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NFC Devices: Security and Privacy

NFC Devices: Security and Privacy. Gerald Madlmayr, Josef Langer, Christian Kantner, Josef Scharinger The Third International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security Speaker: Wei-Lun Huang. Outline. Introduction What is NFC ? Technological aspects of NFC Threat Model

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NFC Devices: Security and Privacy

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  1. NFC Devices: Security and Privacy Gerald Madlmayr, Josef Langer, Christian Kantner, Josef Scharinger The Third International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security Speaker: Wei-Lun Huang

  2. Outline • Introduction • What is NFC ? • Technological aspects of NFC • Threat Model • Threats • Conclusion

  3. Introduction • NFC (Near Field Communication) is a wireless proximity communication technology. • The major advantage of NFC over other wireless communication technology is simplicity. • Estimations show that by 2012 there are about 180 million mobile devices equipped with this technology.

  4. What is NFC ? • It’s a two-way communication technology based on RFID. • It’s a tag, and also a reader. • More point up authenticate of personal than RFID.

  5. Applications of NFC

  6. Wireless Communication Technology Compare

  7. Technological aspects of NFC • Reader/Writer Mode (Proximity Coupling Device, PCD) • This mode allow the user to retrieve additional information. • Peer-to-Peer (Near Field Communication, NFC) • This mode allow two NFC enabled devices to establish a bidirectional connection to exchange contacts, Bluetooth pairing information or any other kind of data. • Card Emulation (Proximity Inductive Coupling Card, PICC) • This mode is useful for payment and ticketing applications for example.

  8. Architecture of NFC integrated in amobile device.

  9. Threat Model – Use cases • Use of unique ID • External mode of secure element • Handset reads external tag • Data exchange using • Internal mode of secure

  10. NFC Device Operating Modes – 1/2

  11. NFC Device Operating Modes – 2/2

  12. Threat Model – Components and Trust Levels • Host controller • Applications can be given more trust by signing them with a code signing certificate to put them into a different security domain on the handset. • NFC controller • The communication flow between the secure elements and external readers or the host controller can be (re)routed. • Secure Element • The secure element is the only secure place in an NFC device.

  13. Threat Model – Assets to be protected • The User’s privacy and personal information. • Address book, short messages e. g. • Operability of the device. • Voice and data connectivity e.g. • Functionality of the host controller and applications in the secure element. • Payment, access e.g. • Information transferred over the RF link.

  14. Threats • Denial of Service • Relay data transferred over the RF • Skimming of applications in the secure element • Managing in-device security • Transactions over NFC peer link • Issues due to the fixed unique ID • Phishing

  15. Threats - Denial of Service • It is a simply way to occupy the device. • Even it is a only error message, the device will still read it. • Some kind of mechanism controlled by user to turn on/off of the NFC reader/write functionality.

  16. Threats - Relay data transferred over the RF • The smart card functionality could even be relayed if the battery was removed from the device. • This NFC transaction flight mode would be useful in case the device runs out of battery but the user still wants to use it for access or payment.

  17. Threats - Skimming of applications in the secure element • Some feature allows 3rd party players also to see which other applications there are on the secure elements. • This is not an issue directly related to the NFC technology but more to the smart card industry.

  18. Threats - Managing in-device security • Applications running on the host controller need to authenticate against the secure element before a communication can be established. • Use a certificate based authentication between the application running on the host and the applets in the secure element.

  19. Threats - Transactions over NFC peer link • A plain data link with no security enables attackers to eave drop the communication and/or alter the data over the RF link. • Using a certificate based authentication or Diffie - Hellman Key exchange.

  20. Threats - Issues due to the fixed unique ID • As the unique ID is specified in the standard for anti-collision, a simple hardware like OpenPICC simulates an arbitrary ID to spoof someone’s identity. • The ID can also be acquired by eaves dropping the communication between the reader and the smart card chip as it is not encrypted. • This issue could be bypassed by having a random number for anti-collision as already used for NFC targets and in e-passports ,so it cannot be used for tracking or identification.

  21. Threats - Phishing • Attackers try to mislead users by social engineering. • This is a simple and inexpensive way to mislead the user. • Using signatures on tags and transporters would be suitable way to overcome this issue.

  22. Conclusion • The standardization is still ongoing. • As NFC devices and services do not only rely on a handset but also on lots of different parties, security and privacy issues should be already considered on the bottom level of technology if possible.

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