Belgian eID

The Belgian eID container facilitates communication with card readers with inserted Belgian eID smart card. The T1C-JLIB client library provides function to communicate with the smart card and facilitates integration into a native or Java application. This document describes the functionality provided by the Belgian eID container on the T1C-GCL (Generic Connector Library).

Get Belgian eID container object

For more information on how to configure the T1C-JLIB client library see Client Configuration.
Initialize a T1cClient:

LibConfig conf = new LibConfig();
conf.setEnvironment(Environment.DEV);
conf.setDsUri(DS_URI);
conf.setOcvUri(OCV_URI);
conf.setGclClientUri(URI_T1C_GCL);
conf.setApiKey(API_KEY);
conf.setHardwarePinPadForced(false);
conf.setDefaultPollingIntervalInSeconds(5);
conf.setDefaultPollingTimeoutInSeconds(10);
conf.setSessionTimeout(60);
T1cClient t1cClient = new T1cClient(conf);

Get the Belgian eID container service:

BeIdContainer container = t1cClient.getBeIdContainer(reader);

Obtain the GclReader object

The constructor for the Belgian eID expects the parameter to be a GclReader object. A GclReader can be obtained from the exposed core functionality, for more information see Core Services.
Core services responds with available card-readers, available card in a card-reader, etc.
For example:
In order to get all connected card-readers, with available cards:

List<GclReader> reader = t1cClient.getCore().getReadersWithInsertedCard();

This function call returns a list of the following objects:

com.t1t.t1c.GclReader

com.t1t.t1c.GclCard

We notice that a card object is available in the response in the context of a detected reader.
The reader in the example above is Bit4id miniLector, has no pin-pad capabilities, and there is a card detected with given ATR and description "Belgium Electronic ID Card".
An ATR (Answer To Reset) identifies the type of a smart-card.
The container must be instantiated with the GclReader object containing the Belgian eID card:

BeIdContainer container = t1cClient.getBeIdContainer(reader);

All methods for beid container will use the selected reader - identified by the reader object.

Cardholder Information

The card holder is the person identified using the Belgian eID card. It's important to note that all data must be validated in your backend. Data validation can be done using the appropriate certificate (public key).

RnData

Contains all card holder related data, excluding the card holder address and photo.
The service can be called:

GclBeIdRn rnData = container.getRnData();

Response:

com.t1t.t1c.containers.smartcards.eid.be.GclBeIdRn

Address

Contains the card holder's address. The service can be called:

GclBeIdAddress address = container.getAddress();

Response:

com.t1t.t1c.containers.smartcards.eid.be.GclBeIdAddress

Picture

Contains the card holder's picture stored on the smart card. The service can be called:

String base64Picture = container.getPicture();

Response:

java.lang.String

"/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABA...59aVpcklSDzyKUTEDGK//9k="

Certificates

Exposes all the certificates publicly available on the smart card.

T1C-JLIB will return the raw base64 certificate, optionally it can also return an java.security.cert.Certificate object. To enable parsing, parse must be set to true.

Certificate Chain

Root Certificate

Contains the 'root certificate' stored on the smart card. The root certificate is used to sign the 'citizen CA certificate'.
The service can be called:

T1cCertificate rootCertificate = container.getRootCertificate(true);

Response:

com.t1t.t1c.model.T1cCertificate

Authentication Certificate

Contains the 'authentication certificate' stored on the smart card. The 'authentication certificate' contains the public key corresponding to the private RSA authentication key. The 'authentication certificate' is needed for pin validation and authentication.
The service can be called:

T1cCertificate authenticationCertificate = container.getAuthenticationCertificate(true);

Response:

com.t1t.t1c.model.T1cCertificate

Citizen Certificate

Contains the citizen certificate stored on the smart card. The 'citizen certificate' is used to sign the 'authentication certificate' and the 'non-repudiation certificate'.
The service can be called:

T1cCertificate citizenCertificate = container.getCitizenCertificate(true);

Response:

com.t1t.t1c.model.T1cCertificate

Non-repudiation Certificate

Contains the 'non-repudiation certificate' stored on the smart card. The 'non-repudiation certificate' contains the public key corresponding the private RSA non-repudiation key.
The service can be called:

T1cCertificate nonRepudiationCertificate = container.getNonRepudiationCertificate(true);

