nfc - overview and presentation

RNADLER, VCONRAT, DSAVINSKIY - EE441 NFC 2

Outline Background

History

RFID

Technology

Standards

Applications◦ Consumer◦ Medical

Wireless Charging

Security

Security Defenses

Advantages/Drawbacks

Conclusion

Questions


Background NFC: Near Field Communication

◦ Antenna <<< signal wavelength◦ RX within TX near field (<5cm)

◦ Operating modes◦ Active: TX/RX Generate an RF Field peer-to-peer◦ Passive: TX or RX generates, other powers itself from the field Tags

◦ Contactless payment systems, social networking, gaming, identity tokens, etc


Near Field Radius << λ/2π

◦ Wave depends on source characteristics rather than propagation medium

◦ High current, low voltage◦ Magnetic rather than electric◦ EM radiation carried back and forth from

the antenna◦ Changes into electrostatic and

magnetostatic effects◦ Current creates purely magnetic

component


Introduction: History Major Events Timeline:• 1983 The first patent to be associated with the

abbreviation RFID was granted to Charles Walton• 2002 Sony and Philips agreed on establishing a

new technology specification and created a technical outline on March 25, 2002

• 2006 Initial specifications for NFC Tags


Introduction: History • 2006 Nokia 6131 was the first NFC phone• 2009 In January, NFC Forum released Peer-to-

Peer standards to transfer contact, URL, initiate Bluetooth, etc

• 2010 The city of Nice in Southern France launches the "Nice City of contactless mobile" project, providing inhabitants with new NFC generation mobile phones and bank cards


Introduction: History • 2013 Samsung and Visa announce major

partnership to develop mobile payments• 2013 IBM have come up with a new mobile

authentication security technology based on Near-Field Communication (NFC).

• 2014 Apple Inc. announces Apple Pay


RFID Used to identify objects – capture information implicitly

Two elements:◦ Transponder: Tags with an antenna

element that store data◦ Active System – 100m range

◦ Readers: Emit radio waves and receives signals from the transponders◦ Low (125KHz), High (13.56MHz), UHF(860-

960MHz)


RFID led to NFC Evolution, not revolution

◦ Subset of RFID (ISO/IEC 14443)◦ Patented in 1983 by Charles Walton

◦ Two devices brought <4cm◦ RX RF field causes current flow, activating

circuit◦ TX/RX antennas act as coils in a transformer◦ Signal TX by reader results in power flow

changes◦ Half Duplex

Grew out of Sony and Philips (2002)◦ Accepted as ISO/IEC 18092 in

2003◦ ECMA-340 ◦ NFC Forum Created


How NFC WorksNFC Tags and Readers:

How Data is Transmitted Wirelessly


Communication Modes• Active: the target and initiator devices have

power supplies and can communicate by alternate signal transmission

• Passive: the initiator device generates radio signals that power the target device (EMF), and the target device responds by modulating the electromagnetic field


Communication ModesPASSIVE MODE PEER-TO-PEER


Communication ModesModes of Operation:• Read/Write: the NFC enabled device can read or

write data to and supported tags• Peer to Peer: two NFC-enabled devices can

exchange data with each other (small files or digital photos

• Card Emulation: the NFC-enabled phone acts as a reader when in contact with tags or can act as a tag for existing readers

15

TechnologyPASSIVE MODE

TRX radiates 13.56MHz RF◦ Coil antenna

RF powers the circuit in a smartcard/tag◦ Smartcard then sends/receives

data◦ Momentarily short-circuits antenna, AM

carrier◦ Changes in load detected by device

◦ Decodes data based on time interval◦ ISO14443 Smartcards

ACTIVE/PEER-TO-PEER Both radiate 13.56MHz RF

◦ Half-duplex, single carrier◦ RF Collision Avoidance◦ Polls ever n milliseconds◦ Checks RSSI (RX Signal Strength Indicator)

◦ Data rates of 106, 212, and 424 kbps◦ 848 kbps in development

RNADLER, VCONRAT, DSAVINSKIY - EE441 NFC


Technology

Regulation New Radio Standard not yet available*

Unlike Bluetooth, no pairing code is needed, and because it's very low power, no battery in the device being read


Standards NFC-A

◦ 106 kbps◦ Miller Delay Encoding ◦ Amplitude Modulation at 100%

◦ High & low bits (100% vs 0 %)◦ ISO/IEC 14443 Type A

NFC-B◦ 106 kbps◦ Manchester encoding◦ AM at 10%

◦ High bit 100%, low bit 90%

NFC-F◦ Faster RFID TX known as FeliCa

◦ Subway tickets, credit card payments, identification, etc

◦ 212/424 kbps◦ JIS X 6319-4


Consumer Applications


Consumer Application: Mobile Pay

In the future, payments will be done using our phones.

Retailers such as Target, Macys, and Walgreens already have NFC based contactless pay terminals, making mobile transactions simple.


Consumer Application: Mobile Pay

Apple Pay: Allows you to pay with either your phone, watch, or tablet in a safe and simple manner

Accepted at over 200,000 stores currently 6 major banks already participating


Consumer Application: Ticketing

An NFC-enabled phone can be used in a ticketing application to replace physical tickets

London and France have been using NFC technology for public transit such as train tickets


Consumer Application: Ticketing

RNADLER, VCONRAT, DSAVINSKIY - EE441 NFC

Consumer Application: Sharing Info

Some phones now have the capability to share data through NFC. This data includes webpages, photos, contacts, and more.

