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  • Article
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26 December 2014

A Study on Electronic-Money Technology Using Near Field Communication

Department of Computer Engineering, Kyungnam University, 7 Kyungnamdaehak-ro, Masanhappo-gu, Changwon-si 631-701, Korea

Abstract

Recently, due to the introduction of NFC (Near Field Communication), it has become possible to make easy electronic payments. Therefore, a secure communication method is necessary in these environments. NFC can be said to be relatively safe compared to other communication methods, because it carries out communications within 10 cm. However, it has made possible the risk of impersonation attacks by a disguised reader, leaving user information on the reader. In order to solve these problems, in this paper, we propose an authentication scheme that can reduce the weight of computation by using only a hash function and XOR (eXclusive OR) operation algorithms. This paper also shows that our method is safe, since it leaves no information with the other party.

1. Introduction

Nowadays, due to the prevalence of smartphones, many people can share information and process finance payments anytime and anywhere [13]. Even though this information sharing can be performed by communication with a server in the network, it can also be done through the communication between devices. Furthermore, this payment environment has developed with the mobile as the center, and the method of using SMS (Short Message Service) of mobile core features has also been introduced. However, this, because of the inconvenience of the payment process, is gradually disappearing. In recent years, due to prevalence of Near Field Communication (NFC) equipped smart phones, a variety of information can be obtained more easily [46]. NFC is a kind of RFID system. It means that NFC is a kind of TAG to Reader system. NFC carries out near communication within 10 cm at a band of 13.56 MHz. By adopting NFC on smartphones, we can make various electronic payments safe because of the short distance of communication. Moreover, this short distance between TAG and Reader implies the user’s intention. However, in the NFC environment, security vulnerabilities have been found: illegal reproduction of TAG and acquisition of illegal information by a disguised reader. In order to solve these problems, a recent NFC forum presented the NFC Security Standard.

NFC-SEC as NFC-related security standards have been published 2010 [79]. The standards present a way to perform key-agreement processes by using an elliptic curve algorithm [8]. This method is also a public key-based encryption algorithm. The NFC supports functions like “TAG to Mobile”, and “Mobile to Mobile”. With these functions, NFC can trade or transfer freely large amounts of data and content [10]. NFC provides more a convenient environment of finance payments for the user. Especially, the electronic wallet is highly activated. It must provide a safe communication in this environment [6]. However, important data can be easily exposed to a malicious user [10]. In earlier papers, to solve the above problems, they presented several methods to perform the authentication by using a public key based encryption. They also proposed solutions to perform the key agreement by using a secret key-based encryption scheme. However, their methods are not acceptable in the wireless environment, because their schemes require complex and time-consuming processing. Also, the other side of the user information can remain on the reader or other mobile devices in the process of communication. Thus, it is possible that user impersonation attacks can occur using this information.

In this paper, in order to solve these problems, we present a method that performs a safety user authentication and key agreement using XOR operations and hash function algorithms. Especially, it is robust against user impersonation attack, because it performs the authentication while leaving no information on the other party’s mobile or reader.

We describe some characteristics of NFC, the structural environment, and related studies in Section 2. Section 3 gives a description of our proposed method. The safety and efficiency analysis is given in Section 4. The conclusion is given in Section 5.

3. Our Proposed Method

For NFC environments, we propose a high-speed processing of authentication and key agreement. Also, we present a method to perform secure communications leaving no information at the other party including with the mobile or reader. Our proposed method can be summarized as in Figure 3. First, all mobile devices must go through the pre-registration process one time. Authentication is performed by using the issued secret information in the registration phase. Following is the detailed description of the proposed method. Some terminologies in this paper are shown in Table 1.

Figure 3. Our proposed scheme.
Table 1. Some terminologies in the paper.

Our method consists of four phases of Registration, Authentication, Key Agreement, and Payment.

3.1. Registration Phase

The registration of the user’s information should be carried out for the effective communication with trustworthy TP and authentication center. The reason why you need to registration stage is to clarify the source of transaction. All users enter the private information and carry out the transactions using this registered information, so pursuing the transactions becomes possible and the transactions cannot be carried out by anyone but the registered user. It can block all the illegal transactions. We assume that this registration process is established with a safe communication channel. In this study, however, how to obtain a secure channel in the registration stage will not be discussed.

