Patent Publication Number: US-2007106897-A1

Title: Secure RFID authentication system

Description:
The RFID industry is poised for dramatic growth as small, inexpensive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags provide an electronic serial number of an ID corresponding to a product. RFIDs can also contain cryptographic processors providing secure means of identifying the authenticity of an item.  
      An example of RFID usage to thwart counterfeit items is Winwatch a European company that embeds RFIDs into the crystals of expensive watches and provides stores and retail locations with readers that can check the authenticity of a product. However, in-store readers may not be convenient for consumers, may not be trusted, do not allow consumers to verify the authenticity of an item outside the store, do not link the authentication of an item to the sales of the product and have many other limitations.  
      This invention serves to eliminate these limitations and provide consumers convenient and secure methods to authenticate their purchases and to provide a system that trusted institutions could use to provide customers of the trusted institution added purchase protection to verify that the items purchased by customers of the institution are authentic. Trusted institutions can also provide “added buyer protection” privileges in the form of guarantying the authenticity of their products and purchases. 
    
    
     LIST OF FIGURES  
       FIG. 1  provides a high level view of a typical cellular phone.  
       FIG. 2  provides a high-level view of a typical cellular phone with added Secure RFID Authentication System components.  
       FIG. 3  provides a view of the network and system components for Secure RFID Authentication System.  
       FIG. 4  provides an example of data stored in an RFID contained within a product or attached to a product.  
       FIG. 5  shows a Cash Register being integrated into the Secure RFID Authentication System.  
       FIG. 6  shows a credit card and credit card information integrated with the Secure RFID Authentication System.  
       FIG. 7  shows RFID contents used for authentication for products with different product values ranging from low value (inexpensive items) to high value (expensive items costing tens of dollars on up).  
       FIG. 8  depicts the Role of the Trusted Authority.  
       FIG. 9  RFID invention aspects. 
    
    
     DETAILS OF THE INVENTION  
      The Secure RFID Authentication System consists of hardware and software to allow consumers to authenticate products with RFIDs without needing a retail store to provide an RFID reader. In a preferred embodiment an RFID reader is incorporated into a cellular phone to allow the cellular phone to become a Trusted RFID reader. The Trusted RFID reader will allow consumers to verify that a product is authentic by using the RFID data contained within or attached to a product.  
      System Overview  
      A typical system is presented in  FIG. 3  showing an item  310  containing an embedded. RFID  320  tag. Item  310  is depicted as a baseball with an embedded RFID  320  in item  310 . The RFID  320  contains at a minimum an Electronic Product Code (EPC) that contains a unique identifier for the product. Preferably, RFID  320  contains EPC and a cryptographically unique identifier. The cryptographically unique identifier contained with RFID  320  can be any type of cryptographic technique that provides a unique identifier that is based on private/public key encryption, secure passwords, message digest validation, secure challenge authentication protocols, authentication, non repudiation, and algorithms and techniques to guarantee the authenticity of an item.  
      In fact, it is expected that the techniques used to provide authentication of an item will evolve as new security methods are developed for securely identifying an item. Current day techniques that can be incorporated within RFID  320  to provide unique security and identification of a product include but are not limited to the following:  
      Symmetrical key encryption including DES, AES, IDEA, Blowfish, RC4, and other algorithms;  
      Public-key algorithms including RSA, Diffie-Hellman, DSA, and others; One-Way Hash Functions including SHA, RIPE-MD, MD4-3versions, MD5-2 versions, N-Hash, and others. Additionally, FIPS 196 other standards based authentication, encryption, key management, signed data, enhanced encrypted data (conventional &amp; proprietary encryption), private/public key encrypted data, digested (hashed) data, authenticated (MAC&#39;d), and others, encompass enhanced and accepted authentication methods incorporated by this invention.  
      In this patent application the term “secure communications” means communications that is encrypted using public/private key pairs, or symmetrical key encryption with keys shared between the communications points. “Secured communications” can also include authentication of communications points using Public/Private Keys, X.509 digital certificates, hardware encryption keys, secure processing elements, virtual private networks, and other methods and techniques used to establish authenticated and encrypted communications between two elements.  
      In this patent application the term “module”, “component” or “function” is used to describe the functionality of an operation regardless of where the operation is physically performed. Modules can execute directly within a cellular phone or can be distributed across a system or network and can run as a server side application, a web service, via an interface to a remote system using some form of Remote Procedure Call RPC, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol with application code performing module functionality, using Microsoft .net or Simple Object Access Protocol SOAP, Java Script, Java Servlet, JSP, Java plug-in, native Java application, Web Services, Portal Applications, or any other actual implementation that can be used to perform the processing details for the module. Encrypted versions of the distributed communications, application code, APIs, and protocols necessary perform module functionality are also included in the term “module”.  
      Item  330  in  FIG. 3  is a Secure RFID Authentication System enhanced cellular phone but item  330  can also be a PDA, appliance, notebook computer, desktop computer, television, cordless telephone, wireless device, or other product that can read RFID values from RFID  320  in item  310 . The Secure RFID Authentication System enhanced cellular phone  330  shown in  FIG. 3  also operates as a standard cellular phone within a cellular phone network  340 . Cellular phone network  340  can be any type of wireless cellular phone network such as a GSM or CDMA technology based network offered by Sprint, Cingular or Verizon in the United States and can be based on any cellular phone technology and can include but does not require networking and web browsing features, Internet Protocol support, packet based communications and other standard cellular phone based networking, transport layer, and physical layer features. The invention described in this application document can also be based on wired and/or wireless network using wired telephone lines, Ethernet networking, wireless WIFI 802.11, Bluetooth, 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, or other types of communications connections. Cellular phone network  340  represents the capability to remotely access another network or other computers.  