24


Consumer Application


Medical Applications Keep track of patients and appropriate treatments ◦ Medication tracking system

based on patient wristbands

◦ Attractive due to security based on the TX distance◦ Authentication for implanted

devices ◦ Diagnostics and monitoring

FITBIT


Medical Applications

NFC Enabled Wireless Charging

Since NFC already facilitates power transfer and bidirectional communication in the same implementation…

Why not add-on to the existing NFC operating modes that implements charging power transmission and charging power reception

Use Cases

Charging power reception via NFC: NFC-enableddevices are charged via their NFC interface by aspecific wireless charger that doesn't implementconventional NFC operating modes

Charging power transmission via NFC: Non-NFC devices (e.g., a wireless mouse) are charged via their specific charging interface by the NFC interface of another device (e.g., a laptop PC)

Charging power transmission and reception via NFC: NFC-enabled devices (e.g., a cell phone) are charged via their NFC interface by the NFCinterface of another device (e.g., a laptop PC).

Advantages Making wireless charging easier

◦ believed to mitigate the problem of the gap between battery capacity and device power consumption

Not a technology to transfer energy but for purposes of secure communication between objects that are transferring energy

Both the NFC and the WPC Qi specification are based on inductive coupling between antenna coils with tuning networks

◦ Already very similar in function!

Problems with Implementation

The distance between the devices during NFC interactions is longer than in wireless charging use scenarios◦ Charging efficiency requires proximity between the

devices◦ Influences the mechanical design and antenna placement

Problems with Implementation Cont.

• Power Difference between NFC and Wireless Charging– The input power level to the antenna circuit of an active NFC

device is 100–750 mW• one order of magnitude lower than the WPC’s Qi Low Power

specification.

• But Increasing the power level of NFC has implications– RF specification and design– thermal design– the specific absorption rate (SAR) of RF fields by the human

body– other personal safety issues.

Convenience & Efficiency

Low-power NFC charging: The maximum charging power is 100 mW to as much as 400–500 mW, depending on the antenna sizes and chip technology.

High-power NFC charging: The maximum charging power is increased to even several watts, which also makes charging of typical mobile handsets convenient.


Security Eavesdropping

◦ NFC channel can be intercepted

Data Corruption◦ Denial of service attack from

interceptor

Data Modification◦ Attacker changes valid message

with incorrect data

Data Insertion◦ Data penetration

Man-in-Middle Attack◦ Third party listener


Security – Relay Attack Relay Attack

◦ Range extension of the contactless communication channel◦ Reader Device (mole)◦ Card Emulator (proxy)◦ Fast Communication Channel

◦ Cannot be prevented with application-level cryptography

Mole enters proximity to card under attack

Card emulator brought into proximity of reader

◦ Commands now forwarded to mole◦ Mole forwards to card under attack◦ Card replies

Fuzzing◦ 0xFFFFFFE & 0xFFFFFFF◦ Crashes device, force powers down


Security – Relay Attack


Security – Relay Attack Defenses

Shielding the card’s RF with a Faraday Cage

Card could contain additional circuitry◦ Physical activation and deactivation

Require pin/multiple authentication

Measure distances between card and reader

Google responded to the phishing vulnerabilities


Security Defenses Eavesdropping:

◦ Low range and extremely low power Secure channel

Data Corruption: ◦ Detect RF fields for RSSI, easily countered

Data Modification:◦ Possible, but protection can be achieved by varying Baud rate

Data Insertion: ◦ Possible if within response time of TX/RX

Man-in-Middle Attack: ◦ Practically impossible due to 5cm range


A Future With NFC


Advantages/DisadvantagesADVANTAGES

Convenient◦ Very easy to use◦ Can replace credit cards

Versatile◦ Multifunction◦ Cheap to implement

Safe◦ Low range means less likely to be

intercepted

No spectrum issues

DISADVANTAGES

Low data rates ◦ Not ideal for media streaming

Limited range: 10cm

Skepticism

Company adoption◦ Not widespread in NA

Security holes


Conclusion NFC is expanding

◦ $110B in Transactions by 2017◦ 1.75B NFC enabled mobile

phones

All wireless has security issues

Low range may be limiting


Questions?


References: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6861328&queryText%3DNFC http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6734919&queryText%3DNFC http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5066549&queryText%3DNFC http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6428872&queryText%3DNFC http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6176332&queryText%3DNFC http://ezproxy.stevens.edu:2109/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6482441 http://www.nearfieldcommunication.org/history-nfc.html http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2011/02/near-field-communications-a-technology-primer/ http://www.research.philips.com/password/download/password_24.pdf http://www.eurasip.org/Proceedings/Ext/RFID2007/pdf/s1p4.pdf http://www.nxp.com/techzones/nfc-zone/overview.html

Other Sources http://www.adafruit.com/datasheets/Introduction_to_NFC_v1_0_en.pdf

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/near-field-communication.htm

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5958681

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=http://www.nearfieldcommunication.org/5116794

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_field_communication

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-nfc-works-and-mobile-payments/

http://nfc-forum.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/NFC-in-Public-Transport.pdf

http://www.htc.com/us/support/htc-one/howto/365721.html

http://blog.clove.co.uk/2012/06/20/near-field-communication-nfc-explained-the-complete-guide/

http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/09/29/nfc.revision.allows.peer.to.peer.message.sending/#ixzz1Zuj6DGxH

http://nfc-forum.org/news/pr/view?item_key=088d874025e1049cd9c772ea508f4630ebf079b8

http://www.techradar.com/us/news/phone-and-communications/what-is-nfc-and-why-is-it-in-your-phone-948410

http://skyrfid.com/RFID_Tag_Read_Ranges.php

http://www.quandmedical.com/products/home.htm

http://www.juniperresearch.com/viewpressrelease.php?pr=353

nfc - overview and presentation

Documents