The process of pre-registration is as follows. A mobile device which needs to be registered sends its own ID and password to the trusted TP. After this, TP stores the received information into the DB, and generates USS and UV through the following operations.

USS = h ( ID | | PW | | x ) UV = h ( ID | | x )

This generated USS and UV values are sent back to the mobile devices through the secure channel. Then, these two values are stored on the mobile and reader securely.

3.2. Authentication Phase

The authentication process is for clarifying the source and for proving the legal registered user based on the pre-registered private information. The proposed method in this study carried out the authentication without exposing private information to the opposite party. The reader can decode only the qualified result for the authentication process to verify all the received information from TAG or reader.

In the authentication phase, initiating user generates N1 as a nonce value, and also generates two request messages with the following operations.

G e n e r a t e N 1 ReqM 1 = h ( ID 1 | | USS 1 | | N 1 ) ReqM 2 = UV N 1

This generated information ReqM1 and ReqM2 is sent to the reader, and the receiver performs the following operation to obtain the reader’s information for ReqM3 and ReqM4.

G e n e r a t e N 2 ReqM 3 = h ( ID 2 | | USS 2 | | N 2 ) ReqM 4 = UV 2 N 2

After this operation, the reader sends the information for ID1, ReqM1, ReqM2, ID2, ReqM3, and ReqM4 to the TP.

TP verifies ReqM1, ReqM2, ReqM3 and ReqM4. Then, TP generates nonce value N3, ensuring all received messages are right. After TP generates nonce value N3, it performs various operations as follows.

ResM = h ( UV 1 | | N 3 ) N 1 ResM 1 = ( ID 1 N 3 ) ( UV 1 | | N 1 ) ResM 2 = h ( N 3 | | UV 1 | | N 1 ) ResM 3 = ( ID 2 N 3 ) h ( UV 2 | | N 2 ) ResM 4 = h ( N 3 | | UV 2 | | N 2 ) ResM 5 = ResM N 3

After this, TP sends ResM1||ResM2||ResM3||ResM4||ResM5 to the receiving equipment. The reader verifies ResM3, ResM4 and ResM5.

3.3. Key Agreement Phase

The key agreement phase is required for the session key which will be used for exchange of payment information based on the information in the authentication process. The reader device verifies the ResM3, ResM4 and ResM5, and it sends ResM1, ResM2 and ResM5 to the initiating user. As the receiver of these data, so to speak, the initiating user generates a session key as follows, after verifying the received information.

SK = h ( N 3 | | ResM )

After this, two devices can communicate safely through this common session key of SK.

3.4. Payment Phase

This phase uses a symmetric key-based way. Based on the previously agreed session key, it performs an encrypted communication between each mobile, reader/mobile and TP as you can see in Figure 3.

In this process, various information can be contained into payment transaction. In other words, different types of information such as invoice, invoice information, price and user information may be allocated to a payload. Replay or user impersonation attack is impossible because that information should be delivered based on SK after previous agreement of the key. The payment process of this operation is as follows.

E SK ( Invoice | | Invoice information | | Price | | User information )

4. Analysis

We analyze our method according to usefulness, safety, and efficiency. We also discuss the demerits of our method.

4.1. Usefulness of Electronic Payment Using NFC

We show the usefulness of the proposed method in the process of electronic payment. There are two scenarios; to pay with credit card or with NFC equipped smartphone. Firstly, you can pay with credit card in the following sequence. You take out your wallet, and select one credit card among many. Then, you hand it over to the clerk. The clerk applies your card to the credit card reader, and this reader system starts the communication with the remote host for payment transaction. After a few seconds, when transaction is completed, you put your signature on a receipt. Then, you put your receipt in your wallet.

However, you can pay with NFC equipped smartphone by following this simple sequence. You take out your smartphone, and put it over the NFC reader system. Then, this reader system starts the communication with the remote host for payment transaction. At the same time, a payment app program pops up on your phone screen. This app requires your pin number. Then, you put your pin number on the screen of your phone. After a few seconds, when transaction is completed, electronic receipt is generated and stored back into your phone automatically. That is all quite simple. We depicted the scenarios of electronic payment using NFC in Figure 4.

Figure 4. A scenarios of electronic payment using NFC.

4.2. Safety Analysis

In this section, we discuss safety issues within the context of electronic payment using NFC.

