SECURE DATA COMMUNICATION USING ELLIPTIC CURVE CRYPTOLOGY

• US 20110081016A1
• Filed: 10/06/2009
• Published: 04/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
• Original Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
• Inventors: KARGL, Walter
• Application Number:
  US12/574,384
• Publication Number:
  US 20110081016A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 380/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07309 Means for preventing undesired reading or writing from or onto record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/0008 General problems related to the reading of electronic memory record carriers, independent of its reading method, e.g. power transfer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/125 Parallelization or pipelining, e.g. for accelerating processing of cryptographic operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/805 Lightweight hardware, e.g. radio-frequency identification [RFID] or sensor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3066 involving algebraic varieties, e.g. elliptic or hyper-elliptic curves
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3271 using challenge-response

Abstract

A contactless device including an contactless communication interface configured to receive a challenge from a contactless reader and a controller configured to generate an enciphered response using elliptic curve cryptology. Moreover, the enciphered response includes the challenge enciphered with a private key stored in non-volatile memory of the contactless device and data can be integrated as part of the challenge and/or the enciphered response.

Claims

1. A contactless device comprising:

a contactless communication interface configured to receive a challenge from a contactless reader; and

a controller configured to generate an enciphered response using elliptic curve cryptology, said enciphered response including the challenge enciphered with a private key that is stored in a non-volatile memory of the contactless device,

wherein data is integrated as part of at least one of the challenge and the enciphered response.

2. The contactless device of claim 1, wherein the data is integrated as part of the challenge by the contactless reader.

3. The contactless device of claim 2, wherein the controller is further configured to store the data in the non-volatile memory.

4. The contactless device of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to integrate the data, which is stored in the non-volatile memory, as part of the enciphered response.

5. The contactless device of claim 1, wherein the contactless communication interface is further configured to transmit the enciphered response to the contactless reader.

6. The contactless device of claim 1, wherein the controller is a finite state machine.

7. The contactless device of claim 1, wherein the controller is a mini central processing unit.

8. The contactless device of claim 1, wherein the contactless device is an radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag.

9. A communication system comprising:

a contactless reader configured to transmit a challenge; and

a contactless device comprising;

a contactless communication interface configured to receive the challenge; and

a controller configured to generate an enciphered response using elliptic curve cryptology, said enciphered response including the challenge enciphered with a private key that is stored in a non-volatile memory of the contactless device,

wherein data is integrated as part of at least one of the challenge and the enciphered response.

10. The communication system of claim 9, wherein the data is integrated as part of the challenge by the contactless reader.

11. The communication system of claim 9, wherein the controller is further configured to transmit, via the contactless communication interface, the enciphered response to the contactless reader.

12. The communication system of claim 11, wherein the controller is further configured to transmit, via the contactless communication interface, a public key stored in the non-volatile memory to the contactless reader.

13. The communication system of claim 12, wherein the controller is further configured to transmit, via the contactless communication interface, a certificate associated with the public key to the contactless reader.

14. The communication system of claim 12, wherein the contactless reader is further configured to decrypt the enciphered response with the public key such that the authenticity of the contactless device can be verified.

15. The communication system of claim 13, wherein the contactless reader is further configured to verify the certificate associated with the public key.

16. The communication system of claim 9, wherein the controller is further configured to integrate the data, which is stored in the non-volatile memory, as part of the enciphered response.

17. The communication system of claim 16, wherein the controller is further configured to transmit, via the contactless communication interface, the enciphered response to the contactless reader.

18. The communication system of claim 17, wherein the controller is further configured to transmit, via the contactless communication interface, a public key stored in the non-volatile memory to the contactless reader.

19. The communication system of claim 18, wherein the contactless reader is configured to decrypt the enciphered response with the public key such that the authenticity of the contactless device can be verified.

20. The communication system of claim 9, wherein the contactless device is an radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag.

21. A communication system comprising:

a contactless reader configured to transmit a plurality of challenges; and

a plurality of contactless devices each comprising;

a contactless communication interface configured to receive at least one of the plurality of challenges; and

a controller configured to generate an enciphered response using elliptic curve cryptology, said enciphered response including the respective challenge enciphered with a unique private key that is stored in non-volatile memory of the contactless device,

wherein data is integrated as part of at least one of the plurality of challenges and the respective enciphered response.

22. A communication method comprising:

receiving a challenge from a contactless reader;

generating a response using elliptic curve cryptology, by enciphering the challenge with a private key that is stored in a non-volatile memory; and

integrating data on at least one of the challenge and the enciphered response.

23. The communication method of claim 22, further comprising transmitting the response and a public key and associated certificate, which are stored in the non-volatile memory of a contactless device, to the contactless reader.

24. The communication method of claim 23, further comprising the contactless reader decrypting the enciphered response with the public key to verify the authenticity of the contactless device.

25. The communication system of claim 24, further comprising the contactless reader verifying the certificate associated with the public key.