secure problems, such as man-in-the-middle-attack and brute force attack, have hindered its further development. To address the security problems and specific application scenarios, we propose a NFC mobile electronic ticket secure payment and verification scheme in the paper. The proposed scheme uses a CS E-Ticket and offline session key generation and distribution technology to prevent major attacks and increase the security of NFC. As a result, the proposed scheme can not only be a good alternative to mobile e-ticket system but also be used in many NFC fields. Furthermore, compared with other existing schemes, the proposed scheme provides a higher security.