      Item  350  in  FIG. 3  shows a Cellular phone Base Station where subscriber&#39;s cells phones can connect to other communications networks. Many cellular phone service providers allow customers Internet  360  access from their cellular-phones  330 . Cell phone service provider will provide connection  362  shown between cell phone base station  350 , network or Internet  360  and cellular phone  330 .  
      Item  355  in  FIG. 3  shows an optional added security layer that can be provided to securely connect cell phone base stations  350  to a Trusted Authority (TA)  370  and Product Manufacturer  380 . Optional added security layer  355  provides a secure private network whereby communications between cellular phone base stations  350  are secured with other elements in the system  370  and  380 . Additional security layer  355  can also be added to cellular phone  330  establishing a private network between cellular phone  330  and other elements in system  370  and  380 . As will be discussed later, optional added security layer is not needed but can be added for enhanced security. Optional security layer  355  optionally connects to Trusted Authority  370  allowing Trusted Authority  370  to securely link to a Cellular phone  330  on the cellular phone network.  
      Optional security layer  355  allows Trusted Authority  370  to authenticate the communications between Trusted Authority  370  and Cellular Phone  330 . Optional security layer  355  can also provide added authentication and security when Cellular Phone  330  is communicating with Product Manufacturer or Distributor  380 . Any method of network and/or IP based security can be used for Optional Added Security Layer  355  between a Cellular phone company and a Trusted Authority. Examples include IP-SEC, Virtual Private Networks, Private/Public Key encryption and authentication.  
      Trusted Authority  370  in  FIG. 3  can be a banking institution, a credit card company, a Certificate Authority company such as Verisign, a government agency, or another company that can be trusted by consumers. Trusted Authority  370  can also be a service provided by a Cellular phone Service provider. Trusted Authority  370  provides authentication of Product Manufacturer, Retailer, Distributor  380 , allowing the consumerto authenticate the item  310  being purchased using embedded or attached RFID  320  to an item  310  via a cellular phone  330  connection to an authenticated product manufacturer  380 .  
      Authentication Steps performed when consumer wants to authenticate an item:  
      Phase 1: Authenticate Manufacturer—This phase reads information from the product, identifies the manufacturer from information contained within the product, and validates the manufacturer, allowing the consumer to verify the product is from the expected manufacturer. While not the complete authentication this step is the first phase in complete authentication. 
          1. Consumer selects item for authentication. Item shown is baseball  310  in  FIG. 3 .     2. Consumer holds cellular phone near product and presses Authenticate key on cell phone or Authenticate Menu Item on a Graphic User Interface on cellular phone  330  or via a menu or button on a Webpage or application that cellular phone is automatically (or manually) linked to during the reading stage of RFID  320  information. Cellular phone  330  can also be linked to a web service or validation server operated by Trusted Authority  370 , cellular phone service provider, or another service provider used during the product authentication. Authenticate Menu can also be provided via firmware contained within the Cellular phone  330 .     3. Cellular phone will read the RFID  320  contained in item  310 .     4. Cellular phone  330  can optionally display information contained in RFID  320  on display of cellular phone  330 . Information at this point from the RFID is not authenticated and an optional Warning Notice is provided that this information has not yet been authenticated. Display of unauthenticated information is optional and can be a user or system level selectable option. Warning message(s) can also indicate that authentication is in process.     5. Cellular phone  330  optionally stores the RFID  320  information in Cellular phone memory  330  or on a network  360  reachable storage area (customer&#39;s CellReader webpage, distributed to a customers email address, a log file provided by credit card service provider, an account provided by Trusted Authority, or by any other entity that will provide storage services for a consumer. Storage (not shown) of RFID  320  information provides a convenient list of items consumer may be interested in purchasing or researching at a later date. RFID  320  information stored for convenience of consumer allows consumer to perform additional searching and product research. Data stored at this stage can be the complete RFID for a particular product, or RFID information that will allow the consumer to use the stored information to later recall information regarding the product, but not necessarily the entire EPC for the product. Customer can add optional pricing information to the stored RFID at this stage for comparison price shopping or for other purposes.     6. After RFID  320  information is read from item  310  the manufacturer information associated with the RFID  320  is accessed from REID and used to identify and validate the product manufacturer. In this example the manufacturer of the baseball is Rawlings and a manufacturer ID for 
            Rawlings is included in RFID  320 . The manufacturer ID can be a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for manufacturer such as www.rawlings.com, or a name or number assigned by Trusted Authority  370 , or a service provider that operates authentication network. The RFID  320  contained within item  310  contains information to identify the manufacturer of the item  310 , and the storage of manufacturer information for item  310  is expected to follow RFID industry standards. Manufacturer can be identified using Object Name Service standards established by the RFID industry to identify a manufacturer, or other techniques similar to Object Name Standards. Trusted Authority  370  will use Object Name Service  375  to identify manufacturer for customers using product authentication services offered by Trusted Authority  370 .     Trusted Authority  370  will validate manufacturer information contained within RFID  320  using manufacturer unique information such as the published public key for the manufacturer. Having the TA  370  send via phone  330  a value or challenge that gets signed by the RFID  320  contained in the product using the manufacturer private key  760  stored in the product RFID will be used to perform validation of the product manufacturer. Note that this manufacturer validation is not validating a unique product but rather only the product manufacturer. Validating the product manufacturer can be based on a hash or cryptographic calculation computed within the RFID  320  with manufacture private key  760  data contained within the RFID  320  that can be validated using public key data supplied by the manufacturer or TA  370  or a certificate authority such as Verisign. The way this optional manufacturer authentication will work is that each RFID  320  in a product will contain a manufacturer private key  760  in the RFID  320  that is used to digitally sign a message or respond to a challenge from the TA  370 . TA  370  will authenticate the digitally signed message or challenge using the public key registered for this product manufacturer. This manufacturer private key  760  stored in RFID  320  is optional and in addition to a product specific private key  420 . Product specific private key  420  is used to uniquely authenticate a single individual item, while manufacturer private key is used to authenticate a manufacturer of a product but not an individual item. In the above authentication a manufacturer specific private key  760  is stored in the RFID  320  and validated using the public key registered by the manufacturer with TA  370 .    
