WO2002058004A1 - Smart card micromodule interconnection and portable electronic device comprising a plurality of network-connected smart card micromodules - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention concerns an interconnection of at least two smart card micromodules characterised in that it is produced by concatenating one by one said micromodules (202-205; 302-304) of smart cards, via a direct and specific link (206, 208, 209; 306, 309, 315), complying with the smart card standard.

Description

 INTERCONNECTION OF CHIP CARD MICROMODULES AND

PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICE COMPRISING A

PLURALITY OF CONNECTED CHIP CARD MICROMODULES

IN A NETWORK.

The present invention relates to the interconnection of smart card micromodules and a portable electronic device comprising a plurality of smart card micromodules connected in a network.

1 / invention applies to the production of smart card readers or smart cards, multifunctional, modular and secure.

In the following, a micromodule will be used to designate a smart card chip, that is to say any device comprising a microcircuit defined by the standards relating to smart cards including the micromodule itself with or without the standardized connection terminal block. smart cards as soon as this microcircuit includes the standard input-output links of smart cards.

A smart card micromodule is a complete system. It is generally an integrated circuit chip comprising a microcontroller which comprises a microprocessor, at least one non-volatile memory, at least one volatile memory, at least one communication device as well as other specialized devices such as " timers ”, cryptographic coprocessor, etc. The micromodule can also include connection terminals allowing it to communicate with the outside. These connection terminals form the contact pads of the smart cards. The chip is called “tamper-resistant” because its implementation has been specifically oriented to meet high security requirements, namely: by removing certain instructions from the game of the initial microprocessor which represented obvious or potential security weaknesses. by eliminating the so-called test and debugging modes, in particular the “step-by-step” mode. - by adding numerous internal protections, active and passive, to control the environment in which the chip evolves to respond to physical or logical attacks.

This list is voluntarily not exhaustive because it evolves day after day to respond as effectively as possible and to thwart newly discovered or then potentially possible attacks in the face of the permanent evolution of the technological context.

The silicon chip alone has a maximum size, typically to date 25mm2 of surface and 180μm of thickness, allowing the process. manufacturing for its insertion in a card size called "credit card": in other words, once this silicon chip inserted according to a manufacturing process, everything must meet the ISO 7816-1 and 2 smart card standard .

The problem is as follows: In recent years, it has been necessary to store more and more data in a smart card. Also, efforts have been made to increase the resources available. In return, the fact that there are more resources available naturally made possible new architectures of operating systems (called "operating systems") more complex such as "virtual machines" which always poses the same problem as the initial problem, the resources still not being sufficient enough .

Faced with the endless race between the resources and the on-board functionalities that we mentioned above, an alternative can be envisaged: that of fragmenting into several sub-assemblies in which the different functionalities of the system are distributed.

In this perspective of partitioning the functionalities and the storage capacity between several sub-assemblies, there then arises the technical problem of the interconnection of the sub-assemblies between them.

We will present in the following, the state of the art known to date:

As a reminder, to date, the standard for smart cards defines, among other things, communication with a smart card through a device called a “smart card reader” allowing orders from the platform to be converted reception, referred to below as the communication terminal T, to smart card orders and therefore that meet the current communication standards for smart cards. In addition, said “smart card reader” dialogues with the smart card through a communication means, it is for example a single physical line called I / O on which the communication is bidirectional “half -duplex ".

In the patent filed by the Applicant FR 2 771 205, a new generation of portable telephones has been described which offers more than one insertion slot or "Slot" for smart cards due to the many smart cards to take into account. For example a SIM card and a bank card. In this patent, two cards Pi, P2 can be present in the communication terminal T. A mechanism has been developed to allow communication between the two cards in a GSM type context.

This solution responds to a GSM communication terminal application. The diagram illustrating this architecture is represented in FIG. 1.

It is limited to two smart cards only. That is to say that it does not offer the possibility of addressing two additional cards for example.

