Design and implementation of secure distance bounding protocols

Distance Bounding protocols enable a verifier to establish an upper-bound on the distance to an untrusted prover. Distance bounding protocols offer an effective countermeasure against relay attacks in wireless authentication protocols. One of the most difficult research challenges is how to realize a distance bounding protocol in practice. This requires carefully combining cryptographic protocols with physical layer techniques. The goal of this research is to design secure distance bounding protocols that are compatible with wireless communication standards, for example BLE, and to develop a proof-of-concept implementation of the protocols. One of the approaches that will be particularly explored in this PhD, is the realization of an UWB-based distance bounding protocol, as recent research has shown that this communication technology offers interesting trade-offs between ranging accuracy and security.