            7. Manufacturer ID from item  310  is sent to network  360  via cellular network  340  and cell phone base station  350 . Other network and/or communications paths can be used to transport the Manufacturer ID to Trusted Authority  370 . Trusted Authority then identifies the correct manufacturer of the item  310 . An optional feature of the system is to automatically connect the user to a web site or information location for the manufacturer of item  310 . Another optional feature is that Trusted Authority  370  can authenticate the private or public keys for the Product Manufacturer  380  and/or the RFID  320  contained within item  310 .     8. In  FIG. 3  the Product Manufacturer or Distributor website or database access location is shown as element  380 . A key element of the Secure RFID Authentication System is that the identification of the Product Manufacturer site  380  is not provided via a simple DNS name lookup as used with standard websites, but is identified by the Trusted Authority  370  or a trusted agent who provides secure name lookup of the manufacturer from the RFID  320  information. Trusted Authority  370  will provide more than just Object Name Service type lookup, and can authenticate the manufacturer  380  using manufacturer specific public or private key data  430  in  FIG. 4  contained within Item  310 , individual product unique private key data  420 . Product Manufacturer information for item  310  determined by using information stored in RFID  320  can be authenticated using a digital signature or cryptographic hash using keys contained with RFID  320 . 
            Product manufacturer  380  can optionally be accessed via a secure or non-secure connection with cellular phone  330  after manufacturer is identified using information contained in RFID  320  is read as described above. Note, for lesser valued items manufacturer can be simply identified using non-secure data such as URL information for the manufacturer.    
               

      The above steps detail how a manufacturer can be securely authenticated using a product&#39;s RFID  320 . However, the above steps did not authenticate an item  310 , rather the above steps identified the manufacturer. The application code necessary to perform the above steps can be contained in the cellular phone  330  or via a web services type interface to a web service hosted by Trusted Authority  370 . Or, the steps above can be distributed across Cellular Phone  330 , Cellular Phone Network  340  Service Provider (or carrier), and Trusted Authority  370 . When hosted by Trusted Authority  370  cellular phone  330  shall contain a means to securely connect to a web service provided by Trusted Authority  370 . Any means that can be used to establish a secure connection between Phone  330  and Trusted Authority  370  can be utilized. Regardless of how the application is distributed between the cellular phone or provided by a network or Internet based application, script, portlet, or web service, the cellular phone  330  shall contain secure access method to perform individual product authentication and/or manufacturer authentication using key data contained with RFID  320  and processing steps described above.  
      Cellular phone  330  optionally includes RFID information storage or an RFID cache to allow authentication process or manufacturer lookup at a later time if no cellular phone coverage is available at the point of purchase. RFID cache will store RFID  320  information for products or items  310  that a consumer is interested in.  
      Authentication will occur automatically when cellular phone coverage is re-established, or can be performed manually by the user of the cellular phone  330 . Stores can also provide wireless internet access using technology such as 802.11, Bluetooth, ZigBee, and other wireless communication methods to allow Cell Phone  330  to access Trusted Authority  370  without using wireless network. Trusted Authority  370  will use Phone unique information such as Smart Card/Phone ID data or cryptographic data contained within Phone  330  to authenticate a Cell Phone  330 . Communications between TA  370  and Phone  330  can be encrypted using Cell Phone  330  unique information such as SIM information or a Cell Phone ID that is used to encrypt information between the TA  370  and Phone  330 , or a TA  370  public key securely stored in the Phone by the TA  370  or distributed across Phone  330  and cell phone service provider. Cell Phone ID can be SIM card data as used by standard cellular networks, or it can be a private key stored in Phone  330  that is used with a public key registered with a Certificate Authority for Phone  330 .  
