The way I understand it is that it works a lot like credit cards with a chip. The private key never leaves the chip. If that's what you mean by an intermediate

The way I understand it is that it works a lot like credit cards with a chip. The private key never leaves the chip. If that's what you mean by an intermediate key then yeah. I think this article can give you a better overview.[0] It talks about a vulnerability previous generation id cards had, but it also explains more on how they work in general. [0] https://news.postimees.ee/4234809/criminals-could-have-theoretically-made-digital-clones https://news.postimees.ee/4234809/criminals-could-have-theor...