But above all, this solution requires for each smart card present to have an interface commonly called a “smart card reader” because it integrates, a standard interface for communication to the smart card and one to the platform. Home.

And finally, this solution unfortunately requires the participation of a third party: the communication terminal itself in order to interpret the commands and transfer them from a smart card to

The other.

We can see that even if this solution uses smart card communication standards, it does not respond to a generic extension due to the fact that it requires more "hardware" each time.

Another approach which has been proposed is to combine sub-assemblies by wiring and inserting: - a smart card chip P,

at least one common non-volatile memory chip M, generally of high capacity, a second memory chip is shown in this figure, - a common chip of a PI microprocessor allowing management of the assembly.

While this technical solution makes it possible to achieve high memory capacities, it nevertheless has certain disadvantages, in particular in terms of security:

Already the proposed implementation does not allow a generic extension of memory or functionality due to the very nature of a fixed architecture. Security is weakened by the fact that only the chip of the smart card is "tamper-resistant" as for the other elements, they are not intrinsically designed to meet strong security requirements as it was defined at the beginning, and the interconnections - between sub-assemblies are not at all secure, thus weakening the security of the assembly.

This solution is illustrated by the diagram in Figure 2.

In the approach of a secure interconnection of the sub-assemblies with one another, patent EP 0596 276 B1 poses the problem of extending them. storage capacities while maintaining security. But some disadvantages lie:

The proposed extension is only in terms ^of data storage or program eventually but not totally heterogeneous features. - The communication bus used is not the one commonly used in the smart card standard. This characteristic does not make the extension of the system generic by adding existing elements which use the standards commonly used in the smart card. The diagram in FIG. 3 illustrates this state of the art.

The invention proposes a communication between at least two micromodules or smart card chips, either similar or heterogeneous, but where each always uses the ISO 7816 standard commonly used in smart card communications, in order to extend generically the association of the smart card chips together, while using already existing smart cards. The block diagram is illustrated in FIG. 4. As proposed by the present invention, this extension is modular and easy to implement by the fact that it requires little, or even no additional hardware, which makes the economically realistic solution. As emerges from the presentation which has just been made, the state of the art available to date does not respond to this problem.

The present invention therefore makes it possible to solve this problem by interconnecting smart card micromodules in order to constitute a network, each implementing either similar or heterogeneous functionalities.

The interconnection of at least two smart cards by chaining the smart card micromodules one by one, via a direct and specific link, meets the standard of smart cards.

By “chaining” is meant connecting the smart card micromodules in series, that is to say one behind the other. “Direct link” means a link which does not include any intermediate software element capable of modifying the data in transit.

By “specific link” is meant a link which is characterized in that it is not physically shared by more than two micromodules, as opposed for example to a data bus of a microprocessor as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3. “Link meeting the smart card standard” means a link meeting the standard commonly used in smart cards, in particular the ISO 7816 standard.

Chip card micromodules generally offer a second line of communication which has never been used to date and which has always been seen as an available resource to possibly offer an improvement in communication to the platform. reception (“full-duplex”). It is proposed here to divert the envisaged use of this second communication line in order to allow the interconnection in a generic manner of the chip card micromodules between them. Each of the chip card micromodules must offer decision-making means capable of managing the transport of information from the outside to the inside of the chip, and / or from the inside to the inside, and / or the inside to outside of the micromodule, and / or from one micromodule to another.

The present invention thus offers a generic extension while meeting the smart card communication standard. It also allows a combination of numerous microchips with smart card silicon chips with heterogeneous or similar functionalities.

The addition of hardware is thus extremely reduced (see zero depending on the chip card chips used) because no smart card interface called "smart card reader" is required for the interconnection of micromodules between them.

The present invention is associated with the concept of “smart card micromodule network” where each will perform a particular task, thus the execution power, functionalities and capacity of the assembly thus constituted, while remaining generically expandable and inherently offering a security infrastructure.

