Year: 2010

  • Java + PC/SC = accessing smartcards from a web page

    The Java Smartcard I/O API (javax.smartcardio, JSR 268) introduced in Java 1.6 is the bridge between PC/SC readers and the Java world. Java-based applications and applets may now communicate with smartcards in an interoperable and portable way. This makes it possible for web pages to access data stored in smartcards, or to invoke services running…

  • Mifare is out of 32-bit IDs

    NXP Semiconductors has recently warned their customers that they are running out of unique IDs for the Mifare Classic family. A detailed application note is also available to give precize answers to technical questions. Since the beginning, every card in the Mifare Classic family (1k, 4k, Mini) has a 32-bit identifier, said to be unique…

  • SpringCard and Effitic ready for ‘at-home’ card-based services

    Effitic, a french software engineering company, has set up a working demo that demonstrates how public transportation cards could be reloaded at home thanks to SpringCard’s contactless readers. In this architecture, all the business logic and the security components (SAM or HSM) are centralised in Effitic’s back-office server. A lightweight Java applet runs in a…

  • Cardpeek – open source tool to read the content of smartcards

    We’ve discovered a new open source project (lead by “L1L1”) that sounds promising. Cardpeek is a Linux tool to read the contents of ISO7816 smartcards. It uses a PC/SC reader to communicate with the card, and its GTK GUI represents card data is a tree view. Cardpeek list of supported cards is expandable thanks to…

  • 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,…