MIT Reveals "Hack-Proof" RFID Chip (thestack.com)

JustAnotherOldGuy writes: A group of researchers at MIT and Texas Instruments claim that they have developed a new radio frequency identification chip that may be impossible to hack. Traditional RFID chips are vulnerable to side-channel attacks, whereby a hacker can extract a cryptographic key from the chip. The new RFID chip runs a random-number generator that creates a new secret key after each transaction. The key can then be verified with a server to ensure that it is correct. The group at MIT also incorporated protection against a power-glitch attack, an attack that would normally leave a chip vulnerable to an interruption of the power source that would in turn halt the creation of a new secret key. Texas Instruments CTO Ahmad Bahai stated, "We believe this research is an important step toward the goal of a robust, lo-cost, low-power authentication protocol for the industrial internet." The question is, how long will it be before this "hack proof" chip is hacked?

Comments

Slashdotters still the same old

[AchilleTalon]

It seems even if Slashdot is having a new owner, the Slashdotters are still the same old. Why bothering reading and trying to understand the f... article when you can comment and brag so easily and call everything bullshit?

"Hack-proof" to SIDE CHANNEL attacks.

Re:Slashdotters still the same old

[spork invasion]

Here's the actual MIT article: http://news.mit.edu/2016/hack-proof-rfid-chips-0203. It does a good job of explaining the concept. A side channel attack involves analyzing the behavior of the device during encryption to determine its cryptographic key. It's not easy to carry out such an attack, but it's possible. Yes, using a different key each time eliminates the possibility of a side channel at the expense of a new vulnerability, which is the pseudo-random number generator. Perhaps the PRNG is good enough to be less of a vulnerability than a side channel attack, but this is a case of replacing one vulnerability with a different one.