Description
The NewP@ss project aims to develop advanced secure platforms (microelectronics and embedded software) adapted to the arrival of the new generation of electronic passports currently under discussion at the ICAO (thus usable and recognized as an approved travel document at European and international level), but which could also be used to host dedicated electronic service applications of a governmental and/or private nature. More specifically, the project will aim to achieve the following objectives:
- Develop all the hardware and software technologies needed to support the next generation of electronic passports. In particular, this new generation will support the new LDS1+/2+ (Logical Data Structures) currently under discussion at ICAO, which will bring about a fundamental conceptual change in the use of the passport, enabling it to become a truly multi-application device;
- Develop all the technological building blocks required to achieve the levels of performance and functionality demanded by ICAO and European or international regulatory bodies (new cryptographic protocols such as SAC, high-speed contactless interfaces, e.g. VHDR/VHBR, efficient biometrics);
- Develop complete proofs of concept for the implementation of the new electronic passport, resulting from a combination of advanced secure 32-bit microcontrollers, advanced embedded software platforms based on a small footprint multithreaded operating system, compact and secure fixed or mobile readers ;
- Develop all the security and confidentiality concepts needed to guarantee the target lifespan (5-10 years) of the target ePassport platforms, as well as the appropriate level of isolation between applications;
- Provide functional test suites and reference implementations, suitable for subsequent interoperability tests;
- Validate the proofs of concept of e-passport platforms on e-government and non-e-government use cases. The implementation of some of these use cases will also involve the development/validation of security mechanisms necessary for the correct handling of security credentials (certificates, PKI schemes).
Objectifs
The objective for Yncréa Méditerranée was to develop the environment allowing to make the proof of concept as well as the validation of the very high speed communications (VHBR) as well as to study the chips in operation.
The work led to the development of a VHBR reader and card emulation platform (PCD&PICC) as well as RF architecture for field readers.
Developments in conjunction with the school's SHES and IT team have also led to the development of demonstrators on the new uses that the new generations of passports can bring.
Partners
Main teacher-researchers involved
Project Director
Thibaut DELERUYELLE
Activity manager
Stéphane VERA
Director of R&D
Guillaume PEROCHEAU
Teacher-researcher
More details
The platform developed within the framework of the project allows to address VHBR communications either in a digital way and convert them into radio frequency waveforms or conversely to integrate radio frequency signals and demodulate and analyze them to obtain digital signals.
The figure below shows an example of reader to card communication on a VHBR communication.
Tools have been developed to allow the analysis of chips during their communication. Thanks to this it is possible to analyze the electrical behavior of the chip (impedance), while it performs operations such as memory writing or cryptography...
