Near Field Communication (NFC) has enabled mobile phones to emulate contactless smart cards. Similar to contactless smart cards, they are also susceptible to relay attacks. To counter these, a number of methods have been proposed that rely primarily on ambient sensors as a proximity detection mechanism (also known as an anti-relay mechanism). In this paper, we, for the first time in academic literature, empirically evaluate a comprehensive set of ambient sensors for their effectiveness as a proximity detection mechanism. We selected 15 out of a total of 17 sensors available via the Google Android platform for evaluation, with the other two sensors unavailable on widely-used handsets. In existing academic literature, only 5 sensors have been proposed with positive results as a potential proximity detection mechanism. Each sensor, where feasible, was used to record the measurements of 1000 contactless transactions at four different physical locations. A total of 252 random users, random sample of the university student population, were involved during the field trails. The analysis of these transactions provides an empirical foundation to categorically answer whether ambient sensors provide a strong proximity detection mechanism for security sensitive applications like banking, transport and high-security access control. After careful analysis, we conclude that no single evaluated mobile ambient sensor is suitable for such critical applications in realistic deployment scenarios. Lastly, we identify a number of potential avenues that may improve their effectiveness.
@cite_9 and @cite_19 showed how location-related data, namely using GPS (Global Positioning System), can be used to determine the proximity of two NFC mobile phones. use a ten second window with location information collected every second, which was subsequently compared across various devices. The authors report a high success rate in identifying the devices in close proximity to one another.
@cite_19 @cite_9
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Positioning is an essential element in most Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Global Positioning System (GPS) chips have high cost and power consumption, making it unsuitable for long-range (LoRa) and low-power IoT devices. Alternatively, low-power wide-area (LPWA) signals can be used for simultaneous positioning and communication. We summarize previous studies related to LoRa signal-based positioning systems, including those addressing proximity, a path loss model, time difference of arrival (TDoA), and fingerprint positioning methods. We propose a LoRa signal-based positioning method that uses a fingerprint algorithm instead of a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) proximity or TDoA method. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the accuracy and usability of the fingerprint algorithm for large areas in the real world. We estimated the locations using probabilistic means based on three different algorithms that use interpolated fingerprint RSSI maps. The average accuracy of the three proposed algorithms in our experiments was 28.8 m. Our method also reduced the battery consumption significantly compared with that of existing GPS-based positioning methods. 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. As sensor-rich mobile devices became a commodity, more opportunities appeared for the creation of location-aware services. While GPS is a well established solution for outdoor localization, there is still no standard solution for localization indoors. This paper presents a novel accurate indoor positioning mechanism that is meant to run in common smartphones to be a readily and widely available solution. The system is based on multiple gait-model based filtering techniques for accurate movement quantification in combination with an advanced fused positioning mechanism that leverages sequences of opportunistic observations towards an accurate localization process. Magnetic field fluctuations, Wi-Fi readings and movement data are incrementally matched with a feature spot map containing multi-dimensional spatially-related features that characterize the building. A novel and convenient way of mapping the architectural and environmental properties of buildings is also introduced, which avoids the burden normally associated with the process. The system has been evaluated by multiple users in open and crowded spaces where overall median localization errors between 1.11 m and 1.68 m were obtained. While the reported errors are already satisfactory in the context of indoor localization, improvements may be readily achieved through the inclusion of additional reference features. High accuracy performance coupled with an opportunistic and infrastructure-free approach creates a very desirable solution for the indoor localization market doge. A location proximity test service allows mobile users to determine whether they are in close proximity to each other, and has found numerous applications in mobile social networks. Unfortunately, existing solutions usually reveal much of users’ private location information during a proximity test. They are also vulnerable to location cheating where an attacker reports false locations to gain an advantage. Moreover, the initial trust establishment among unfamiliar users in large scale mobile social networks has been a challenging task. In this paper, we propose a novel scheme that enables a user to perform (1) a location based handshake that establishes secure communications among strangers, who do not have a pre-shared secret, and (2) a privacy-preserving proximity test without revealing the user’s actual location to the server or other users not within the proximity. The proposed scheme is based on a novel concept, i.e., spatial-temporal location tags, and we put forward a location tag construction method using environmental signals that provides an unforgeable location proof. We use Bloom filters to efficiently represent users’ location tags and vicinity regions. We exploit fuzzy extractor, a lightweight cryptographic primitive, to extract shared secrets between matching location tags. We conduct extensive analysis, simulation, and real experiments to demonstrate the feasibility, security, and efficiency of our scheme.