      The process described above provides a secure method to access the correct product manufacturer for an item. After the manufacturer is properly Authenticated using any or all of the Authentication methods described above a product Authentication Step can be selected by the user or automatically performed after the manufacturer was authenticated when a consumer wants to authenticate an item using Cell Phone  330 :  
      Phase 2—Authenticate an Item  
      1. The EPC code in RFID  320  obtained from the product is sent from Phone  330  to Product Manufacturer  380  via network  360  via route  368  or via a connection  368  from network to Trusted Authority  370  and Manufacturer  380  (not shown). If communications is from Phone  330  to Trusted Authority  370  (or distributed processing site for Trusted Authority  370 ) Trusted Authority  370  will connect to Product Manufacturer  370  and transfer EPC code to Manufacturer  380 . If communications is from Phone  330  to Product Manufacturer  370 , Phone  330  will transfer EPC code to Manufacturer  380 . 
          2. Transferring of EPC data from RFID  320  via Cell Phone  330 , Cellular Network  340 , Network  360  to Product Manufacturer  380  is encrypted using the public key of Product Manufacturer  380  or via the TA  370  using Phone  330  to TA  370  encrypted communications. The public key of the Product Manufacturer  380  can be obtained either from the RFID  320 , the Trusted Authority  370 , Cellular Network Provider, or Manufacturer  380 , or a service that will provide Public Key distribution such as a Certificate Authority. In this invention the public key for the Product Manufacturer can be obtained using any of the sources listed above (Cellular phone service provider, Trusted Authority  370 , Object Name Server  375  hosted by Trusted Authority  370  or cell phone service provider or another party, or directly from the manufacturer  380 .) Note this data can also be encrypted using the public key by the Phone  330  of Trusted Authority  370  when Trusted Authority  370  authenticates the item with Manufacturer  380 . Phone  330  will receive messages encrypted by the TA  370  with the TA  370  encrypting the messages going to the Phone  330  using the private key of the TA 370  and the Phone will decrypt the message using the Public Key of the TA. The use of Trusted Authority  370  to receive EPC encrypted data (in this case using the public key of the Trusted Authority  370 ) is also supported by this invention allowing TA  370  to authenticate item  310  instead of Manufacturer  380 . Additionally, TA  370  can digitally sign Manufacturers  380  validation response to allow Phone  330  to know TA  370  is authenticating the Manufacturers  380  response to authenticating an actual item.     3. Upon receiving the EPC data from RFID  320  encrypted with the public key of the Manufacturer  380  (or public key of Trusted Authority  370  when TA  370  is performing authentication for Product Manufacturer  380 ), EPC data is decrypted using the private key of Manufacturer  380  (or private key of Trusted Authority  370  when TA  370  is performing authentication for Product Manufacturer  380 ).     4. Upon decryption of EPC data Product Manufacturer  380  (or Trusted Authority  370 ) will use the public key for the private key store in RFID  320 , so that Product Manufacturer  380  (or Trusted Authority  370 ) can generate an authentication challenge for the RFID  320  in product  310 . Authentication challenge can be any type of challenge used to authenticate an item using public/private key infrastructure and/or encryption. The Authentication Challenge generated by Manufacturer  380  (or Trusted Authority  370 ) is encrypted with the public key that is paired to the item specific private key  420  in the RFID  320  contained in item  310 .     5. Authentication challenge is sent back to RFID  320  contained with item  310  via network  360 , cellular phone service provider, cellular phone network  340 , and phone  330 .     6. Authentication challenge is received by RFID  320  and decrypted using the item specific private key  420  for the RFID  320  and applying any message/password SALTing, de-scrambling, de-interleaving that was applied to the authentication challenge.     7. RFID computes required message hash, message digest, digital signature, or other computation and then signs computation with RFID  320  item specific private key  420  and sends signed computation back to Manufacturer  380  (or Trusted Authority  370 ) via Phone  330  and network.     8. Optionally, after RFID  320  computes required message hash, message digest, digital signature, or other computation and then signs computation with RFID  320  item specific private key  420 , the RFID can encrypt the message going back to Manufacturer  380  (or Trusted Authority  370 ) with public key of Manufacturer  380  (or Trusted Authority  370 ) and then sends encrypted signed computation back to Manufacturer  380  (or Trusted Authority  370 ).     9. Manufacturer  380  (or Trusted Authority  370 ) will validate the digitally signed authentication challenge to verify the RFID device using the public key information for the item specific private key  420  stored in RFID  320 .     10. Upon validation, results will be sent back to the Phone  330 . The sending of the validation data will be encrypted using the private key of the Manufacturer  380  (or Trusted Authority  370 ) and decrypted in the phone using the public key for the entity (Mfg.  380  or TA  370 ) that validates results.        

      An optional additional step at this point can have the Manufacturer  380  sign the validation results using the Manufacturers  380  private key and the Trusted Authority  370  validating the Manufacturer  380  signed validation results and then the Trusted Authority  370  will send the authenticated signed validation results to the phone  330 . Having the TA  370  authenticate the signed validation results may be preferred by the TA  370  when the TA  370  provides buyer protection insurance as a member benefit for using the TA&#39;s  370  RFID  320  authentication or product authentication service. When TA  370  provides RFID  320  authentication results to phone  330  then the TA  370  will securely communicate with Manufacturer  380  to authenticate product and TA  370  will receive product RFID  320  that will be used to identify the product being authenticated. The validation results can be optionally encrypted uses Phone  330  SIM module data or cryptographically unique information for Phone  330 . 
          11. Optionally validating the history of item  310  and RFID  320  to verify seller has appropriate rights to sell product.        

