Secure quantum-resistant pairing for medical implants using NFC
Plug-and-Play Quantum-Resistant BLE Pairing for Medical Implants via NFC Out-of-Band
Cryptography and Security
Summary
Bluetooth devices need a secure way to connect, but implantable medical devices usually lack screens or buttons to do this safely. The authors created a method that uses NFC, a short-range wireless technology, to set up a secure connection resistant to future quantum computer attacks. Their approach sends encrypted keys via NFC without revealing secrets and doesn’t need changes to existing Bluetooth software. Tests showed it works on small devices without draining much battery.
What this means in practice
- •For medical device engineers: Enable secure Bluetooth pairing of implantable medical devices using NFC that protects against quantum attacks without user interfaces.
- •For wearable device developers: Design secure pairing protocols for resource-constrained devices communicating via BLE and NFC to improve device security in healthcare wearables.
Authors
Muhammad Asim Javaid, Muhammad Shafay Tanveer Hassan, Faaiz Umer, Sotirios Panagiotou, Christos Strydis, Naveed Anwar Bhatti, Muhammad Adeel Pasha, Muhammad Ali Siddiqi
Abstract
Bluetooth 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. Existing NFC-assisted OOB schemes authenticate a classical BLE key exchange that remains vulnerable to quantum attacks, while the NFC channel itself is susceptible to eavesdropping and active injection under stronger threat models. To address these limitations, we propose a lightweight, plug-and-play NFC-based OOB pairing protocol that performs a post-quantum key encapsulation mechanism (KEM) entirely over the NFC channel, ensuring that no shared secret is transmitted over NFC while reducing long-range radio-frequency (RF) exposure during pairing. The proposed protocol requires no modifications to the BLE stack and inherently resists RF battery-depletion attacks. Evaluation on an IMD-class proof-of-concept testbed demonstrates that post-quantum OOB pairing is practical on resource-constrained devices, reducing projected battery life by less than 0.57\% for Kyber-1024 and 0.56\% for FireSABER under an operational usage model relative to the MITM-vulnerable Just Works method.