White Papers

Security Analysis of a Cryptographically-Enabled RFID Device

• Tags:
• range,
• device,
• dst,
• expertise

Overview This paper describes the success in defeating the security of an RFID device known as a Digital Signature Transponder (DST). Manufactured by Texas Instruments, DST (and variant) devices help secure millions of SpeedPass payment transponders and automobile ignition keys. Several steps were accomplished using inexpensive off-the-shelf equipment, and with minimal RF expertise. This suggests that an attacker with modest resources can emulate a target DST after brief short-range scanning or long-range eavesdropping across several authentication sessions. The paper concludes that the cryptographic protection afforded by the DST device is relatively weak.

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