As seen in Figure 4, we leave neither USS nor UV with the reader party. We can prevent an impersonation attack. We encrypted all channels, and all messages are protected with the nonce values. Hence, the proposed method has no exposed data and cannot experience a replay attack. The detailed description about this issue is as follows.

4.2.1. Replay Attack

In our proposed scheme, a key idea that prevents replay attacks is the usage of nonce value. Since the value of the nonce varies in every session, this nonce value participates in the operation of all phases. In other words, the vulnerable information from the communication phase are the values of the ID1, ID2, ReqM1, ReqM2, ReqM3, ReqM4, ResM1, ResM2, ResM3, ResM4 and ResM5. As mentioned above, data can be protected by using the nonce values.

4.2.2. The Verification That No User Information Has Been Left on the Other Device

To ensure no user information has been left on the device of the other party, our proposed scheme performs the authentication through the TP. In this paper, the remaining information on the other side is just ID, ReqM1 and ReqM2. It is important to note that the essential USS and UV cannot be resolved. Although anyone obtains received ResM1, ResM2 and ResM5 through the TP, he cannot open N1, the generated value of nonce by the user. Therefore, all values, except ID, are meaningless. Thus, no one can obtain the information for malicious uses.

4.2.3. User Impersonation Attack

User impersonation attack is performed in conjunction with a replay attack. This type of attack designed to disguise users often occurs using the received information from the other party. Assume that someone acquired the information of ID1, ReqM1 and Re2M2, during the previous communication process or from the wireless communication band. In order to disguise the other user, the user impersonation attack that sends relevant information to other user U3 is possible. In other words, there is a case that user U2 accessing U3 can act as the other user U1. In this case, user U2 sends received information to user U3. Then, user U3 sends the relevant information to TP. TP verifies the right value, and sends generated data to user U3, after generating the ResM1~ResM5. After user U3 receives relevant information, U3 sends ResM1, ResM2 and ResM5 to the U2. To generate a session key, user U2 should be able to perform h(N3||ResM). At this point, because the ResM is h(UV1||N3||N1), even if you mix ResM1 and ResM2, you cannot create ResM. Hence, the attacker cannot create a session key because he cannot find out the changing values of the UV1 and the N1 in every session. Even if you want to use the previous session key in the previous session, you cannot get a session key, because the N3 changes in every session. In conclusion, the user impersonation attack is impossible.

4.3. Efficient Analysis

The main crypto algorithms in our proposed authentication and key agreement method are hash function and XOR operation. Thus, basically, these primitive operations, such as hash function and XOR operation, are far faster than the crypto algorithm based on public key and secret key. Only with these primitive operations, we improved the efficiency using the crypto algorithm that can perform a high-speed operation. Overall time complexity of our method is as follows.

15 T hash + 16 T xor

At this point, Thash is the time to perform the hash function once. Txor is the time to perform the XOR operation once. Note that the time complexity of our method 15Thash + 16Txor does not include the payment phase, because all methods including our method have the same time complexity of payment phase for the same application. We define Tsec as the run time of the crypto algorithms based symmetric key. It requires nearly 6Tsec for payment phase, because it performs the operation using a cryptography system for financial payment. Financial payment is based on a symmetric key after getting the agreement of the session key. Each node is involved in encryption process time, and it is also involved in decryption process time. The time requirement of earlier study for authentication phase and key agreement phase is estimated as follows [1,2,8,11,1315].

NFC SEC [ 8 ] : 2 T KDF + 4 T hash SET [ 11 ] : 6 T puk + 10 T sig + 3 T sec + 5 T hash iKP [ 1 ] : 2 T puk + 11 T sig + 7 T hash + 1 T khash Kungpisdan [ 2 ] : 11 T sec + 2 T hash + 5 T khash + 4 T kgen Sekhar [ 12 ] : 11 T sec + 4 T h a s h + 2 T khash + 4 T kgen Hasoo [ 13 , 14 ] : 2 T KDF + 4 T hash + 4 T numberGen Sung 1 [ 15 ] : 5 T CM Sung 2 [ 15 ] : 1 T CM + N T sec + T hash

Tpuk refers to the operating time of the public key based crypto algorithms. Tsig is the time required to generate and verify the signature. Tkhash means the operating time of keyed-hash functions. Tkgen is required time for generating a key. TKDF is the abbreviation of “Key Derivation Function”. TnumberGen is the time for new operation algorithm like multiplying. Finally, TCM is the required time for convolutional multiplication operation. The number N in the Sung2 means the number of participants. Note that we use only primitive operations such as Hash function and XOR operation. In other words, we significantly reduced the computing time compared with the earlier studies. Therefore, it is judged that we improved time efficiency.