A more particular subject of the present invention is the interconnection of at least two chip card micromodules mainly characterized in that it is carried out by chaining one by one said chip card micromodules, via a direct and specific link corresponding to the standard smart card.

According to another characteristic, each micromodule comprises two I / O inputs / outputs, at least one of which is connected to an I / O input / output of another micromodule.

The invention also relates to an electronic device mainly characterized in that it comprises at least two micromodules of smart card interconnected as described above. According to another characteristic, an I / O input / output of one of the micromodules is intended for connection with a communication terminal. According to one embodiment, the interconnected micromodules are integrated on _. the same smart card.

According to another embodiment, each micromodule is integrated into an independent smart card.

According to another embodiment, at least one of the micromodules is integrated in an independent smart card. According to a variant, the independent smart card is insertable

According to another characteristic, the device comprises in this case, connecting means capable of ensuring the electrical connection between the successive micromodules when the insertable card is not inserted in said device.

According to another characteristic, the smart card is in the format corresponding to mobile telephony, a format called "plug-in". In one application of the invention, one of the micromodules fulfills the main function of user identification in the context of mobile telephony, and at least one micromodule- fulfills another function, such as a database function, a function linked to user identification in a WAP context.

According to another characteristic, the communication link between the first micromodule and the communication terminal is a link according to the USB protocol.

Other features and advantages of the invention will appear clearly in the following description made by way of nonlimiting example with reference to the appended figures which represent: FIGS. 1 to 3 illustrate diagrams of principles of interconnection of smart card micromodules according to the prior art, FIG. 4, illustrates the diagram of interconnection according to the invention, FIG. 5, the diagram of a device according to a first embodiment corresponding to a smart card reader application, FIG. 6, the diagram of a reader according to an alternative embodiment of FIG. 1, FIG. 7, the diagram of a device corresponding to an application to a smart card.

The references PI, P2 of the micromodules and L1, L2, L3 of the specialized links given on the block diagram of FIG. 4, correspond to numerical references in FIGS. 5, 6 and 7 illustrating different practical embodiments.

The diagram in FIG. 5 illustrates an application of the device according to the invention as a smart card reader. This reader comprises a box 201 provided with three internal micromodules 202, 203 and 204 placed in locations in accordance with smart card standards.

The module 202 is a smart card "reader" and the module 204 is a smart card • called "firewall". On the other hand, the module 203 is, in this embodiment, a man / machine interface which however includes the same connection means as the smart cards and the dimensions of which allow it to be placed in such a location. In this example, an NI insertion slot is also provided to receive a smart card inserted by a merchant 213 and an N2 slot to receive a smart card inserted customer 205.

In another embodiment, the interface 203 could be replaced by a smart card intended to perform other functions.

The reader 201 allows the link 208, to read an external smart card 205, called "inserted" because this is the card ^'to be played and / or recorded and that the inserts for the needs of the cause in the reading slot of the reader unit 201. The reader is also connected by an external link 206 to a terminal 207 which can be of any kind, a microcomputer of the PC type for example.

Thus, the interconnections in this implementation are as follows:

A USB 206 link between the terminal (the reception platform) 207 and the first chip card micromodule 204 called "firewall". An I / O line 209 between the first chip card micromodule 204 and the said micromodule 203.

" Human Machine Interface ".

An I / O line 212 between the micromodule 203 known as the "man-machine interface" and a "merchant" smart card 213. - An I / O line 211 between the micromodule 213 of the merchant's smart card and the micromodule 202 said " reader ".

An I / O line 208 between the so-called “reader” card and the smart card inserted by the customer 205.

To reach an additional level of security, the “reader” card 202 can advantageously secure “inter micromodule” communications: by systematic authentication of each of these modules during power-up, for example, by negotiation of an encryption key, 5 - by encryption of all "inter micromodule or chip" communications. The software element denoted A performs the function of means of managing the communication lines in order to provide transport according to the ISO 7816 protocol 10 T = 0 for example, while the software element denoted B assumes the function of decision means .

