Multi-Application Smart Cards : Card Operating Systems and Application Security

Multi-Application Smart Cards are becoming more prevalent in society as the need to secure electronic transactions increases for both e-commerce and identity verification purposes. This paper studies two Multi-Application Smart Cards and their Operating Systems, namely the MULTOS Card and the Sun Java Card. This research provides an in-depth analysis of the efficacy of the mechanisms used to verify applications that are installed after cards are issued. In addition to that, the application firewall mechanisms of each card are examined to determine how effective they are at securing the card applications. Finally we assess which Smart Card Operating System implements a more secure environment to host multiple applications and best supports dynamic loading and deletion of card applications.