An Authentication Protocol to Track an Object with Multiple RFID Tags Using Cloud Computing Environment

In supply chain management applications, detection of a large object is made efficient by attaching multiple RFID tags in that object. Each part contains an RFID tag attached by the corresponding vendor. In order to check the availability of the object, it is compulsory to ensure all the parts are existing as well. The RFID tags can be interrogated by any reader deployed in the department. This approach enhances the object detection probability for each object but increases security and privacy risks. The communication between RFID readers and the tags in the same department is to be authenticated by preserving the privacy of both reader and the tag. Several researchers have developed variants of grouping protocol for authentication and for searching the tags. In this article, Shen et al.'s scheme for authenticating multiple tags in a group is analyzed and found that secret parameters are leaked in that scheme and it is not applicable for dynamic inclusion of tags. Also, an efficient authentication protocol for the multi-tag scenario to overcome the above mentioned issues is designed and analyzed in this paper. We propose an authentication protocol for communication between an object attached with multiple tags and RFID reader deployed in the department. We store the details about the object and its associated tags, and the readers in the cloud. Cloud storage provides scalability and anywhere anytime access. The communication between the reader and the cloud server is also authenticated. The proposed protocol is formally analyzed using GNY logic to prove the mutual authentication. Informal analysis proves the efficiency of the proposed protocol against known attacks. We also analyze our protocol using automatic cryptographic protocol verifier tool ProVerif version 1.96.