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Yes. Modern passports use the data in the MRZ to support a protocol called PACE, which is essentially a password based key exchange. You can look up the spec in
by noodlesUK 3y ago
Yes. Modern passports use the data in the MRZ to support a protocol called PACE, which is essentially a password based key exchange. You can look up the spec in ICAO 9303. It’s really quite well designed.
EU passports support a further level of mutual authentication in order to get the fingerprints, where the terminal is verified by the passport as well.
- iancarroll 3y agoPACE authenticates that the reader knows the MRZ data and derives a key for communication, but (AFAIK) does not prove the passport is real or original. A cloned passport would also know the MRZ data to complete BAC/PACE. There is a further step called Active Authentication where the reader sends the passport random data and it signs this data with a public key that can be verified as authentic.