Response:

com.t1t.t1c.model.T1cCertificate

RRN Certificate

Contains the 'rrn certificate' stored on the smart card. The 'rrn certificate' corresponds to the private key used to sign the 'Rn' and 'Address' data.
The service can be called:

T1cCertificate rrnCertificate = container.getRrnCertificate(true);

Response:

com.t1t.t1c.model.T1cCertificate

Data Filter

Filter Card Holder Data

All data on the smart card can be dumped at once, or using a filter. In order to read all data at once:

BeIdAllData allData = container.getAllData();

Response:

com.t1t.t1c.containers.smartcards.eid.be.BeIdAllData

The filter can be used to ask a list of custom data containers. A list of available filters can be retrieved with the getAllDataFilters() method. For example, we want to read only the 'rn', 'picture' and 'rrn certificate':

List<String> filters = Arrays.asList("rn","picture","rrn-certificate");
// or to get a list of available filters
filters = container.getAllDataFilters();
boolean parseFilters = true;
BeIdAllData allData = container.getAllData(filters, true);

Filter Certificates

All certificates on the smart card can be dumped at once, or using a filter. In order to read all certificates at once:

BeIdAllCertificates certificates = container.getAllCertificates();

Response:

com.t1t.t1c.containers.smartcards.eid.be.BeIdAllCertificates

The filter can be used to ask a list of custom data containers. A list of available filters can be retrieved with the getAllCertificateFilters() method. For example, we want to read only the 'root-certificate' and the 'rrn-certificate':

List<String> filters = Arrays.asList("root-certificate","rrn-certificate");
// or to get a list of available filters
filters = container.getAllCertificateFilters();
boolean parseCertificates = true;
BeIdAllCertificates certificates = container.getAllCertificates(filters, parseCertificates);

Sign Data

Data can be signed using the Belgian eID smart card. To do so, the T1C-GCL facilitates in:

• Retrieving the certificate chain (citizen-certificate, root-certificate and non-repudiation certificate)
• Perform a sign operation (private key stays on the smart card)
• Return the signed hash

To get the certificates necessary for signature validation in your back-end:

List<String> filters = Arrays.asList("root-certificate","citizen-certificate","non-repudiation-certificate");
boolean parseCertificates = true;
BeIdAllCertificates certificates = container.getAllCertificates(filters, parseCertificates);
// Or directly retrieve the signing certificate chain in the form of Map<Integer, T1cCertificate>. The leaf certificate will always have 0 as key
Map<Integer, T1cCertificate> signingCertificateChain = container.getSigningCertificateChain();

Response:

com.t1t.t1c.containers.smartcards.eid.be.BeIdAllCertificates

Depending on the connected smart card reader, a sign can be executed in 2 modes:

• Using a connected card reader with 'pin-pad' capabilities (keypad and display available)
• Using a connected card reader without 'pin-pad' capabilities (no keypad nor display available)

Security consideration: In order to sign a hash, security considerations prefer using a 'pin-pad'.

Sign Hash without pin-pad

When the native or Java application is responsible for showing the password input, the following request is used to sign a given hash:

String signedData = container.sign(
                //data
                "I2e+u/sgy7fYgh+DWA0p2jzXQ7E=",
                //Digest algorithn
                DigestAlgorithm.SHA256,
                //Optional PIN
                "1234"
);

Response is a base64 encoded String representing the signed hash:

"W7wqvWA8m9SBALZPxN0qUCZfB1O/WLaM/silenLzSXXmeR+0nzB7hXC/Lc/fMru82m/AAqCuGTYMPKcIpQG6MtZ/SGVpZUA/71jv3D9CatmGYGZc52cpcb7cqOVT7EmhrMtwo/jyUbi/Dy5c8G05owkbgx6QxnLEuTLkfoqsW9Q="

Sign Hash with pin-pad

When the pin entry is done on the pin-pad, the following request is used to sign a given hash:

String signedData = container.sign(
                //data
                "I2e+u/sgy7fYgh+DWA0p2jzXQ7E=",
                //Digest algorithn
                DigestAlgorithm.SHA256
);

Response is a base64 encoded String representing the signed hash:

"W7wqvWA8m9SBALZPxN0qUCZfB1O/WLaM/silenLzSXXmeR+0nzB7hXC/Lc/fMru82m/AAqCuGTYMPKcIpQG6MtZ/SGVpZUA/71jv3D9CatmGYGZc52cpcb7cqOVT7EmhrMtwo/jyUbi/Dy5c8G05owkbgx6QxnLEuTLkfoqsW9Q="

The core services lists connected readers, and if they have pin-pad capability. You can find more information in the Core Service documentation on how to verify card reader capabilities.

