RF fingerprinting of RFID

High frequency proximity transponders (RFID tags) are already present in most new passports, and will soon be in new generations of driver's licenses. In general the data on these tags is "protected by cryptography". In part 1 of this presentation (lecture) we will explore the wealth of information obtainable from electronic passports and driver's licenses without attacking the cryptography itself. We will ignore the application layer where this crypto resides, and focus on protocol and physical layer weaknesses. We will present related work by a variety of authors, as well as novel as-yet unpublished work of our own which promises to provide better fingerprinting of passports and driver's licenses than any previously demonstrated techniques.

In part 2 (workshop) we will examine in depth different options for RFID hacking and reverse engineering, both on the reader side and the card side, from the physical layer up to the application layer. We will show hands-on the process of data acquisition for RF fingerprinting. Participants in the workshop will come away with knowledge sufficient to begin their own RFID experiments including reverse engineering of proprietary protocols.