If from an application point of view, the so-called merchant card is not compulsory to authorize the operation of the terminal, a module 210 allows the 15. continuity of the interconnection between the micromodule “man machine interface” 203 and the micromodule 202 says “card reader” when the card known as “merchant” is not present in the reader.

The invention therefore consists in providing in the reader

20,201 a set of locations, here four locations, suitable for receiving smart cards, or indeed micromodules adapted mechanically and electrically to the standard of smart cards, and a set of connections making it possible to chain the smart cards, or the micromodules, placed in these locations, so that they can exchange signals

- between all these smart cards, or micromodules, and the "inserted" smart card 205, as well as with the terminal

207, by purely electric chaining.

In the example described, there will thus be three additional links 209, 211 and 212, of standardized type

7816-3 for example, respectively connecting the "firewall" smart card 204 to the human / machine interface 203 and this human / machine interface to a smart card inserted 213 or to a switch module 210. This module 210 or this smart card 213 are connected to the “reader” smart card 202.

Of course, the operation of the reader remains under the control of the operating system contained in the reader chip card 202 which is the master card of the entire system which has just been described.

The link between all these elements is carried out by chaining from location to location using the two I / O inputs / outputs of each chip card or chip card micromodule, using a protocol which can be for example that of ISO 7816-3.

According to the protocol used, the smart card, or the micromodule, receives on one of its inputs a signal which has elements of the type of identification, making it possible to know if this signal is intended for the micromodule (or the card to puce) having received it. This identification is carried out for example using a specific address of the location used. If the signal is intended for the micromodule (or the smart card) located at this location, it is processed. Otherwise it is transmitted to the next location using the other I / O input / output available on the smart card and the location. The connection between an I / O input and output and the next is therefore purely electrical.

Under these conditions, to obtain maximum flexibility in the device, means are provided, as we have seen, for ensuring that the connection is not interrupted in the absence of one of the smart cards, or one of the micromodules, for example in the absence of the man / machine interface 203 or of a card intended to be inserted. Various arrangements can be made for this purpose. An automatic relaying system 210 is used, for example, by relay for example or by mechanical switching, making it possible to physically connect the two connections corresponding to the two I / O inputs / outputs of the absent smart card.

One could also provide, in order to simplify as much as possible the fixed elements of the reader 201, a device having the dimensions of a smart card and comprising at the level of the chip only tracks making it possible to join the two input-outputs

I / O. Such a device would be both extremely simple to make and of a particularly low cost.

The chip card "firewall" 204 makes it possible to control both the inputs into the reader and the outputs thereof. This card will be in charge of processing the interface with the outside world: management of one or more communications protocols but also security. At output, it also checks the validity of orders received from the inserted smart card 205 or the man / machine interface 203, in order to avoid transmitting invalid transactions to terminal 207, taking into account the data contained in the smart card inserted 205. The invention is not limited to the embodiment shown in FIG. 5. It extends to any reader comprising a priori any number of slots making it possible to receive smart cards or similar micromodules . The only limits to this number of additional slots are fixed by congestion or overloading issues of the operating system of the smart card reader 202.

The example illustrated in this figure 2 corresponds to an extension of the interconnections of micromodules. For example, the “reader” function of the “customer” card mentioned above could be delegated to another chip card chip which would be dedicated “asynchronous chip card reader”.

In this second example, the reader may have additional slots available, each of which being associated with - a module described previously 210a, 210b, 210c. These are the two free slots N3 and N4.

FIG. 6 thus represents a reader according to the invention comprising 6 locations. Three of these locations allow the installation, as in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, of a reader chip card 202, of a man / machine interface 203 and of a firewall chip card 204.

