The Belgian eID container facilitates communication with card readers with inserted Belgian eID smart card. The T1C-JS client library provides function to communicate with the smart card and facilitates integration into a web or native application.
This document describes the functionality provided by the Belgian eID container on the T1C-GCL (Generic Connector Library).
The constructor for the Belgian eID expect as the parameter to be a valid reader-ID. A reader-ID can be obtained from the exposed core functionality, for more information see
Core services responds with available card-readers, available card in a card-reader, etc.
For example:
In order to get all connected card-readers, with available cards:
var core =client.core();core.readersCardAvailable(callback);
We notice that a card object is available in the response in the context of a detected reader.
The reader in the example above is Bit4id miniLector, has no pin-pad capabilities, and there is a card detected with given ATR and description "Belgian eID Card".
An ATR (Answer To Reset) identifies the type of a smart-card.
The reader, has a unique ID, reader_id; this reader_id must be used in order to request functionalities for the Belgian eID card.
This must be done upon instantiation of the Belgian eID container:
var beid =client.beid(reader_id);
All methods for beid will use the selected reader - identified by the reader_id.
Cardholder Information
The card holder is the person identified using the Belgian eID card. It's important to note that all data must be validated in your backend. Data validation can be done using the appropriate certificate (public key).
Biometric data
Contains all card holder related data, excluding the card holder address and photo.
The service can be called:
The token info contains generic information about the card and it's capabilities. This information includes the serial number, file types for object directory files, algorithms implemented on the card, etc.
Exposes all the certificates publicly available on the smart card.
Root Certificate
Contains the 'root certificate' stored on the smart card. The root certificate is used to sign the 'citizen CA certificate'. When additional parsing of the certificate is needed you can add a boolean to indicate if you want to parse the certificate or not.
The service can be called:
Contains the 'authentication certificate' stored on the smart card. The 'authentication certificate' contains the public key corresponding to the private RSA authentication key. The 'authentication certificate' is needed for pin validation and authentication. When additional parsing of the certificate is needed you can add a boolean to indicate if you want to parse the certificate or not
The service can be called:
Contains the citizen certificate stored on the smart card. The 'citizen certificate' is used to sign the 'authentication certificate' and the 'non-repudiation certificate'. When additional parsing of the certificate is needed you can add a boolean to indicate if you want to parse the certificate or not
The service can be called:
Contains the 'non-repudiation certificate' stored on the smart card. The 'non-repudiation certificate' contains the public key corresponding the private RSA non-repudiation key. When additional parsing of the certificate is needed you can add a boolean to indicate if you want to parse the certificate or not
The service can be called:
Contains the 'encryption certificate' stored on the smart card. The 'encryption certificate' corresponds to the private key used to sign the 'biometric' and 'Address' data. When additional parsing of the certificate is needed you can add a boolean to indicate if you want to parse the certificate or not
The service can be called:
Depending on the connected smart card reader. A sign can be executed in 2 modes:
Using a connected card reader with 'pin-pad' capabilities (keypad and display available)
Using a connected card reader without 'pin-pad' capabilities (no keypad nor display available)
Security consideration: In order to sign a hash, security considerations prefer using a 'pin-pad'.
Sign Hash without pin-pad
When the web or native application is responsible for showing the password input, the following request is used to sign a given hash:
var data = {"pin":"...","algorithmReference":"sha1","data":"I2e+u/sgy7fYgh+DWA0p2jzXQ7E=","osDialog":true}client.beid(reader_id).signData(data, callback);
The 'algorithm_reference' property can contain the following values: sha1, sha256, sha512, md5.
The core services lists connected readers, and if they have pin-pad capability. You can find more information in the Core Service documentation on how to verify card reader capabilities.
Bulk Signing
It is possible to bulk sign data without having to re-enter the PIN by adding an optional bulk parameter set to true to the request. Subsequent sign requests will not require the PIN to be re-entered until a request with bulk being set to false is sent, or the Bulk Sign Reset method is called.
When using bulk signing, great care must be taken to validate that the first signature request was successful prior to sending subsequent requests. Failing to do this will likely result in the card being blocked.
In order to calculate a hash from the data to sign, you need to know the algorithm you will use in order to sign.
You might have noticed the algorithm_reference property provided in the sign request.
The algorithm_reference can be one of the values: md5, sha1, sha256, sha512.
For example, we want the following text to be signed using sha256:
This is sample text to demonstrate siging with Belgian eID
You can use the following online tool to calculate the SHA256: calculate SHA256
Notice that the length of the SHA256 is always the same.
Now we need to convert the hexadecimal string to a base64-encoded string, another online tool can be used for this example: hex to base64 converter
Base64-encoded result:
E1uHACbPvhLew0gGmBH83lvtKIAKxU2/RezfBOsT6Vs=
Now we can sign the data:
var data = {"pin":"...","algorithmReference":"sha256","data":"E1uHACbPvhLew0gGmBH83lvtKIAKxU2/RezfBOsT6Vs="}client.beid(reader_id).signData(data, callback);
When the web or native application is responsible for showing the password input, the following request is used to verify a card holder PIN:
var data = {"pin":"..."}client.beid(reader_id).verifyPin(data, callback);
Response:
{"verified": true}
Verify PIN with pin-pad
When the pin entry is done on the pin-pad, the following request is used to verify a given PIN:
var data = {}
client.beid(reader_id).verifyPin(data, callback);
Response:
{
"verified": true
}
Verify PIN - retries left
In order to inform a user upon the PIN retries left, the Belgian eID doesn't provide a request to retrieve this information. After an unsuccessful PIN verification, the error code indicates the number of retries left. For example, when executing:
$("#buttonValidate").on('click', function () {
var _body={};
_body.pin = $("#psw").val(); //only when no pin-pad available
var beid = connector.beid(reader_id);
beid.verifyPin(_body, validationCallback);
});
The following error message will be returned when PIN is wrong:
Note that, when the user has at least one retry left, entering a correct PIN resets the PIN retry status.
Authentication
The T1C-GCL is able to authenticate a card holder based on a challenge. The challenge can be:
provided by an external service
provided by the smart card
An authentication can be interpreted as a signature use case, the challenge is signed data, that can be validated in a back-end process.
External Challenge
An external challenge is provided in the data property of the following example:
var data = {
"pin": "...",
"algorithm_reference": "sha1",
"data":"I2e+u/sgy7fYgh+DWA0p2jzXQ7E="
}
client.beid(reader_id).authenticate(data, callback);
Take notice that the PIN property can be omitted when using a smart card reader with pin-pad capabilities.
The 'algorithm_reference' property can contain the following values: sha1, sha256, sha512, md5.
Generated Challenge
A server generated challenge can be provided to the JavaScript library.
In order to do so, an additional contract must be provided with the 'OCV API' (Open Certificate Validation API).
The calculated digest of the hash is prefixed with:
DigestInfo ::= SEQUENCE {
digestAlgorithm AlgorithmIdentifier,
digest OCTET STRING
}
Make sure this has been taken into consideration in order to validate the signature in a backend process.
