Security Enhancement of the Authentication Protocol for RFID Systems

RFID is a convenient and efficient mechanism used for identification or authentication in industry, agriculture, commerce, health care, entrance control, etc. Most of the RFID systems need security mechanisms for authentication and privacy protection. In 2004, Gao et al. propose a RFID system for supply chain, their system has drawbacks on security. Recently, Chen et al. proposed an improvement to enhance the security. However, an adversary can masquerade as a legal user if he/she eavesdrops the transmitted message in this scheme. In this paper, we will show that Chen et al.psilas protocol is not as secure as they declared and then an improvement protocol to fix the flaws is proposed. The improvement protocol is secure with merits of privacy protection, resisting counterfeit attack and obtain mutual authentication.