Plug-and-Play Quantum-Resistant BLE Pairing for Medical Implants via NFC Out-of-Band
Researchers propose NFC out-of-band post-quantum BLE pairing for implants that avoids transmitting shared secrets.
Implantable medical devices lack interfaces for MITM-resistant BLE methods such as Numeric Comparison and Passkey Entry, making NFC out-of-band pairing attractive. Existing schemes still authenticate a classical BLE exchange that is vulnerable to quantum attacks, and NFC can be eavesdropped or actively injected. The proposed plug-and-play protocol runs a post-quantum key encapsulation entirely over NFC, needs no BLE stack changes, and resists RF battery-depletion. On an implant-class testbed, Kyber-1024 and FireSABER cut projected battery life by less than 0.57% and 0.56% versus Just Works.
- Protocol performs a post-quantum KEM entirely over the NFC channel.
- No BLE stack changes and no shared secret sent over NFC.
- Kyber-1024 costs under 0.57% projected battery life versus Just Works.
- Design resists RF battery-depletion and long-range exposure during pairing.
From the original article
1 min read at arxiv.orgBluetooth Low Energy (BLE) pairing establishes the cryptographic foundation for secure device communication. However, mainstream man-in-the-middle (MITM)-resistant pairing methods, such as Numeric Comparison and Passkey Entry, require user interfaces that implantable medical devices (IMDs) inherently lack, making Near-Field Communication (NFC)-assisted Out-of-Band (OOB) pairing an attractive alternative.
By Muhammad Asim Javaid · arxiv.org
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