Smartcards for Dummies

Question

Are there any defacto resources for understanding the basics of smart cards?

My problem is that I don't know what I don't know about the technology.

Any good primers?

Are you looking more for hardware or software information? I've managed an entire career (so far) knowing alot about provisioning PKI for Smart Cards, while knowing less than 10 bullet points about the hardware side... — bethlakshmi, May 6, 2011 at 19:17
@bethlaksmi hmm. Both preferably, but software at a minimum. — Steve, May 6, 2011 at 19:37
If you're looking for the real basics, you can always check out Wikipedia — AviD, May 7, 2011 at 22:03

john · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-07 04:00:06Z

If you don't want to read straight from standards, and you are looking something in book form, this is a nice primer, (fairly) entry level into smart card security: http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Cards-Tokens-Security-Applications/dp/1441944265 . It's written by two university professors and is the course book on a msc course about smart cards. For a more comprehensive book on the subject (but maybe a bit beyond what you need) I suggest this one: http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Card-Handbook-Wolfgang-Rankl/dp/0470743670

Thomas Pornin · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-06 19:56:43Z

4

Depending on what you are looking for there is a lot of technologies covering the smart card topic. Some of them coming to my mind:

ISO 7816: cards with contact http://www.cardwerk.com/smartcards/smartcard_standard_ISO7816.aspx
ISO 14443: contactless smart cards http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_14443
PKCS#15: Cryptographic Token Information Format Standard http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/node.asp?id=2141
PKCS#11: Cryptographic Token Interface Standard http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/node.asp?id=2133

Thomas Pornin

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answered May 6, 2011 at 19:52

Jcs

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@Thomas Great links, but I think the books linked to by @john will be easier to read. :)
– Steve
May 8, 2011 at 13:58
@SteveS: hey, I am not the author of this answer ! Credits go to @Jcs. I just fixed a couple of typographic errors.
– Thomas Pornin
May 8, 2011 at 15:39

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martin · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-12 14:43:35Z

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OpenSC project has also lots of information and further pointers. And you're most welcome to ask for help on the mailing list as well.

answered Jun 12, 2011 at 13:08

martin

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