Robust Matrix-based RFID Mutual Authentication Protocol

In 2006, Lee and Ahn proposed a matrix-based RFID authentication protocol which eliminates the security problems in HB and RFID authentication protocols. Their proposed protocol provides the following three merits: (1) it reduces the computational costs of the RFID tag. (2) it reduces the communication overhead between the reader and the tag. (3) it protects the user privacy. However, this paper points out that Lee and Ahn's proposed protocol is insecure to various attacks because it does not provide mutual authentication which the RFID tag does not authenticate the legality of the RFID reader unlike their claims. In addition, this paper proposes an improved matrix-based RFID mutual authentication protocol that can provide the mutual authentication. As a result, the proposed protocol not only can provide strong security and but also guarantee high efficiency because it reduces the communication rounds compare with Lee-Ahn's protocol.