MiFare Authentication failure

[joana.estafanell]

Hi everybody,

I've spent some days working with a 6131 NFC device. The only thing I need is to write some data inside MiFare4k through a MIDlet, and use an external reader to access to that data. But it is not so easy as I thought:

1. The MIDlets developed by nokia work correctly for the emulator (Nokia 6131 NFC SDK 1.1) but crash inside the real device. There are several classes that are not found.
2. If instead of create a com.nokia.nfc.nxp.mfstd.MFStandardConnection connection, I use a com.philips.rf.MifareStdConnection it does not work neither in the emulator nor the device. The class is not found.
3. Using the emulator to test the MIDlets but instead of using a simulated MiFare card I use the real device card (with a compatible reader), it fails because of a 'Authentication failure' error.
4. The examples execute properly if I use the device emulator and a simulated card.

Due to the posts I have read, I guess that the firmware in the device needs to be patched, and by now it's not possible to have a MiFare connection inside a MIDlet, but I think that the case explained in the 3rd point must work.

Is FFFFFFFFFFFF the Key needed to access the MiFare card??
What exactly are the keyA and keyB?? How I must use them?? I've been reading and I don't understand it very much...
Had anyone managed to get a MIDlet with a MiFare connection work in a real device without problems??

Any clue on this will be very welcome!

joana.

[RicardoPortela]

"Is FFFFFFFFFFFF the Key needed to access the MiFair card?? "

By default, when you buy the mifare cards, the key A is set to FFFFFFFFFFFF. When you write the card, you should use your own key. Be carefull when writing the KEY A value, because if you lose the key value, your card will be useless, as you will be unable to authenticate the operations.
The standard operation is to access the blank card with the FF's Key and then write your own. After that operation, you should always use your own key to communicate.
Key B is optional, and can be used, for example, to set up key hierarquies.

Quoted from Mifare MF1 IC S50 Functional Description
"Individual set of two keys per sector (per application) to support multi-application with key hierarchy"

[joana.estafanell]

Hi Ricardo, thanks for the reply!

But do you know if the MiFare card that goes inside the 6131 nfc has a default configuration?
And, if it's default configured and I don't change the key value, I must be able to save data on the card but I can't.
Do you know how exactly I can change that value within a MIDlet??

Thanks in advance,

joana.

[RicardoPortela]

Hi Joana
Sorry, but what I said was based on the experience I got with a previous project I worked on.
I still haven't got a 6131 to play with, so I'm afraid I can't help you with the other questions....

But I would guess that the default card configuration is equivalent to the original (physical) cards, that is, you must authenticate with key A with the value "FFFFFFFFFFFF" to be able to communicate with the card.

[ehindriks]

The nokia 6131NFC has keys that are only know by Nokia.
Please read chapter 5.1 in the users guide, that came with the V1.1 SDK.
So you must either get hold of the unlock service midlet, or buy an (unlocked) developer nokia 6131NFC.
But even on an unlocked nokia 6131NFC I could still not access the internal mifare 4k card from the emulator with the omnikey 5321 reader. If I have read the manuals correctly this wil only work with the NXP MF RD701.
With the Omnikey reader I have no problems accessing other NFC cards from a java midlet on the emulator.

[joana.estafanell]

Hi ehindriks,
thanks for the info. I've read the SDK 1.1 documentation's 5.1 point and it's very clear on that... I hadn't seen it before.
I hope Nokia will publish soon the Unlock Service MIDlet...

joana.