Secure Proximity Detection for NFC Devices Based on Ambient Sensor Data

In certain applications, it is important for a remote server to securely determine whether or not two mobile devices are in close physical proximity. In particular, in the context of an NFC transaction, the bank server can validate the transaction if both the NFC phone and reader are precisely at the same location thereby preventing a form of a devastating relay attack against such systems. In this paper, we develop secure proximity detection techniques based on the information collected by ambient sensors available on NFC mobile phones, such as audio and light data. These techniques can work under the current payment infrastructure, and offer many advantages. First, they do not require the users to perform explicit actions, or make security decisions, during the transaction – just bringing the devices close to each other is sufficient. Second, being based on environmental attributes, they make it very hard, if not impossible, for the adversary to undermine the security of the syste...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2012
• Where: ESORICS
• Authors: Tzipora Halevi, Di Ma, Nitesh Saxena, Tuo Xiang
• Keywords: Environmental Attributes, ESORICS 2012, Light Sensors, Proximity Detection, Security Privacy