4. Firmware Doc

4.1. Protocol

In order to communicate with LEIA, a simple communication protocol over uart is used. It allows to select a command, and execute it with specific data. The data produced by the command can finally be returned.

Only one data buffer command_cb_args_t is used as the commands are executed one after the other in a sequential fashion. As there is no need to keep track of the result of the previous command, we can reuse the same buffer. The maximum size of our APDU payloads is 16384, and is mainly due to maximum buffers size in the MCU SRAM.

COMMANDS_BUFFER_MAX_LEN

Constant to define the max size of the buffers used by the protocol (command_cb_args_t.buffer and command_cb_args_t.response).

struct command_cb_args

Structure which handle the buffer send to a callback, and a buffer for the response of the callback.

uint32_t buffer_size

Actual size of buffer.

uint8_t buffer[COMMANDS_BUFFER_MAX_LEN]

Buffer for the data which is send to the callback.

uint32_t response_size

Actual size of the response buffer.

uint8_t response[COMMANDS_BUFFER_MAX_LEN]

Buffer for the data produced by the callback.

To define a command, one have to create a command_t. It needs a simple name (command_t.name), which is used when debugging, a byte which is used to identify the command (command_t.o_command), the maximal number of byte that can be send to the command (command_t.max_size) and finally a callback to the function that will handle the command (command_t.callback).

struct command_t

Structure which describe a command to be exposed through LEIA API.

char name[30]

Command name

uint8_t o_command

Char which identify the command

uint32_t max_size

Data max size (<= COMMANDS_BUFFER_MAX_LEN)

cb_command callback

Callback to the function

struct protocol_config_pts_t

Structure which codes the parameters to use when doing PTS negotiation.

uint8_t protocol

Actual protocol to use:

  • 0 if no protocol is forced,

  • 1 for T=0,

  • 2 for T=1.

uint32_t etu

ETU value.

uint32_t freq

Actual frequency to use:

  • 0 for the default one,

  • x for forcing a value.

uint8_t negotiate_pts
  • 0 for no negotiation

  • 1 for enabling negotiation

uint8_t negotiate_baudrate
  • 0 for no baudrate negotiation

  • 1 for enabling baudrate negotiation

struct protocol_config_trigger_set_t

Structure which code a strategy and an index to store the strategy at.

uint8_t index

The index of the bank where the strategy will be saved.

trigger_strategy_t strategy

The strategy to save.

uint8_t protocol_get_timers(SC_Card *card, command_cb_args_t *args)

Callback to return timers values.

uint8_t protocol_send_APDU(SC_Card *card, command_cb_args_t *args)

Callback to process an APDU.

uint8_t protocol_configure_pts(SC_Card *card, command_cb_args_t *args)

Callback to configure a smartcard.

uint8_t protocol_trigger_set_strategy(SC_Card *card, command_cb_args_t *args)

Callback to set a trigger strategy.

uint8_t protocol_trigger_get_strategy(SC_Card *card, command_cb_args_t *args)

Callback to get a trigger strategy.

uint8_t protocol_is_card_inserted(SC_Card *card, command_cb_args_t *args)

Callback to check if the smartcard is inserted in LEIA.

uint8_t protocol_reset_card(SC_Card *card, command_cb_args_t *args)

Callback to reset the smartcard.

uint8_t protocol_get_ATR(SC_Card *card, command_cb_args_t *args)

Callback to send the ATR.

int protocol_read_char_uart(volatile s_ring_t *ring_buffer, char *command)

Read data from the uart, and put it in a ring buffer.

void protocol_parse_cmd(volatile s_ring_t *ring_buffer)

Parse a ring buffer to find a command to execute, call the corresponding callback.

4.2. Timers

It is possible to get the timing of APDU commands (the time taken by the smart card to process the APDU command and send the response). We actually return two timers: delta_t and delta_t_answer. delta_t is the global time take by the response from the time we send the APDU until the last byte of the response. delta_t_answer is the time taken between sending the APDU and the acknowledgement of the smart card (usually first byte of the response).

