Author: johann.d

  • Create and read NFC tags with SpringCard NFC Tool and NFC Decoder

    NFC Tags in a nutshell An NFC Tag is a regular ISO 14443 card (either a memory card or a microprocessor-based smartcard), holding a specific content. Depending on this content, the “reader” will perform automatically a predefined action. Typical actions are : open a URL (Internet address), dial a number or send an SMS (if…

  • Mifare UltraLight C : low-cost yet high security

    NXP (formerly Philips SemiConductors) Mifare UltraLight chip (MF0ICU1) is a inexpensive contactless memory, widely used to make disposable transport tickets or other low-cost identification tags. As MF0ICU1 lacks of authentication or even password protection schemes, the reading application has to way to determine whether the serial number and the data come from a genuine card,…

  • Contactless ticketing and pre-payment using Mifare UltraLight C and Prox’N’Roll

    Last saturday, SpringCard Prox’N’Roll PC/SC was the core component of the access control and payment system during the annual gala of french high-school École Centrale d’Électronique (ECE) located in Paris. NXP Mifare UltraLight C chips were embedded in the disposable wristbands (featuring the SpringCard logo) that were worn by 3000 attendees. Starting from SpringCard SDK,…

  • Calypso Explorer now available for download

    SpringCard contactless readers are often used together with Calypso cards, that are used worldwide by some major transport operators (‘Navigo’ in Paris for instance). We are now offering for free two software utilities we’ve developed to retrieve and explain the content of those cards : Calypso XML Dump is a CLI written in C that…

  • SpringCard-CF on Belgian TV

    In Belgium, football supporters may know book their stadium tickets online thanks to their eID card. This short extract of RTL TV news (in french) shows the SpringCard-CF in use with this eID card. Read the whole article here (in french)

  • Why one shouldn’t trust card’s serial number

    Both ISO 14443 and ISO 15693 mandates that the contactless/proximity cards or tags all have a ‘more-or-less unique’ physical identifier, that is required to identify the card or tag during the initial discovery process (and during the anti-collision loop when there’s more than one card in the field). This identifier is called UID in 14443-A…