      Referring to  FIG. 2  to support the Secure RFID Authentication System&#39;s system the following elements will be added to a cellular phone:  
      In this application the term cellular phone is used but the same technology can be added to Personal Digital Assistants (PDA&#39;s), telephone handset, watches, handheld authenticator/RFID readers, laptop computer, desktop computer, bar code reader/scanner, printer, copier, fax machine, router or network equipment, standalone appliances, or other type of electronic device to provide a secure, or even trusted RFID reader that incorporates the benefits of this invention. Trusted RFID readers will include cryptographically unique keys to allow TA  370  to authenticate a trusted Reader.  FIG. 2  shows the elements being added to a cellular phone.  
      In  FIG. 2 , Display  110 , keypad  130 , Cellular RF  120 , antenna  125 , system firmware  135 , browser  140 , network application  160 , movie player  165 , smart card/phone ID  150  (also known as Subscriber Identity Module SIM), audio player  170  are standard hardware and software components found in a cellular phone. BREW  175  represents Qualcomm Incorporated cellular phone application environment and this element can also include or consist of a Java execution environment to run Java code, or other application framework/runtime environment for cellular phones. Expansion slot  180  can be a Compact Flash, PCMCIA, PCI, Secure Disk SD Memory or some other type of expansion slot for plug-in devices.  
      In  FIG. 2  antenna  125  and cellular RF  120  can be standalone GSM or CDMA type circuitry used for transmitting/receiving cellular phone signals using antenna  125 . However, this invention also can include optional antenna multiplex (mux)  225  to allow RFID reader  220  circuitry to use either a separate RFID reader antenna (not shown) or to have RFID reader  220  circuitry connect to antenna  125  via optional antenna mux  225 .  
      Trusted Authorization Server Lookup  210  functionality performs functions similar to Domain Name Server (DNS) or Object Name Service (ONS) lookup for standard Internet domain name lookup but does so from a Trusted Authority  370  ( FIG. 3 ) or other trusted institution. Trusted Authorization Server Lookup  210  extends DNS or Object Name Service (ONS) that performs lookup of an RFID EPC to identify the manufacturer and provides authentication of the actual server returning the ONS lookup results. For this invention the use of DNS and ONS are synonymous and can be interchanged in functionality. When a DNS server is used in this invention the step of reading a manufacturer ID and converting the manufacturer ID to a Uniform Resource Locator or IP address for the manufacturer&#39;s website or network is included in the DNS step. When the term ONS is used in this invention the process of finding an object&#39;s information from the Electronic Product Code (EPC) which is stored in the RFID embedded within an object is implied by the term. Even though DNS and ONS are different functions the use of each function DNS or ONS includes any other functions required to perform the lookups described in this invention. For example, a DNS lookup with TA  370  can include ONS lookup if necessary and other look ups and is not limited to only traditional DNS lookup functions. The same goes for ONS where ONS in this patent application includes extended functional lookup such as DNS and others beyond what a standard ONS server may lookup. In the RFID industry an ONS server establishes a connection between an object identified by an EPC in the object and its information on distributed databases. This invention requires the Trusted Authority (or service provider) to authenticate the ONS server whereby the ONS server after authentication by the Trusted Authority will provide an authenticated network address link between the RFID and manufacturer.  
      A DNS/ONS service lookup/access session or public key shown as Trusted Authority TS Key(s)  211  for the Trusted Authentication Server Lookup function  210  is shown in  FIG. 2 . Trusted Authority TS Key  211  can also be used to secure communications between Phone  330  and TA  370 . TS Key  211  can also be used during service lookup/access functions allowing Phone  330  to encrypt messages that can only be decrypted by TA  370  during lookup authentication. Trusted Authorization Server Lookup  210  function can also be distributed between software running in Phone  330  and functions running on cellular phone network or functions running on TA  370  computers. TS Key  211  (or similar key not shown) can be used as a DNS/ONS service lookup/access session key to make sure that Phone  330  is not using a rogue DNS/ONS service provider during authentication. Trusted Authorization Server Lookup  210  function also provides secure communications between Phone  330  and TA  370  in addition to ONS/DNS lookup functions and is used to decrypt validation messages returning from the TA  370 . Validation messages will be encrypted with using the private key of the TA  370  and can be decrypted by the TA  370  public key stored in Phone  330 . Key hierarchy for Phone  330  access to TA  370  is based on symmetrical key encryption or public/private key encryption and can be based on a single key or multiple keys stored in Phone  330 . An example of the keys used to protect Phone  330  to TA  370  is shown below, and can be performed using a single key or multiple keys.  
                                   TA 370 related key stored           in Phone 330 used to       authenticate communications       between Phone 330       and TA 370.       Key:   Function:                  Public Key of TA 370   Used to encrypt messages between Phone           330 and TA 370.       DNS/ONS key   An optional key shown in TA key(s) 211           that can be used to encrypt and           authenticate DNS/ONS functions and           lookup.       Session Key of TA 370.   An optional key in TA Key(s) that allows           session based symmetrical key encryption           between Phone 330 and TA 370 allowing           for faster transactional throughput than           systems using PKI encryption for all           communications.       Authentication access   Optional password or key used to allow       password or key.   TA 370 to perform cryptographic           authentication functions provided by           RFID 320. When this key is used the           normal state of the RFID 320 is to not           respond to any authorization requests           until this optional key/password is           provided by the TA 370.                  
