A Browser-Based Approach to Smart Card Connectivity

Smart cards have provided security services for a wide range of applications including telecommunication, banking, and citizen identification. Connecting web applications with smart cards is a natural step forward to address some of the security issues in today’s Web. The traditional approach for smart card based web applications provides security, but has the drawbacks of usability and flexibility. This paper presents a new browser-based approach utilizing web technologies. This approach focuses on communications and allows web applications to fully utilize smart card capabilities. The solution consists of two parts: a web browser extension that connects to the standard smart card communication layer; and a library that uses the browser extension and provides an API for web applications. This new approach departs from the traditional route, is much more natural for web applications, and presents several advantages.