The Timers are usually sent back for every command of the protocol in the response, with zero values when timing such commands has no sense.

4.3. Triggers

On LEIA, there is a triggers handling mode where a dedicated PIN is put high and then low on some events. Actually, two PINs are used for triggers: an internal trigger dedicated to the LEIA board, and a ChipWhisperer trigger on the 20-pins connector to allow compatibility with the CW ecosystem.

The events on which we can configure a trigger are mainly related to ISO7816-3 steps. For instance, we can ask for a trigger just before the ATR (Answer To Reset) of the smart card with TRIG_GET_ATR_PRE, just after this ATR reception with TRIG_GET_ATR_POST, etc. The list of events for which a trigger exists are the following:

TRIG_GET_ATR_PRE

This trigger is placed at the beginning of the ATR reception.

TRIG_GET_ATR_POST

This trigger is placed at the end of the ATR reception.

TRIG_PRE_SEND_APDU_SHORT_T0

This trigger is placed at the beginning of T=0 short APDU send command.

TRIG_PRE_SEND_APDU_FRAGMENTED_T0

This trigger is placed at the beginning of T=0 fragmented (extended and case 4) APDU send command.

TRIG_PRE_SEND_APDU_T1

This trigger is placed at the beginning of T=1 APDU send command.

TRIG_POST_RESP_T0

This trigger is placed at the end of T=0 response coming from the smart card.

TRIG_POST_RESP_T1

This trigger is placed at the end of T=1 response coming from the smart card.

TRIG_PRE_SEND_APDU

This trigger is placed at the beginning of APDU send command (either T=0 or T=1, this is an abstraction for TRIG_PRE_SEND_APDU_SHORT_T0 or TRIG_PRE_SEND_APDU_FRAGMENTED_T0 or TRIG_PRE_SEND_APDU_T1.

TRIG_POST_RESP

This trigger is placed at the end of response coming from the smart card (either in T=0 or T=1). This is an abstraction for TRIG_POST_RESP_T0 or TRIG_POST_RESP_T1.

TRIG_IRQ_PUTC

This trigger is placed each time a byte is sent to the smart card on the ISO7816-3 half duplex line.

TRIG_IRQ_GETC

This trigger is placed each time a byte is received from the smart card on the ISO7816-3 half duplex line.

Configuring a trigger is quite simple in Python using the set_trigger_strategy function:

import smartleia as sl
reader = sl.LEIA('/dev/ttyACM1')
reader.set_trigger_strategy(0, [sl.TriggerPoints.TRIG_GET_ATR_PRE, sl.TriggerPoints.TRIG_GET_ATR_POST, sl.TriggerPoints.TRIG_PRE_SEND_APDU_T1], delay=0, single=0)

This sets up the trigging strategy at index 0 with three events: TRIG_GET_ATR_PRE, TRIG_GET_ATR_POST and TRIG_PRE_SEND_APDU_T1, with a 0 milliseconds delay and a permanent (not single) trigging style.

There are 4 possible strategies (index from 0 to 3) with a maximum of 10 events per strategy. The delay in milliseconds puts an offset in the time the trigger happens.

At any time, it is possible to get the strategies states using get_trigger_strategy(index):

strat1 = reader.get_trigger_strategy(0)
TriggerStrategy(single=0, delay=0, point_list=[<TriggerPoints.TRIG_GET_ATR_PRE: 1>, <TriggerPoints.TRIG_GET_ATR_POST: 2>, <TriggerPoints.TRIG_PRE_SEND_APDU_T1: 16>], point_list_trigged=[<TriggerPoints.TRIG_GET_ATR_PRE: 1>, <TriggerPoints.TRIG_GET_ATR_POST: 2>, <TriggerPoints.TRIG_PRE_SEND_APDU_T1: 16>], cnt_list_trigged=[1, 1, 3], event_time=[415121, 429329, 3038120])

The point_list_trigged list gives the events that have been triggered, the point_list_trigged list provides counters of how many times each event has been triggered, and the event_time shows an absolute time (using the reader internal clock) of when the last trigger of each event happened.