Method for managing a secure channel between a server and a secure element

1. A method comprising:

managing a secure channel between an application server and a secure element embedded in a first device, wherein a user agent embedded in a second device establishes a HyperText Transfer Protocol secure (HTTPS) session with the application server and retrieves a web application from the application server, wherein a full application includes both the web application and another part located in the application server, said full application being designed to interact with an applet located in the secure element;

wherein said managing comprises the steps:

sending by the application server, to the web application, a certificate of the full application, said certificate of the full application containing a value generated from a specific data reflecting the identity of the application server;

getting, by the secure element, the certificate of the full application and the specific data;

checking, by the secure element, the validity of the certificate of the full application and checking, by the secure element, that the certificate of the full application contains the value generated from the specific data; and

in case of successful checks, generating, by the secure element and the application server, an ephemeral session key and opening, by the secure element and the application server, a secure channel using the ephemeral session key

wherein the ephemeral session key is generated using an authenticated key exchange protocol requiring parameters, wherein a signature of said parameters is computed using a private key associated with the certificate of the full application and sent to the secure element by the application server and wherein the secure element verifies the signature.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the certificate contains a hash of the specific data.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the authenticated key exchange protocol is based on Diffie-Hellman.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the specific data is a Transport Layer Security (TLS) server certificate used to establish the HTTPS session between the application server and the user agent.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the specific data is the origin of the application server as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C®).

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the certificate of the full application has been partly generated by applying an XOR function to the specific data.

7. An application server comprising:

a hardware processing unit; and

instructions which cause the application server to:

establish a HyperText Transfer Protocol secure (HTTPS) session with a user agent embedded in a second device,

send a web application to the user agent, wherein a full application includes both the web application and another part located in the application server,

provide, to the web application, a certificate of the full application, said certificate of the full application containing a value generated from a specific data reflecting the identity of the application server, said full application being designed to interact with an applet located in a secure element embedded in a first device, wherein, when running in the user agent, the web application is configured to provide the secure element with the certificate of the full application and the specific data,

receive, from the web application, a request reflecting that the secure element successful checked both the validity of the certificate of the full application and that the certificate of the full application contains the value generated from the specific data,

generate an ephemeral session key with the secure element, and

open a secure channel with the secure element using the ephemeral session key only if the application server has received said request,

wherein the application server is configured to generate the ephemeral session key using an authenticated key exchange protocol requiring parameters, wherein the application server is configured to compute a signature of said parameters using a private key associated with the certificate of the full application and to send the signature to the secure element, and wherein the secure element verifies the signature.

8. The application server according to claim 7 , wherein the application server is configured to add a hash of the specific data in the certificate of the full application.

9. A secure element comprising:

a hardware processing unit;

an applet; and

instructions which cause the secure element to:

receive, from a user agent embedded in a second device, a certificate of a full application and a specific data reflecting the identity of an application server, wherein the secure element is embedded in a first device, wherein the user agent establishes a HyperText Transfer Protocol secure (HTTPS) session with the application server and retrieves a web application from the application server, wherein the full application includes both the web application and another part located in the application server, said full application being designed to interact with the applet,

check the validity of the certificate of the full application, and check that the certificate of the full application contains a value generated from the specific data,

send to the user agent, in case of successful checks, a result reflecting the successful checks,

generate an ephemeral session key with the application server, and

open a secure channel with the application server using the ephemeral session key,

wherein the ephemeral session key is generated using an authenticated key exchange protocol requiring parameters, wherein a signature of said parameters is computed using a private key associated with the certificate of the full application and received by the secure element from the application server, and wherein the secure element is configured to verify the signature.

10. The secure element according to claim 9 , wherein the secure element is configured to verify the signature of said parameters computed using a public key associated with the certificate of the full application.