Illegal Interrogation Detectable Products Distribution Scheme in RFID-Enabled Supply Chains

In RFID-enabled supply chains, it is necessary to protect the contents of EPCs (Electronic Product Code) since an EPC contains sensitive information such as the product code and serial number and could be used for counterfeits. Although many protection schemes have been proposed, no scheme can limit the number of illegal attempts for discovering EPCs or notice whether an attacker exists. In this paper, we propose an illegal interrogation detectable products distribution scheme for RFID-enabled supply chains. The idea is to detect the attacker by forcing him/her to access an authentication server. Our scheme masks EPCs with random sequences. Masked EPCs are written into genuine tags on products while random sequences are placed on an authentication server with an access code. An access code is divided into shares with a secret sharing scheme and they are written into genuine tags. We also write bogus shares into extra off-the-shelf tags that are not attached to any products. Since an attacker who wants to know genuine EPCs may obtain a large number of access code candidates and must try each on the authentication server, the server can detect the attacker.