What is claimed is:
1. A housing for holding, carrying, and using elongated personal items, comprising
(a) a body having a body top and a body bottom, and
(b) a means for releasably attaching the housing to another item;
(c) wherein said body comprises,
(i) an inner wall, wherein the inner wall encloses an insert opening that extends through the body from the body top to the body bottom, wherein the insert opening is adapted to accommodate insertion therein of a personal item, said personal item comprising an elongated container of predetermined size and shape;
(ii) at least one elastically compressible protrusion, wherein said protrusion is connected to and protrudes outwardly from the inner wall and into the insert opening,
(A) wherein at least one of the protrusions is adapted to guide the personal item into an intended position within the insert opening when the personal item is inserted into the insert opening through the body top,
(B) wherein at least one of the protrusions is compressed by a fully inserted personal item and thereby applies reactive pressure against the fully inserted personal item such that a gripping force is applied to the personal item;
(C) wherein the gripping forces collectively form a total gripping force that is sufficient to hold the container substantially in place relative to the housing in response to ordinary external forces, wherein said ordinary external forces comprise those forces reasonably expected to act upon the housing, the fully inserted personal item, or both, when a user of the personal item
(1) engages in normal user activities with the housing connected to the user via the means for releasably attaching the housing to another item,
(2) manipulates the fully inserted personal item as needed to use it, or
(3) both (1) and (2); and,
(D) wherein the total gripping force is not sufficient to prevent the user from manually inserting the personal item into its fully inserted position in the housing and extracting the fully inserted personal item from the housing.
2. The housing of claim 1, wherein the personal item has an operating mechanism, and the housing further comprises a means for providing access to the operating mechanism of the fully inserted personal item by at least one finger (finger being inclusive of thumb) of the user, whereby the user is able to manipulate the operating mechanism.
3. The housing of claim 2, further comprising a base having a base upper surface and a base lower surface, wherein the base upper surface faces generally toward the insert opening and the base lower surface faces generally away from the insert opening, and wherein the base is connected to the body at or near the body bottom.
4. The housing of claim 3, wherein the base comprises a raised base pivot connected to the base upper surface, wherein the pivot provides a seat for the bottom of the fully inserted personal item.
5. The housing of claim 4, wherein the base is sufficiently elastically flexible for the user to move the pivot toward the body top in response to a force applied by the user’s finger to the base lower surface.
6. The housing of claim 5, wherein the means for providing access to the operating mechanism is adapted to enable the user to both hold the housing and manipulate the operating mechanism of the fully inserted personal item using only one hand.
7. The housing of claim 2, wherein the operating mechanism is situated at or near the bottom of the personal item and wherein the base comprises a base end and at least one base support,
(a) wherein the base end has a base upper surface and a base lower surface, wherein the base upper surface faces generally toward the insert opening and the base lower surface faces generally away from the insert opening;
(b) wherein the base support connects the base end to the body at or near the body bottom; and,
(c) wherein the means for providing access to the operating mechanism comprises at least one base access opening defined by the base end, the one or more base supports, and the body bottom.
8. The housing of claim 7, wherein the base end comprises a raised base pivot connected to the base upper surface, wherein the pivot provides a seat for the bottom of the fully inserted personal item.
9. The housing of claim 8, wherein the base is sufficiently elastically flexible for the user to move the pivot toward the body top in response to a force applied by the user’s finger to the base lower surface.
10. The housing of claim 9, wherein the means for providing access to the operating mechanism is adapted to enable the user to both hold the housing and manipulate the operating mechanism of the fully inserted personal item using only one hand.
11. The housing of claim 3, wherein the operating mechanism is situated between the bottom of the personal item and the top of the personal item, wherein the means for providing access to the operating mechanism comprises at least one mid-body access opening through the side of the body.
12. The housing of claim 11, wherein the base comprises a raised pivot connected to the base upper surface, wherein the pivot provides a seat for the bottom of the fully inserted personal item.
