MIFARE
MIFARE Card Management
MIFARE is a contactless smart card technology owned by Philips. The MIFARE technology is based on
ISO 14443A operating at the 13.56 MHz frequency. MIFARE is a proven, reliable, and robust
technology for contactless smart card with 250 million cards in the field. It is an open architecture
platform that guarantees compatibility with current and future products. MIFARE has an established
customer base with the broadest offering of suppliers providing multiple sources for cards and
readers.
MIFARE Technical Specification
The MIFARE standard card is a 1K byte (8192 bits) with 16 sectors. The memory map of the sector
is as follows: each sector has 64 bytes (512 bits); within each sector, there are 4 blocks. A block has
16 bytes (128 bit) of memory. Sector 0 is reserved for the MIFARE Application Directory commonly
refers to as MAD. For this reason, the pcProx Card Manager does not allow selecting Sector ‘0’. The
MAD defines the common data structures for card application directory entries; allowing terminal
to identify the right card and the right memory within the card without the need to perform a
comprehensive search through all of the card’s sectors until the appropriate application is found. The
MAD uses Application Identifiers (AID) pointing to the specific sector in which the data is stored
and identifies the registered card application for that sector. For multiple applications on a single
MIFARE card, there can be multiple AIDs programmed Sector 0x0 and 0x1 to identify all registered
card applications. The AID is a unique 16-bit number that is assigned by Philips to the participating
registered companies. RF IDeas leaves this up to the end user to register.
Each MIFARE card contains an integrated chip with a unique permanent identification (UID) burned-
in during the manufacturing process. The UID is often referred to as the Card Serial Number (CSN);
for MIFARE, it is a 32-bit randomly generated serial number. The card serial number is not encrypted
and resides in Sector 0, Block 0 and cannot be overwritten. In each sector including the MAD, there
is a set of 48-bit encryption keys: Key A (read) and Key B (write). The keys are used to protect
the programmed data from being read or overwritten without authorization. Since each sector has
its own pair of keys, the card can be used to store information from multiple vendors for separate
applications and protecting their specific sector(s) with their respective keys.
Security
The MIFARE technology uses the three pass mutual authentication according to ISO 9798-2 to
ensure the security of the card and reader data exchange. The three pass mutual authentication is
used to authenticate the card and the data stored on the card. The three pass sequence encrypts the
communication and the transfer of card data between the card and the reader.
The pcProx Card Manager establishes its own security keys. If you require to establish your own keys,
another version of the pcProx Card Manager is available – please contact technical support.
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Chapter 5
Card Management
