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So this is a smartphone app because they want to use the NFC in the smartphone to scan the passport. Does anyone know how the NFC in a passport works? If it ju
by jstanley 8y ago
So this is a smartphone app because they want to use the NFC in the smartphone to scan the passport.
Does anyone know how the NFC in a passport works? If it just communicates the passport number, then it seems like they could allow a fallback where the user types in the passport number, without any loss of security.
(Because if that is how it works, all you're really proving is knowledge of the passport number, not possession of the passport)
EDIT: According to this StackOverflow post[0] the NFC reader needs to supply the passport number, date of birth, and expiry date before it can retrieve whatever data is on the passport, so it can't work the way I described.
[0] https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/30772/what-nfc-protocol-is-used-to-read-information-on-a-passport#30778 https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/30772/what-nfc-...
- Rjevski 8y agoThe passport is a standard NFC smart card, just like your credit card. Internally it can do crypto, which means it’s not just about a passport number but cryptographically proving the person is in possession of their passport.
- beojan 8y agoIt's signed and encrypted: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biometric_passport https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biometric_passport