However, in earlier studies, the process of pre-registration is simpler than our method. Moreover, some other studies do not require the process of pre-registration at all. Securing safety is important in the whole process. Carrying out efficient communication is also essential for carrying out encoding and NFC operating in the USIM. In this process, while NFC-SEC method may be regarded as an efficient method, it defines carrying out only authentication and key agreement for the communication between the devices. So, access to a device with malicious intent is processed like a normal transaction. Hence, their methods have the serious problem of safety. On the other hand, Hasoo’s method [14] carries out the calculation with the random number and the improved authentication method to prevent the public key information from exposure, compared to the authentication of NFC-SEC method. So, it is better at coping with the impersonation attack, but it does not consider the authentication execution for communication with the bank or third-party. Hence, if they want to consider the authentication with the third-party, lots of calculations will be required additionally.

4.4. Demerits of the Proposed Method

Our method has several drawbacks. While our method requires pre-registration, others do not. Another drawback of the proposed method is related to the limitation of hash function.

4.4.1. Pre-Registration

The demerit of the proposed method in this study is a requirement of the pre-registration step. All nodes should register its ID and password in the authentic institution for the safe communication. Moreover all communications in this process were assumed as safe communication. This pre-registration process means that the authentication with the unregistered node is impossible, and administrating and sharing registered information should be maintained by the authentic institution.

This additional pre-registration phase is a time consuming work, and it is inconvenient to the users. However, the proposed pre-registration in this study requires just one time. So all transactions, except first time, do not require additional registration process any more. Also, in the case of NFC payment, the pre-registration is acceptable overhead, because NFC app program is pre-installed on smart phone to make electronic payment transaction. Hence, the pre-registration process can be accomplished during the installation time of the NFC app program.

4.4.2. Administration of USS Value and UV Value

After the pre-registration is carried out, all nodes should take care of USS and UV value as its private information. If the USS and UV values are exposed, the safety of all authentication processes cannot be secured. In the proposed method, USS and UV value of the communication process can always be hidden through the hash functions, so the possibility to be exposed depends on the safety of the hash functions. Improved safety of hash functions can be achieved by increasing the number of output bits.

In the case of other existing TAG to Reader systems, the saved information in the node should be maintained within the designated reader system, so it can be considered safe. However, in the case of the smart phone, the various applications share one internal memory and SD memory. As a result, the safe saving and administration of the USS and UV values is very important, but in this study, it was assumed that access to other applications is blocked by the access-control method of the smart card filing system with the ISO7816-4 standard [17].

4.4.3. Trap-Door of One-Way Hash Function

The existing studies detected and verified the information through encoding and decoding. On the other hand, our method carries out the authentication by using only one-way hash functions and XOR calculation. Thus, our method presents a very fast authentication algorithm compared to other existing methods. However, if the trapdoor of the hash function happens because of the characteristic of the complexity and having no decoding sequence, the effect of the proposed authentication method can be useless. So, the one-way hash functions with qualified safety should be used for commercializing applications.

5. Conclusions

A variety of data can be easily obtained by using a smartphone. Moreover, the adoption of the NFC into smartphone makes it possible to perform the communication between the users easily. The electronic money technology allows electronic payment among the many participants. It is well known that this kind of electronic payment process requires safety mechanisms. It also requires light-weight algorithms for the mobile environment. Many previous methods were proposed for the safe financial transactions in this environment, but the endorsement method of third-party was not considered. Furthermore, there is a need to overcome the user impersonation attack and the inefficiency of the authentication phases due to the user data that is left on the reader or device on the other side.

In this paper, we presented an efficient method by using only XOR operations and hash functions. Also, we presented a safe method with the endorsement method of the third-party. Some drawbacks of our method are also presented. We hope that our method can be used efficiently in secure transactions and data exchange between the users with smartphone.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Kyungnam University Foundation Grant, 2012.

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares no conflict of interest.

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