October 2021 – SpringCard TechZone

Using NXP RFIDDiscover with SpringCard PC/SC Couplers

by johann.d 01/10/2021

RFIDDiscover (formerly MifareDiscover) is a GUI software provided by NXP to help the developers explore the features of their contactless cards (Mifare, Desfire, NTAG and ICode) and learn how-to use them from a real application.

This software is available to customers under NDA with NXP, through the DocStore document delivery platform (ref. SW1866).

This article shows how-to get started with this RFIDDiscover, in the aim of using it together with SpringCard devices. This is the preferred method to learn how those cards work, before starting the development of any software that would use them for data storage and/or secure transactions.

Definitioner

DESFire

The MIFARE DESFire is a special release of Philips SmartMX platform. It is sold already programmed with a general purpose software (the DESFire operating system).

Mifare

This trademark of NXP (formerly Philips Semiconductors) is the generic brand name of their PICC products. Billions of Mifare Classic cards have been deployed since the 90's. This is a family of wired-logic PICCs were data storage is divided into sectors and protected by a proprietary1 stream cipher called CRYPTO1. Every sector is protected by 2 access keys called 'key A' and 'key B'. NXP also offers another family of wired-logic PICCs called Mifare UltraLight (adopted by NFC Forum as Type 2 NFC Tags). Mifare SmartMX (and former Pro/ProX) is a family of microprocessor-based PICCs that may run virtually any smartcard application, typically on top a JavaCard operating system. Mifare Desfire is a particular microprocessor-based PICC that runs a single general-purpose application.

Archives October 2021