13. The housing of claim 12, wherein the base is sufficiently elastically flexible for the user to move the pivot toward the body top in response to a force applied by the user’s finger to the base lower surface.
14. The housing of claim 13, wherein the means for providing access to the operating mechanism is adapted to enable the user to both hold the housing and manipulate the operating mechanism of the fully inserted personal item using only one hand.
15. The housing of claim 3, wherein the operating mechanism is situated at or near the top of the personal item and the means for providing access to the operating mechanism comprises an access-enabling body top, said access-enabling body top being the body top located and shaped such that at least a portion of the operating mechanism of the fully inserted personal item is exposed.
16. The housing of claim 1, further comprising a base having a base upper surface, a base lower surface, and a flange-shaped portion between the base upper surface and the base lower surface, wherein the base upper surface faces generally toward the insert opening and the base lower surface faces generally away from the insert opening; wherein the base is connected to the body at or near the body bottom; and, wherein the means for releasably attaching the housing to another item comprises a base hole through the flange-shaped portion.
17. The housing of claim 1 wherein the means for releasably attaching the housing to another item comprises a body side part having a hole through it, wherein the body side part is connected to the side of the body.
18. The housing of claim 1, wherein the means for releasably attaching the housing to another item is a clip, wherein the clip is connected to the housing.
19. The housing of claim 1, wherein at least one of the protrusions runs substantially continuously from a point at or near the body top to a point at or near the body bottom along a predetermined path.
20. The housing of claim 1, wherein the housing is made of a single piece of material.
21. The housing of claim 1, wherein the body is adapted to substantially protect the covered portions of the fully inserted personal item against impact damage from said ordinary external forces.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method for secure communication between a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag and a reader, wherein the method comprises the following steps that are carried out in the RFID tag:
encrypting a plaintext M into which an identification element (UII) of the RFID tag or of an object furnished therewith is incorporated, for computing a ciphertext C* by computing the Montgomery residue of the square of the plaintext M modulo n with respect to a Montgomery base R, i.e. C*=M2R\u22121 mod n, and
sending out an authentication message to the reader, the authentication message being based on the ciphertext C*,
wherein the modulus n=p\xb7q is the public key of the reader, the prime numbers p, q are the private key of the reader, and the Montgomery base R is an integer that is larger than the modulus n.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the authentication message transferred from the RFID tag to the reader contains the encrypted plaintext M in a form of the ciphertext C* with C*=M2R\u22121 mod n.
3. The method according to claim 1, wherein there are further incorporated into the plaintext M a first random number RND1 generated by the reader and a second random number RND2 generated by the RFID tag, wherein the first random number RND1 is transferred to the RFID tag as a challenge within a framework of a challenge-response method.
4. The method according to claim 3, wherein data incorporated into the plaintext M, in particular the identification element (UII) of the RFID tag, the first random number RND1 and the second random number RND2, are scrambled by means of an interleaving operation in order to distribute random data stemming from the reader and from the RFID tag randomly over the plaintext M.
5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the RFID tag is configured such that the RFID tag can begin with the encryption during the read-in of the challenge in the form of the first random number RND1, and the first bytes of the computed ciphertext C* can already be output to the reader while the subsequent bytes of the ciphertext C* are still being computed.
6. The method according to claim 1, wherein there is further incorporated into the plaintext M a digital signature (SIG(UII)) of the identification element (UII) of the RFID tag, which is deposited in a storage unit of the RFID tag and can be checked by the reader.
7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the modulus n is chosen, for saving computing time, as follows: n=1(mod 2bl\xb7nd), where nd is an integer with 1\u2266nd<d, bl is a word width of a processor unit of the RFID tag, and d is a length of the modulus n in word widths of the processor unit.
8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the Montgomery base R is chosen for the given modulus n as follows: R=2bl\xb7(d+sd), where bl is a word width of a processor unit of the RFID tag, d is a length of the modulus n in word widths of the processor unit, and sd is a security parameter which is so chosen that it holds that bl\xb7sd\u22671.