Three other locations allow chip cards 213, ... to be inserted through insertion slots NI, N2, N3. The link 211 serves the chip cards intended to be in slots N3 and N4. In the example, it makes it possible to connect one of the I / O I / O of the commercial smart card 213 to one of the I / O I / O of the reader smart card 202. Switch modules 210a, 210b , 210c ensure the connection in the absence of the cards as illustrated in this figure. '

The smart card reader according to the invention therefore offers, compared to the previously patented reader, FR 2 771 205, cited in this description, greater flexibility originating from the high modularity and the possibilities of large-scale extension. It also makes it possible to define a communication standard and to increase the intrinsic security of readers, in particular for banking applications, in particular for electronic payments.

Another application to the invention relates to the production of a smart card for mobile telephones, known as a “plug-in” card or SIM card.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 7, we combine three different micro-modules (or chips) of smart cards where each implements very specialized functionalities. Each uses the standard communication format for a smart card on each of its communication lines. The whole is "inserted" in the same support or "package" in SIM plug-in format:

A micromodule (or smart card) 304 has all the functionalities of a smart card called SIM. Here this ^' micromodule which is' master ', will delegate specific operations to its'slave' micromodules.

A dedicated database card micromodule 303 which specializes in storing data in ISO 7816-7 format and which offers an "extension" of memory capacity at least equal to that already offered by the previous "SIM" micromodule.

A smart card micromodule 302 called "WIM" which - offers the specific functionalities specified in the WAP 1.2 protocol. This micromodule notably offers support for cryptographic protocols using public key algorithms. As in the previous application example, an additional level of security can be reached, where the "master" card can secure communications

“Inter micromodules”: - by systematic authentication of each of its “slave” micromodules during power-up, for example, by negotiation of an encryption key, by encryption of all “inter micromodule” communications.

The interconnections in this implementation are as follows:

An I / O line 306 between the so-called “SIM” smart card chip 304 and the GSM 307 mobile telephone. It is important to note that here, there is no modification made in this reception platform.

An I / O line 309 between the chip card micromodule 303 called "SIM" and the micromodule 302 called "WIM".

The software element denoted .A performs the function of means for managing the communication lines for carrying out the transport according to the ISO 7816 protocol T = 0 for example while the software element denoted B assumes the function of decision means.

Claims

1. Interconnection of at least two chip card micromodules, characterized in that it is produced by chaining one by one said micromodules (202-205; 302-304) of chip cards, via a direct and specific link (206 , 208, 209; 306, 309, 315), meeting the standard smart card. 2. Interconnection according to claim 1, characterized in that each micromodule comprises two I / O inputs / outputs, at least one of which is connected to an I / O input / output of another micromodule. 3. Electronic device characterized in that it comprises at least two interconnected chip card micromodules according to claims 1 or 2. 4. Electronic device according to claim 3, characterized in that an I / O input-output of one of the micromodules (206; 306) is intended for the connection with a communication terminal (207; 307). 5. Electronic device according to claims 3 or 4, characterized in that the micromodules (304, 303, 302) interconnected with each other are integrated on the same smart card (301). 6. Electronic device according to claims 3 or 4, characterized in that each micromodule (204, 203, 213) is integrated in an independent smart card. 7. Electronic device according to claims 3 or 4, characterized in that at least one of the micromodules (213) is integrated in an independent smart card. 8. Electronic device according to claim 7, characterized in that the independent smart card is insertable (213). 9. Electronic device according to claim 8, characterized in that it comprises connection means (210) capable of ensuring the electrical connection between the successive micromodules when the insertable card is not inserted in said device. 10. Electronic device according to claim 5, characterized in that the smart card is in the format corresponding to mobile telephony, format called "plug-in". (301). 11. Electronic device according to claim 10, characterized in that one of the micromodules fulfills the main function of user identification in the context of mobile telephony (304), and at least one micromodule fulfills another function, such as 'a database function (303), a function linked to the identification of the user in a WAP context (302). 12. Electronic device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the communication link between the first micromodule and the communication terminal is a link according to the USB protocol.