MEMORY CARD HAVING ONE OR MORE SECURE ELEMENTS ACCESSED WITH HIDDEN COMMANDS
A memory card compatible token includes one or more secure elements accessed using secure element commands hidden in a memory card access command. A mobile computing device such as a mobile phone accesses the non-memory components by including a hidden command value as part of the memory card access command. Any set or subset of all possible secure element commands may be routed to one or more secure elements based on the hidden command value.
1 . A memory card comprising:
a host interface;
a secure element; and
a command routing component to receive a memory access command from the host interface and to conditionally route at least a portion of the memory access command to the secure element based on a hidden command value within the memory access command.
2 . The memory card of claim 1 wherein the portion of the memory access command includes a smartcard command.
3 . The memory card of claim 2 wherein the command routing component conditionally routes based on both the hidden command value and the smartcard command.
4 . The memory card of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of secure elements coupled to the command routing component.
5 . The memory card of claim 5 wherein the command routing component routes the portion of the memory access command to different secure elements based on the hidden command value.
6 . The memory card of claim 1 wherein the secure element includes an ISO/IEC 7816 contact interface coupled to the command routing component.
7 . The memory card of claim 6 wherein the secure element further includes an ISO/IEC 14443A contactless interface.
8 . The memory card of claim 1 wherein the secure element comprises a dual interface smartcard controller.
9 . The memory card of claim 1 wherein the command routing component comprises a memory card controller.
10 . An apparatus comprising:
a memory card having a secure element and a command routing component coupled to the secure element;
wherein the command routing component is operable to detect a hidden command value and a secure element command in a memory access command received at the memory card, and to route a subset of all possible secure element commands to the secure element based on the hidden command value.
11 . The apparatus of claim 10 further comprising a plurality of secure elements coupled to the command routing component.
12 . The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the command routing component is operable to route a first subset of secure element commands to the secure element when the hidden command value matches a common value for all secure elements.
13 . The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the command routing component is operable to route a second subset of secure element commands to the secure element when the hidden command value matches a value unique to the secure element.
14 . The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the command routing component is operable to recognize a hidden command value that rolls to different values.
15 . The apparatus of claim 10 further comprising an adapter to translate commands from a non-memory card format to a memory card format.
16 . The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the adapter comprises a universal serial bus to microSD adapter.
17 . A method comprising:
receiving a first memory card access command;
detecting a first hidden command value in the first memory card access command;
requesting a resend of the first memory card access command;
receiving the resent first memory card access command as a second memory card access command;
detecting a second hidden command value in the second memory card access command; and
routing a secure element command embedded in the second memory card access command to a secure element.
18 . The method of claim 17 wherein the secure element comprises a smartcard controller, and wherein routing the secure element command comprises routing a smartcard command.
19 . A method comprising:
embedding a secure element command and a first hidden command value in a first memory card access command;
sending the first memory card access command to a memory card that includes a secure element;
receiving a request to resend the first memory card access command;
embedding a second hidden command value in a second memory card access command; and
sending the second memory card access command to the memory card.
20 . The method of claim 19 wherein embedding a secure element command in a first memory card access command comprises embedding a smartcard command.