 
      In the above table the TA  370  related key stored in Phone  330  is used to authenticate communications between Phone  330  and TA  37 , however this key hand/or the authentication method can be distributed amongst the Phone  330  Cellular Phone Network  340 , or Cell Phone Base Station  350 . This means that Phone  330  does not need to do the complete authentication of TA  370  and authentication can be distributed with a secure communication link between the Phone  336  and the TA  370 .  
      Referring now to  FIG. 5 , the RFID  320  information can be transferred to the store Cash Register  319 , or RFID  320  information can be read by a RFID reader in Cash Register  319  when a consumer is paying for purchases. Cash register will obtain or read RFID  320  information from product and transfer RFID  320  information from Cash Register to entity performing product authentication (TA  370 , Manufacturer  380  or even store itself (not shown)). Phone  330  will provide a Cell Phone Identifier to Cash Register  320  to allow authentication results to be returned to Phone  330 . Information provided by Cell Phone  330  to Cash Register  319  is called Cell Phone Identifier and is sent from the phone to cash register  319  and can be the cellular phone telephone number, or preferably an identifier that cannot be used by the merchant to capture the telephone number of the consumer. Cell Phone Identifier can be a code known only to the Trusted Authority  370  and can be securely sent to the Trusted Authority with the Cell Phone Identifier encrypted using the public key of the TA  370  before the cell phone  330  sends the Cell Phone Identifier to the TA  370  via the Cash Register  319 . Alternatively, but less desirable, Cell Phone Identifier can be sent alone with RFID  320  information to TA  370  from Cell Phone in parallel to the Cash Register  319  sending RFID  320  information to TA  370  during checkout to allow customer to independently authenticate RFID  320  of item, in addition with allowing store to authenticate an item. Cell Phone Identifier will be of no value except to the TA  370  or Credit Card Company because it is an identifier not known to the public and can be encrypted using the public key of TA  370  or Credit Card company and can contain random data fields to obfuscate the Cell Phone Identifier. Cell Phone Identifier can be sent from Phone  330  to Cash Register  319  via any wireless communications technique such as infrared, RF (Bluetooth, ZigBee, 802.11, others), using the RFID communications link to communication between the Phone  330  and Cash Register  319  or other communication method when Phone  330  communicates to Cash Register  319 . Authentication information (results) for a product can also be transferred to Phone  330  via TA  370 , Manufacturer  380 , or Credit Card Processing company (not shown) using Phone  330  identifying information supplied by Cell Phone owner to TA  370 , Manufacturer  380  (less desirable), or Credit Card Processing company (not shown but act like TA  370 ).  
      Referring now to  FIG. 6 , this invention allows the Phone  330  and phone user to be associated with Credit Card  610  allowing purchases to be authorized by a cellular phone user or allowing product authentication results to be sent to Phone  330  via identification of Phone  330  from Credit Card  610  information. Credit Card Company  371  upon receiving purchase information from store or store Cash Register  319  will identify Phone  330  from owner information of Credit Card  610 . Credit Card Company  371  can act as Trusted Authority  370  combined together in the dashed lines in  FIG. 6  or they can be separate companies linked via secure communications. Purchase authentication information can be returned from TA  370  or Credit Card Company  371  to Phone  330  over Cell Phone Network. Shown in  FIG. 6  is Credit Card Number information stored with Cell Phone Number of Credit Card Owner in  650 . This Credit Card Number/Cell Phone Number information will be stored in Credit Card Company  371  database information. If TA  370  is separate from Credit Card Company  371  than Credit Card Company  371  can transfer purchase information (RFID number of product being purchased/authenticated) to TA  370  so that TA  370  can authenticate product being purchase with validation results sent back to Phone  330  from TA  370  or even Credit Card Company  371  when TA  370  and Credit Card Company cooperate in authenticating purchases.  
      TA  370  or Credit Card Company can automatically provide product registration based on purchase information received by Credit Card Company including Credit Card Number, and RFID of purchased product. Credit Card Company determines manufacturer of product and can register customer for product warrantee service if desired by customer. Customer is identified by credit card number, RFID information identifies the product and manufacturer of the product purchased by customer. Credit Card Company will generate product warrantee registration form that is securely sent to warrantee provider of product purchased by consumer along with an optional copy of warrantee information to consumer. Consumer can at a later date retrieve warrantee information from Credit Card Company or TA  370  because this information can be archived by Credit Card Company for customer.  
      Product manufacturer database can automatically be updated with purchase information from retail store if desired by consumer. History of purchases can be recorded for customer providing details on the item, serial number, EPC, purchase date, purchase location, and other information automatically using system shown in  FIG. 3 .  
      Wireless link from cash register/credit card processing to cell phone to track purchases. Interface to cellular phone can be bluetooth, 802.11, zigbee, RFID emulation, etc.  
      Secure handshake  
      Info exchange  
      In addition to authentication, Secure RFID Authentication System provides secure lookup of a product RFID, eliminating the potential for a competitor of the product manufacturer to substitute their product and RFID information for a legitimate product This secure lookup guarantees that a consumer will be linked with the true, legitimate manufacturer of a product.  
