ib technology

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Mifare Applications and Security

The Mifare “classic” family is the pioneer and market leader in contactless smart card

technology operating in the 13.56 MHz frequency range with read/write capability.

The

Mifare technology was originally designed for Electronic-Purse applications for public

transport systems and was a benchmark for the ISO 14443A standard. The cards have up to

40 separate memory sectors or “purses” (on Mifare 4k card) that can be individually locked

and unlocked for access. In addition, the high speed communication of the 13.56 MHz

interface allows for quick increment/decrement operations that are required for rapid ticketing

or e-purse applications. Typical transaction time is less than 100ms for read/modify/write

operations. The multiple memory sectors allow for different service providers to use the same

Mifare card with complete independence and security, the Ultralight card has only one sector

and is designed for single use or disposable applications due to it’s low cost.

Because Mifare was designed originally for Electronic-Purse applications, a very high level of

security was essential to prevent fraud. Each transaction is started with a mutual three pass

authentication procedure according to the ISO 9798-2 standard.

RF communication is

protected from replay attack and data communication between RWD and card is encrypted

according to the Philips triple-DES CRYPTO1 algorithm. Separate sets of two security keys

for each memory sector (or application) ensure that service providers have complete security

control over their individual sector. The high level of data integrity for the 106 kbaud RF

communication is achieved by combining a special patented modulation technique, 16 bit

CRC, parity bit coding, bit counting, channel monitoring and an anticollision algorithm.

Finally, the RWD device itself stores up to 32 security keys that the service provider can

change and use for their applications. These keys are non-volatile and cannot be read back

further ensuring system security.

Even though the Mifare technology is ideally suited to e-purse uses, each card has a unique

serial number at the beginning of it’s memory that makes the technology suitable for almost

any application requiring large and secure read/write memory areas. Typical applications

could include:-

Access Control, Automatic Fare Collection, Bus/Train/Airline ticketing, Electronic Purse,

Vending, Loyalty / Membership Schemes, ID cards, Time and Attendance, Asset

Tracking, Gambling, Electronic Keys, Logistics, Road Tolling, Payphones, Park and Ride

Schemes, pre-paid metering.

IB Technology’s design philosophy has created the “Universal RFID Socket” so that different

technologies such as the 125 kHz MicroRWD (Hitag and EM Marin) modules, QT (Quad

Tag) module and the 13.56 MHz MicroRWD Mifare and I.CODE modules are the same

physical size, have the same pinout and share common serial commands. This concept allows

users to select and migrate between different RFID technologies according to the specific

features they require with the minimum of design changes.

(Hitag, Mifare and I.CODE are registered trademarks of NXP/Philips Semiconductors N.V)