9. A method for secure communication between a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag and a reader, wherein the method comprises the following steps that are carried out in the reader:
receiving from the RFID tag an authentication message which is based on a ciphertext, i.e. C*=M2R\u22121 mod n, comprising an encrypted plaintext M into which an identification element (UII) of the RFID tag or of an object furnished therewith has been incorporated, and
decrypting the encrypted plaintext M, the decrypting step comprising multiplying the encrypted plaintext M by a Montgomery base R and subsequently carrying out the modulo operation with the modulus n,
wherein the modulus n=p\xb7q is the public key of the reader, the prime numbers p, q are the private key of the reader, and the Montgomery base R is an integer that is larger than the modulus n.
10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the authentication message transferred from the RFID tag to the reader contains the encrypted plaintext M in a form of the ciphertext C* with C*=M2R\u22121 mod n.
11. The method according to claim 9, wherein there are further incorporated into the plaintext M a first random number RND1 generated by the reader and a second random number RND2 generated by the RFID tag, wherein the first random number RND1 is ransferred to the RFID tag as a challenge within a framework of a challenge-response method.
12. The method according to claim 11, wherein data incorporated into the plaintext M, in particular the identification element (UII) of the RFID tag, the first random number RND1 and the second random number RND2, are scrambled by means of an interleaving operation in order to distribute random data stemming from the reader and from the RFID tag randomly over the plaintext M.
13. The method according to claim 11, wherein the RFID tag is configured such that the RFID tag can begin with the encryption during the read-in of the challenge in the form of the first random number RND1, and the first bytes of the computed ciphertext C* can already be output to the reader while the subsequent bytes of the ciphertext C* are still being computed.
14. The method according to claim 9, wherein there is further incorporated into the plaintext M a digital signature (SIG(UII)) of the identification element (UII) of the RFID tag, which is deposited in a storage unit of the RFID tag and can be checked by the reader.
15. The method according to claim 9, wherein the modulus n is chosen, for saving computing time, as follows: n=1(mod 2bl\xb7nd), where nd is an integer with 1\u2266nd<d, bl is a word width of a processor unit of the RFID tag, and d is a length of the modulus n in word widths of the processor unit.
16. The method according to claim 9, wherein the Montgomery base R is chosen for the given modulus n as follows: R=2bl\xb7(d+sd), where bl is a word width of a processor unit of the RFID tag, d is a length of the modulus n in word widths of the processor unit, and sd is a security parameter which is so chosen that it holds that bl\xb7sd\u22671.
17. A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag for secure communication with a reader;
wherein the RFID tag comprises a processor and memory in which an identification element (UII) is deposited, and wherein the processor is configured for encrypting a plaintext M into which the identification element (UII) of the RFID tag is incorporated, for computing a ciphertext C* by computing the Montgomery residue of the square of the plaintext M modulo n with respect to a Montgomery base R, i.e. C*=M2R\u22121 mod n, and transmitting an authentication message to the reader, the authentication message being based on the ciphertext C*, and wherein the modulus n=p\xb7q is the public key of the reader, the prime numbers p, q are the private key of the reader, and the Montgomery base R is an integer that is larger than the modulus n.
18. A reader for secure communication with a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag;
wherein the reader comprises memory and a processor which is configured for receiving from the RFID tag an authentication message which is based on a ciphertext, i.e. C*=M2R\u22121 mod n, comprising an encrypted plaintext M into which an identification element (UII) of the RFID tag has been incorporated, and decrypting the encrypted plaintext M, wherein upon the decryption the encrypted plaintext M is multiplied by a Montgomery base R and subsequently the modulo operation with the modulus n is carried out, wherein the modulus n=p\xb7q is the public key of the reader, the prime numbers p, q are the private key of the reader, and the Montgomery base R is an integer that is larger than the modulus n.
19. A system for secure communication with at least one RFID tag according to claim 17.
20. A system for secure communication with at least one reader according to claim 18.