      Alternative Authentication Process: 
          1. Cell phone user presses Authentication button or Menu Item provided by Cell Phone Graphic User Interface or voice command user interface.     2. Cell phone reads EPC from RFID     3. EPC is processed for ONS information by Trusted Authority or service provider or via standard ONS processing step.     4. ONS service provides network address information for Manufacturer.     5. Consumer&#39;s Phone is liked to Manufacturer via ONS.     6. Consumer can get information from Manufacturer website     7. If Authentication is required—a first optional step as follows is performed: manufacturer (MFG) is authenticated by having the RFID generate a random number or message digest of some information (URL for MFG plus other data). Message is encrypted with public key of Manufacturer. Message is sent to Manufacturer. Manufacturer decrypts message using Manufacturer private key, creates a new message digest or modifies the message in a known way and then encrypts the message with private key of manufacturer, and after encryption manufacturer sends newly encrypted, updated message back to RFID. RFID authenticates the response using the Manufacturers Public Key and if authenticated will allow the rest of the authentication process to continue.     8. Optionally, Trusted Authority if TA does not provide ONS server lookup can authenticate the RFID for the item being purchased and securely provide the authentication results back to the Phone  330  using a secure transmission method between TA  370  and Phone  330 .        

      An optional way this invention works is by having the manufacturers Public Key contained in the RFID that will allow the RFID to be used by various service providers or Trusted Authorities without having to have Trusted Authority information contained within RIFID. This allows RFID to use any Trusted Authorities, or even non-Trusted Authorities to establish a secure link to manufacturers. However, the problem with the storage of manufacturers Public Key in RFID is that any manufacturer can generate a public/private key pair and store the manufacturer public key in a product and unless the manufacturer public key is verified by a trusted authority the consumer will not know the manufacturer is authenticated, only that the RFID contains a valid public key for some manufacturer.  
      Trusted Authority will authenticate the manufacturer before a consumer purchase is completed when Trusted Authority or service provider provides consumer buyer protection.  
      Cellular phone  330  becomes “trusted” by a consumer because phone  330  Authenticates Trusted Authority either using software in phone, by web service or network provided service. Cell phone network (Cell Phone Base Station  350  and other components) can also be used to authenticate Trusted Authority  370 , instead of, or in addition to the authentication performed by phone  330 . This means the phone itself, or the cellular phone network provider can assure that the Trusted Authority  370  is authenticated.  
      The above product authentication methods can be applied to authenticate items sold over eBay and other similar auction sites. Consumers can use their cellular phone to authenticate items purchased using eBay when the consumer receives the item.  
      Authentication Will Work as Follows: 
          1. eBay can request or require seller to list RFID for products being sold.     2. eBay will verify the product RFID as being authentic using the product authentication steps described above for low, medium, or high value items.     3. Seller will show RFID information for product offered for sale. EBay can link the product auction and RFID and optional RFID validation information to the auction offering information.     4. Buyer can press an eBay supplied Verify Product button shown on the Internet web page for the product listed on eBay. Or eBay will add an indication that the RFID for the product being listed in the web page for the product being sold has had the RFID product ID validated by eBay. If eBay shows that eBay has validated the item being offered for sale, eBay will indicate this validation via a secure insertion into the auction offering page for the item being auctions. This validation indicator is added by eBay in such a manner that insures the validation information cannot be added by the auction seller.     5. Buyer will make an auction offer for the product being sold using the eBay ‘place bid’ method currently used by eBay in its service. When buyer ‘places bid’ RFID will be stored for person making the bid such that the bidder can at a later date verify that the item&#39;s RFID information is the same as the one the person had bid on. eBay will include the RFID for the product being bid on in auction notification information and auction transactional records. If an eBay user is successful in purchasing the item on eBay, eBay will record the product RFID in the eBay transaction database. Now, both eBay and the customer have the RFID data offered for sale.     6. Upon receipt of the product by a customer, the customer can use their cellular phone or RFID reader and validate the product being purchased using validation service offered by eBay, or a TA  370  or other service provider. EBay can provide a web service to allow customers to scan an RFID tag and have the RFID tag authenticated and verified as the same item they had bid on and that the item is authentic.        

      In addition, this invention allows consumers and eBay to detect stolen property using stolen property RFID information. Because a consumer can at a later date update an RFID database with stolen RFID EPC codes, eBay can check the RFID information in the stolen database before allowing a seller to list a product with eBay. When an item is stolen, the owner that had the item stolen would need to report the stolen product by updating a stolen RFID database using the Trusted Authority  370  or Credit Card Company. The owner would be authenticated before they can list an item as being stolen. This would prevent people from entering into the stolen RFID database an RFID for a product they never actually owned.  
       FIG. 7  shows the different keys and data stored in product RFIDs for products with different values that will require different authentication levels. Low priced inexpensive items will use standard RFIDs with out any authentication and without cryptographically secure authentication.  
      For low cost items the standard RFID data contents includes an Electronic Product Code  740  and other RFID related data shown as other non-authentication related data  750  in the RFID contents for Low Value Items  790 . Reference  790  shows what can be considered an industry standard RFID content description. This invention will allow the RFID for Low-Value Items  790  to be read from Phone  330  and have the EPC code validated and/or stored in RFID data storage for later recall by the owner of phone  330  for example, when a phone  330  owner desires to purchase an identical product. This invention provides RFID content readout and display on phone  330 . Information such as the expiration date for a product contained in other non-authentication related data  750  can be valuable to a phone  330  owner when purchasing products. Other non-authentication related data  750  can include temperature for temperature sensitive products, humidity for humidity sensitive products. Phone  330  can use EPC  740  value to determine if recall or safety alerts are associated with an item.  
