On the Need for Secure Distance-Bounding

Distance-bounding is a practical solution to be used in security-sensitive contexts, mainly to prevent relay attacks. But subtle security shortcomings related to the PRF (pseudorandom function) assumption and ingenious attack techniques based on observing verifiers’ outputs have recently been put forward. In this extended abstract, we survey some of these security concerns and attempt to incorporate the lessons taught by these new developments in ideas of distance-bounding protocol design.