Preparing for the Future of eID Security with the NXP SEMS Offering

For those of us who work to protect government-issued electronic IDs (eIDs), the recent extension to the GlobalPlatform Card Specification, known as Secure Element Management Services (SEMS), is worth noting for two reasons.

First, it underscores the importance of remaining vigilant, when it comes to card security and being prepared to respond quickly when vulnerabilities are uncovered. Second, it highlights the importance of openness and collaboration when it comes to responding to those vulnerabilities.

The SEMS extension was introduced in 2018, less than a year after cryptanalysts published Return of Coppersmith Attack (ROCA), a vulnerability in one specific manufacturer’s implementation of the generation of RSA cryptographic pairs used to authenticate and sign certain eID cards. ROCA reduced the attack time for the affected implementation from millions of years to less than a year, making a successful attack much more feasible.

The ROCA Threat

The potential impact of ROCA was serious and widespread. In particular, ROCA posed a significant threat to specific government-issued eID documents. In one country alone, the vulnerability affected 17 million cards. ROCA also had the potential to affect the architectures used to secure enterprise-client computers, used in government offices and elsewhere and even could have put chip-based payment cards at risk.

Finding a vulnerability in any kind of eID raises the risk of impersonation and identity theft, since personal data may be revealed during an attack but, from a governmental point of view, the threat is much broader than that. Government-issued eID cards are a foundation of trust between people and their government and, in recent years, have become increasingly essential to the way citizens interact with government services. In some of the places impacted by ROCA, the ecosystem for eServices, accessed with eIDs, already supported nearly every type of citizen/government interaction.

The ROCA Response

With so many ROCA-impacted credentials being used by so many people every day, straight up revoking or cancelling the cards threatened to handicap or even shut down a broad range of government services in the affected countries. The preferred option was to manage the crisis by developing a new solution, based on Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) instead of RSA, issue replacement cards and then retire the affected cards.

The decision to replace and then retire old cards can be considered a success because, by the time the new cards were rolled out, there had been no recorded instances of people successfully exploiting the vulnerability. On the other hand, it was not an ideal solution. Every ROCA-impacted card had to be revoked and re-issued, which created a confusing situation for end users. The cost of replacing ROCA-impacted cards was significant and, in one instance, a government agency sued the technology provider for damages.

The response to ROCA may have prevented a successful hack, but it wasn’t an ideal solution. The need to physically replace ROCA-impacted cards was both wasteful and expensive. At NXP, our security experts have developed a specific Secure Element management service (SEMS) approach, designed to provide a more efficient way to respond to this kind of vulnerability in future.

Preparing for the Future with NXP SEMS Offering

The NXP SEMS offering makes it possible to update software at the chip level, based on scripts distributed by the issuing authority (that is, the government agency or trusted third party issuing the eIDs).

Using the NXP SEMS offering, it’s possible to replace any NXP software of eIDs that are already in the field, without re-personalization, so there’s no need to revoke and re-issue cards. Citizens can upgrade their cards to the newer, more secure version by visiting a government office, using a self-service kiosk or downloading an app on their smartphone and tapping the phone to their eID.

The security mechanisms of an eID can be updated or upgraded at any point during its lifespan in the field. Also, government agencies can lower the operating costs of eID programs, because cards can remain in the field for a decade or more yet still have the flexibility to accept updates to security mechanisms or upgrades to existing software (Crypto library, Java OS, Java applets) with the latest features available in the NXP product roadmap. This is also made possible as NXP SEMS offering removes the existing software while replacing it with the new one without reducing the available user memory. What’s more, the NXP SEMS mechanism is covered by Common Criteria certification and updated cards can retain their certification.

Easy to Deploy

The NXP SEMS offering is available as part of the JCOP ID 2 series, our go-to platform for eGov applications that provides support for advanced eID services and CC EAL6+ certification. Adding the NXP SEMS offering to the JCOP ID 2 series is part of our long-standing commitment to security assessment and risk mitigation. It’s also an approach that simplifies deployment, with support for offline and asynchronous environments and the ability to broadcast a single script for all credentials. This script will be provided by NXP to customers who chose to use the NXP SEMS offering that can be used to update the entire installed eID base.

The NXP Perspective

Making the NXP SEMS offering available to our eID customers also reflects the two foundational principles we follow when developing security solutions. The first principle is that security is a journey, not a destination. There is always someone, somewhere, trying to mount an attack and sometimes that attempt uncovers vulnerabilities that developers hadn’t anticipated or, as was the case with ROCA, identifies a vulnerability that had gone unnoticed. As developers, we need to recognize that the threat landscape is always changing. Ongoing vigilance is a given.

The second principle is that security is always strongest when stakeholders work together. Time and again, the concept of “security by obscurity,” which relies on secrecy to keep data safe, has been shown to be too risky. We prefer the principle of open design, which relies on expertly developed, widely tested security mechanisms. Using internationally recognized standards, such as RSA and ECC encryption and the GlobalPlatform Card Specification, helps ensure best practices and can provide a framework for how to respond to and recover from cybersecurity threats.

These two principles – ongoing vigilance and collaboration based on standards – help guide our approach to eID development and keep us at the forefront of eID security. These standards also help provide peace of mind to government agencies and issuing authorities, by enabling advanced risk mitigation when the inevitable happens and a vulnerability is discovered.

Take the Next Step

Learn more about how SEMS can make eID deployments more resilient and more cost-effective to operate with JCOP ID 2.