      Medium value items costing in the range of $10 to maybe $40 may contain the keys shown in block  795 . Medium value item  795  includes all the RFID data of Low Value Item  790  and additional data  760  that allows the product manufacturer to be authenticated, but not the product itself. Manufacturer specific  760  data can be either a public or private key and different authentication methods can be used to validate Manufacturer specific  760  data or key. The preferred data stored in Manufacturer specific  760  data is a private key associated with the product manufacturer or product line for a specific manufacturer.  
      When a manufacturer specific private key is stored in  760  this will be referred to as Manufacturer specific private key  760  stored in RFID. Manufacturer specific private key  760  is used to authenticate the product manufacturer using the manufacturer&#39;s public key for this product line or for the manufacturer published by a certificate authority such as Verisign or a Trusted Authority. Authentication of the manufacturer will be performed as described in the section titled Phase 1: Authenticate Manufacturer above.  
       FIG. 7  identifies the RFID contents for High Value Items  799 . In High Value Item  799  RFID  320  contents will contain an EPC  740  value and an Item Specific Private Key  420  that is unique for this individual item and is not used by other products made by this manufacturer. The Item Specific Private Key  420  will be used during the authenticate process to uniquely identify this single item by having the RFID  320  in a product digitally sign or respond to a cryptographic challenge using the Item Specific Private Key  420  when being authenticated by Trusted Authority  370  or Product Manufacturer or Distributor  380 . For High Value Item  799  an optional Authentication Access Key  785  is shown that is used as a password to protect the RFID from unauthorized access in that the Authentication Access Key  785  must be entered before the RFID  320  will respond to authentication requests. Any secure login or secure password protection can be used to process the Authentication Access Key  785  unlocking of the RFID  320  to allow RFID  320  to respond to authentication requests and challenges. Having a method and password or key that can be used to unlock the RFID to allow authentication is another important element of this invention. Once again, the Authentication Access Key  785  is optional. Standard RFID data can also be contained in High Value Item  799  RFID  320 .  
      Regardless of how the application is distributed between being built into the cellular phone or provided by a network or Internet based application, script, or web service, the cellular phone  330  shall contain secure access method to perform authentication and product RFID and information lookup and access.  
      Additional/Optional Authentication Specifications:  
      Challenge response (server sends encrypted or clear text challenge, client responds with MD 4  (static value (such as card ID)/salt and password or other value)  
      Session key enacted—Server sends challenge—client responds with public key encrypted message hash and session key—server verifies client response  
      Smart card/phone ID  150  (also known as Subscriber Identity Module SIM) to authenticate the terminal and store SECURE RFID AUTHENTICATION SYSTEM keys in SIM module. Like disparate security hierarchies from web and cell phone using SIM module and RFID information.  
      Additional Data Accumulation Specifics:  
      Provide option to log or not log the purchase of an item.  
      Standardized reader or interface in cell phone provides automated expense tracking for travel and purchases.  
      Automatic tracking (via email or web service) to employee expense reports where a purchase.  
      Provide flexible user purchase logging routines to data accumulation agencies, businesses, databases, etc.  
      Share/Distribute purchase details to non-authenticating entities such as: 
          Insurance Companies     Service Providers     Resellers &amp; brokers     Banks &amp; Collateral Agencies        

      Todo:  
      Show Key Hierarchies for low-value, medium, and high value items. Add more details on ebay buyer protection. 
          1. Substitute SECURE RFID AUTHENTICATION SYSTEM with Secure RFID Authentication System     2. Add signed data, encrypted data (conventional encryption), private/public key encrypted data, digested (hashed) data, and Authenticated (MAC&#39;d) data     3. In addition to private key, manufacturing data that is in addition to keys     4. FIPS  196  and other standards based authentication, encryption, key management     5. Challenge response (server sends encrypted or clear text challenge, client responds with MD4 (static value (such as card ID)/salt and password or other value)     6. Session key—Server sends challenge—client responds with public key encrypted message hash and session key—server verifies client response     7. Use smart card/phone ID  150  (also known as Subscriber Identity Module SIM) to authenticate the terminal and store SECURE RFID AUTHENTICATION SYSTEM keys in SIM module. Like disparate security hierarchies from web and cell phone using SIM module and RFID information.     8. Use smart card /phone ID  150  (also known as Subscriber Identity Module SIM) to authenticate the terminal and store SECURE RFID AUTHENTICATION SYSTEM keys in SIM module. Like disparate security hierarchies from web and cell phone using SIM module and RFID information with 3 rd  party trusted authority linked to code image in Cellular Phone.     9. Authentication service in phone must be verified from Cellular Phone Network service provider.     10. SIM ID linkage with Cell Phone Service Provider and Trusted Authority     11. Add these techniques to PCs     12. Support SIM/WIM     13. Option to log or not log the purchase of an item. Standardized reader or interface in cell phone provides automated expense tracking for travel and purchases.     14. Automatic tracking (via email or web service) to employee expense reports where a purchase        

      Describe Details on the Following:  
      Regardless of how the application is distributed between being built into the cellular phone or provided by a network or Internet based application, script, or web service, the cellular phone  330  shall contain secure access method to perform authentication and product RFID and information lookup and access.