Secure QR code system

Quick Response (QR) codes are two dimensional barcodes that can be used to efficiently store small amount of data. They are increasingly used in all life fields, especially with the wide spread of smart phones which are used as QR code scanners. While QR codes have many advantages that make them very popular, there are several security issues and risks that are associated with them. Running malicious code, stealing users' sensitive information and violating their privacy and identity theft are some typical security risks that a user might be subject to in the background while he/she is just reading the QR code in the foreground. In this paper, a security system for QR codes that guarantees both users and generators security concerns is implemented. The system is backward compatible with current standard used for encoding QR codes. The system is implemented and tested using an Android-based smartphone application. It was found that the system introduces a little overhead in terms of the delay required for integrity verification and content validation.