Android Explorations

We discussed the embedded secure element available in recent Android devices, it's execution environment and how Google Wallet makes use if it in the last series of articles. We also saw that unless you have a contract with Google and have them (or the TSM they use) distribute your applets to supported devices, there is currently no way to install anything on the embedded secure element. We briefly mentioned that CyanogenMod 9.1 supports software card emulation and it is a more practical way to create your own NFC-enabled applications. We'll now see how software card emulation works and show how you can use it to create a simple PKI 'applet' that can be accessed via NFC from any machine with a contactless card reader. Software card emulation We already know that if the embedded secure element is put in virtual mode it is visible to external readers as a contactless smartcard. Software card emulation (sometimes referred to as Host Card Emulation or HCE) does som...