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International Workshop on Radio Frequency Identification: Security and Privacy Issues

RFIDSec 2013: Radio Frequency Identification pp 69–85Cite as

Long Distance Relay Attack

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNSC,volume 8262))

Abstract

Contactless smart cards are used to securely store data and to authorize the execution of sensitive operations. Their contactless interface represents a mixed blessing, allowing fast operations but also such devices to potential attacks. Relay attacks are among the most powerful attacks applicable against contactless smart cards, allowing a contactless reader to interact with a physically far away card establishing a communication channel between them. In this paper we prove that it is possible to conduct such an attack on a geographical scale, basically without any constraints on the reader and card positions and reaching a relay distance of several kilometers, probably the first example in the literature for contactless smart cards, using cheap and off-the-shelf hardware and software tools.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Via Enrico Fermi 2749, 21027, Ispra, VA, Italy

    Luigi Sportiello & Andrea Ciardulli

Authors
  1. Luigi Sportiello
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  2. Andrea Ciardulli
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luigi Sportiello .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Technische Universität Graz, Graz, Austria

    Michael Hutter

  2. Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria

    Jörn-Marc Schmidt

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© 2013 European Union

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Cite this paper

Sportiello, L., Ciardulli, A. (2013). Long Distance Relay Attack. In: Hutter, M., Schmidt, JM. (eds) Radio Frequency Identification. RFIDSec 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 8262. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41332-2_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41332-2_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-41331-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-41332-2

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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