NXP MIFARE DESFire EV3 Contactless IC

NXP MIFARE DESFire is the ideal contactless IC for solution developers and service providers looking to support single application use cases. It is a highly secure product and utilizes DES, 2K3DES and 3K3DES hardware encryption for the transmission of data.

It features a card generated MAC for an additional level of security and offers a transaction timer to mitigate man-in-the-middle attacks. It also supports NFC Forum Type 4 Tag to ensure seamless mobile integration.

Security

The MIFARE DESFire EV3 IC is a key component of many Smart City services, offering the ideal combination of security and convenience. It can be used for closed-loop payment solutions or to manage access to various applications, such as public transportation and event tickets. It can also be deployed to NFC smartphones and wearables to enable contactless payments or access features.

The DESFire EV3 IC has an extensive list of security features that protect data and ensure privacy. Its hardware and software are certified to Common Criteria EAL 5+, and it supports a broad choice of open crypto algorithms based on DES, 2K3DES, 3K3DES and AES. It also has a transaction timer feature that helps mitigate man-in-the-middle attacks.

MIFARE DESFire Light cards are widely used in transport networks, university access control systems and hotel room keys. They offer a variety of security options, including an on-chip backup management system, mutual three-pass authentication and a configurable secure messaging mode. The chips have a random ID, an anti-tear mechanism and an elliptic curve-based ‘originality signature’ that verify the card’s identity.

The POST /desfire/ev1/createApp API allows for the creation of a MIFARE DESFire application on a card. The resulting application is comprised of an AID, 16 or 24 bytes AMK and two key settings bytes: AID_Settings1 and AID_Settings2. The DESFire API also includes the ability to delete an existing application from the card.

Privacy

MIFARE DESFire is designed with privacy in mind. It uses an on-chip backup management system RFID Card Supplier and mutual three-pass authentication to prevent data corruption on the card. It also provides an automatic anti-tear mechanism and a secure cryptographic accelerator to allow for high transaction speeds.

The MIFARE DESFire EV2 IC is certified to Common Criteria EAL 4+, making it an ideal choice for logical access and biometric ID solutions as well as cashless campus environments. It supports an extensive set of security features, including delegated key management and the ability to read/write custom keys and cipher-based message authentication codes.

In addition, the DESFire EV2 IC has an innovative MIsmartApp feature that allows system providers to offer new application space or to sell their own applications on a single smart card. This is done without sharing the master key, thus ensuring maximum security.

The MIFARE DESFire Light IC builds upon the portfolio’s strong heritage of public transport ticketing, while adding new levels of convenience for end users and reliability for service providers. The contactless IC offers a range of security features including an improved encryption engine to protect transmission data, and a transaction timer to mitigate man-in-the-middle attacks. The DESFire Light IC is also designed to meet the stringent requirements of the ISO/IEC 14443-4 standard and can be used with a variety of reader technologies.

Interoperability

NXP’s MIFARE DESFire contactless IC is an extremely reliable, open standard and scalable platform for system operators, solution providers and integrators. It offers a variety of memory sizes and organisation structures, as well as backward compatibility mode to support existing NFC reader infrastructure.

DESFire EV2 is the ideal choice for smart card applications that require high speed and security. This includes logical access control, proximity cards and loyalty, closed-loop e-payment at vending machines and mobile ticketing for public transportation. Its innovative MIsmartApp feature also enables new business models for systems such as multi-application tickets or the integration of multiple city services on a single MIFARE chip.

The EV3 IC is the latest evolution of the MIFARE portfolio and brings next-generation performance, advanced security and seamless integration of mobile services to traditional and modern smart city installations. It features a new, more secure MAC protocol with improved crypto algorithms and supports the use of a transaction timer to help mitigate man-in-the-middle attacks.

It supports the NFC Forum Type 4 Tag certification and is compatible with most NFC readers, as well as offering optional high input capacitance (70 pF) for smaller form factor designs. It is based on global open standards for air interface and cryptographic methods. The IC’s hardware crypto engine provides high level of security using 3DES/AES to protect transmission data.

Performance

MIFARE Desfire ICs offer excellent performance, making them a smart choice for developers and service operators seeking high security, scalable and interoperable contactless solutions. These chips are ideal for a wide range of applications, including public transport, access control and closed-loop e-payment. They feature particular protective mechanisms and five AES 128-bit keys to monitor access rights nxp mifare desfire and protect user privacy. They also include messaging options to help support trusted services, as well as hardware and software certified with Common Criteria EAL 4.

NXP’s MIFARE DESFire EV3 is the latest generation of the MIFARE contactless IC family. It provides a perfect balance of speed, performance and cost efficiency. Its open concept allows seamless integration of other ticketing media such as smart paper tickets and banking convergence cards based on NFC technology. It is backward compatible with DESFire EV1 and DESFire Plus.

The MIFARE DESFire Light is a low-cost, flexible and secure contactless chip that is easy to integrate into new and existing systems. It offers a pre-defined file system and total memory of 640 bytes, equivalent to 16 MIFARE Classic cards with 4 kBytes of storage. It can communicate in an ISO 14443 Type A mode and uses optional ISO 7816-4 commands.

The MIFARE DESFire product family was the target of a side-channel attack by researchers at Ruhr University Bochum in October 2011. The researchers published their findings and made corresponding software, firmware and improved hardware schematics publicly available on GitHub.