Reading data from a Smart Card (preferably with Java)

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Reading data from a Smart Card (preferably with Java)

I would like to be able to read a few bytes of unencrypted data which is stored in a smart card. I have the reader and know that the Sun version of Java 6 includes javax.smartcardio and I have read a bit about these APIs.

Having never worked with smart cards before I wonder if there is a simple way to read bytes of date in a given sector of a smart card. I am not trying to do anything more complicated that that but was hoping someone in this community has had experience of working with Smart Cards.

The specific chips being used in the cards are: JTOP 10/18k

You seem to know a lot already, but if you're dealing with javacards, you really need to have a look at some javacard introduction, something like this one for example.

A smart card is not a "disk". It does not have sectors or a continuous byte array.

martin 2010-08-20 18:59:22

Perhaps the information I was given was incomplete or misleading. The person at the University who administers the student cards mentioned the student number being stored in 9 bytes starting at sector 0. I might have to re-read that email and see if I misunderstood. The APIs all seem to revolve around issuing the card a command and getting a response back. The problem is then learning what commands I have available to use.I am technically intrigued now about how it all works though part of me wonders if it would be simpler to use a lookup table of unique smart card ids to student numbers.

Carl Jokl 2010-08-21 17:41:38

Looking again at the information it looks like the information I was given about the data being stored on the card only applied to some types of student cards used in certain placed but not the standard Java Cards. It looks like these are not programmed. I Now have a better understanding how this works. I don't believe I could write applets for them myself without registering for a vendor id. I imagine this is expensive but haven't been able to find sites about applying for vendor ids to know for sure.

Carl Jokl 2010-08-23 13:26:54

I managed to find the information eventually. The cost looks to be £350 or $500 but looking through the information it is not mandatory to register for and RID and the prefix 'F' (hex) can be used on the number to show that it is not registered. Given this is only intended for internal University use it might make writing a JavaCard App (using an unregistered RID) a possibility. Still it is more complicated that just using barcodes but also more powerful.

Carl Jokl 2010-08-23 14:04:45

You don't need anyones permission or a RID to develop javacard applets. But most probably you'll need someones permission to get your applet to the pre-distribtued student cards.

martin 2010-08-24 15:57:42

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Reading data from a Smart Card (preferably with Java)

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