Biblio

The JavaCard multi-application platform is now deployed to over twenty billion smartcards, used in various applications ranging from banking payments and authentication tokens to SIM cards and electronic documents. In most of those use cases, access to various cryptographic primitives is required. The standard JavaCard API provides a basic level of access to such functionality (e.g., RSA encryption) but does not expose low-level cryptographic primitives (e.g., elliptic curve operations) and essential data types (e.g., Integers). Developers can access such features only through proprietary, manufacturer-specific APIs. Unfortunately, such APIs significantly reduce the interoperability and certification transparency of the software produced as they require non-disclosure agreements (NDA) that prohibit public sharing of the applet's source code.We introduce JCMathLib, an open library that provides an intermediate layer realizing essential data types and low-level cryptographic primitives from high-level operations. To achieve this, we introduce a series of optimization techniques for resource-constrained platforms that make optimal use of the underlying hardware, while having a small memory footprint. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first generic library for low-level cryptographic operations in JavaCards that does not rely on a proprietary API.Without any disclosure limitations, JCMathLib has the potential to increase transparency by enabling open code sharing, release of research prototypes, and public code audits. Moreover, JCMathLib can help resolve the conflict between strict open-source licenses such as GPL and proprietary APIs available only under an NDA. This is of particular importance due to the introduction of JavaCard API v3.1, which targets specifically IoT devices, where open-source development might be more common than in the relatively closed world of government-issued electronic documents.

Management of flow of all kinds of objects including human beings signifies their real time monitoring. This paper outlines the advantages accrued out of biometrics integration with Smartcards. It showcases the identity authentication employed through different biometric techniques. Biometric key considerations influencing the essence of this technology in Smartcards have been discussed briefly in this paper. With better accuracy and highly reliable support system this technology finds itself today in widespread deployment. However, there are still some concerns with human interfaces along with important factors in implementations of biometrics with smartcards which have been highlighted in this article. This paper also examines the privacy concerns of users in addressing their apprehensions to protect their confidentiality through biometric encryption and proposes DNA technology as a best possible biometric solution. However, due to inherent limitations of its processing time and an instant requirement of authentication, it has been suggested in the proposed modal to use it with combination of one or more suitable biometric technologies. An instant access has been proposed to the user with limited rights by using biometric technology other than the DNA as a primary source of authentication. DNA has been proposed as secondary source of authentication where only after due sample comparison full access rights to the user will be granted. This paper also aims in highlighting the number of advantages offered by the integration of biometrics with smartcards. It also discusses the need to tackle existing challenges due to restrictions in processing of different biometric technologies by defining certain specific future scopes for improvements in existing biometric technologies mainly against the time taken by it for sample comparisons.