Algebraic Cryptanalysis and RFID Authentication

The standardization group ISO/IEC SC31/WG7 is working on a set of cryptographic suites to provide security to wireless devices including UHF RFID tags. These cryptographic suites are presented as independent parts to a single standard ISO/IEC 29167. Within this multi-part standard 29167-15 is based around very simple operations and intended to provide tag, interrogator, and mutual authentication. Here we show that these proposals can be fully compromised using algebraic cryptanalytic techniques; the entire key can be recovered after eavesdropping on just four authentications.