#Smart card reader android how to#
#Smart card reader android serial#
#Smart card reader android verification#
#Smart card reader android iso#
#Smart card reader android series#

The more interesting question however is what's in smime.p7s? The 'p7' stands for PKCS#7, which is the predecessor of the current Cryptographic Message Syntax ( CMS).

#Smart card reader android verification#

S/MIME-compliant clients would instead parse and verify the signature and display some visual indication showing the signature verification status. To an email client that does not support S/MIME, like most Web mail apps, this would look like an attachment called smime.p7s. For example, a signed message would have a part with the Content-Type: application/pkcs7-signature name=smime.p7s smime-type=signed-data which contains the message signature and any associated attributes. It specified both the procedures for creating signed or encrypted (enveloped) content and the MIME media typesВ to use when adding them to the message.

#Smart card reader android how to#

The S/MIME, or Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions, standardВ defines how to include signed and/or encrypted content in email messages. Let's first discuss how S/MIME is implemented. We will use S/MIME for this example because it is a lot easier to get started with and test, but the techniques described can be used to implement PGP-secured email as well. On the other hand, all major proprietary (Outlook variants, Mail.app, etc) and open source (Thunderbird) email clients have built-in and mature S/MIME implementations. Additionally, while many commercial and open source PGP implementations do exist, most mainstream email clients do not support PGP out of the box and require the installation of plugins and additional software. However, it requires much more user involvement and is especially challenging to new users. PGP has the advantage of being decentralized, which makes it harder to break the system by compromising a single entity, as has happened with a number of public CAs in recent years. S/MIME, on the other hand, relies on PKI and X.509 certificates, where the issuing authority (CA) is relied upon to verify identity when issuing a certificate. PGP relies on the so called 'web of trust', where everyone can vouch for the identity of someone by signing their key (usually after meeting them in person), and keys with more signatures can be considered trustworthy. The method used to verify identity is the biggest difference between the two major secure email standards in use today, PGP and S/MIME. Each party is responsible for both protecting their private key and verifying that the public key of their counterpart matches their actual identity.

Secure email itself is hardly a new idea, and the 'old-school' way of implementing it relies on pubic key cryptography. As recent events have reconfirmed, introducing an intermediary is not a very good idea if communication between two parties is to be and remain secure.

They are trying to make it 'easy' for users by taking care of key management and shifting all cryptographic operations to the server. There have been quite a few new services that are trying to reinvent secure email in recent years. The underlying RF standard used varies by manufacturer, and both Type A and Type B are common. While smart cards that have only a contactless interface do exist, dual-interfaceВ cards that have both contacts and an antenna for RF communication are the majority.

#Smart card reader android iso#

The communication protocol (T=CL) they use is defined in ISO 14443В and is very similar to the T1 protocol used by contact cards. They draw power and communicate with the reader using RF induction. Contactless cardsВ on the other hand do not need to have physical contact with the reader. Those traditional cards are referred to as ' contact smart cards'.

#Smart card reader android series#

Size, electrical characteristics and communication protocols are defined in the 7816 series of ISO standards.

#Smart card reader android serial#

The pads are used to both provide power to the card and establish serial communication with its I/O interface. Traditionally, smart cards connect with a card reader using a number of gold-plated contact pads. As discussed in previous posts, a smart card is a secure execution environment on a single chip, typically packaged in a credit-card sized plastic package or the smallerВ 2FF/3FF/4FF form factors when used as a SIM card.