Calculate Hash

In order to calculate a hash from the data to sign, you need to know the algorithm you will use in order to sign.
You might have noticed the algorithmReference property provided in the sign request.
The algorithm_reference can be one of the values: MD5, SHA1, SHA256, SH512.
For example, we want the following text to be signed using SHA256:

This is sample text to demonstrate siging with Belgian eID

You can use the following online tool to calculate the SHA256: calculate SHA256

Hexadecimal result:

135b870026cfbe12dec348069811fcde5bed28800ac54dbf45ecdf04eb13e95b

Notice that the length of the SHA256 is always the same.
Now we need to convert the hexadecimal string to a base64-encoded string, another online tool can be used for this example: hex to base64 converter

Base64-encoded result:

E1uHACbPvhLew0gGmBH83lvtKIAKxU2/RezfBOsT6Vs=

Now we can sign the data:

String signedData = container.sign(
                //data
                "E1uHACbPvhLew0gGmBH83lvtKIAKxU2/RezfBOsT6Vs=",
                //Digest algorithn
                DigestAlgorithm.SHA256,
                //Optional PIN
                "1234"
);

Result:

"C7SG5eix1+lzMcZXgL0bCL+rLxKhd8ngrSj6mvlgooWH7CloEU13Rj8QiQHdhHnZgAi4Q0fCMIqAc4dn9uW9OP+MRitimRpYZcaDsGrUehPi/JpOD1e+ko7xKZ67ijUU4KTmG4HXc114oJ7xxx3CGL7TNFfvuEphLbbZa+9IZSSnYDOOENJqhggqqu7paSbLJrxC2zaeMxODKb5WSexHnZH6NnLPl2OmvPTYtxiTUMrLbFRsDRAziF6/VQkgM8/xOm+1/9Expv5DSLRY8RQ+wha6/nMlJjx50JszYIj2aBQKp4AOxPVdPewVGEWF4NF9ffrPLrOA2v2d7t5M4q7yxA==",

Note: If you want to convert a binary signed hash to HEX (for development) you can use for example an online hexdump tool:

http://www.fileformat.info/tool/hexdump.htm

Verify PIN

Verify PIN without pin-pad

When the native or Java application is responsible for showing the password input, the following request is used to verify a card holder PIN:

Boolean pinVerified = container.verifyPin("1234");

Response:

java.lang.Boolean

Verify PIN with pin-pad

When the pin entry is done on the pin-pad, the following request is used to verify a given PIN:

Boolean pinVerified = container.verifyPin();

Response:

java.lang.Boolean

Verify PIN - retries left

In order to inform a user upon the PIN retries left, the Belgian eID doesn't provide a request to retrieve this information. After an unsuccesfull PIN verification, the container will throw a com.t1t.t1c.exceptions.VerifyPinException

 Boolean pinVerified = container.verifyPin("1235");

The following exception will be thrown when PIN is wrong:

com.t1t.t1c.exceptions.VerifyPinException

Note that, when the user has at least one retry left, entering a correct PIN resets the PIN retry status.

Authentication

The T1C-GCL is able to authenticate a card holder based on a challenge. The challenge can be:

• provided by an external service
• provided by the smart card

An authentication can be interpreted as a signature use case, the challenge is signed data, that can be validated in a back-end process.

To get the certificates necessary for signature validation in your back-end:

List<String> filters = Arrays.asList("root-certificate","citizen-certificate","authentication-certificate");
boolean parseCertificates = true;
BeIdAllCertificates certificates = container.getAllCertificates(filters, parseCertificates);
// Or directly retrieve the signing certificate chain in the form of Map<Integer, T1cCertificate>. The leaf certificate will always have 0 as key
Map<Integer, T1cCertificate> signingCertificateChain = container.getAuthenticationCertificateChain();

External Challenge

An external challenge is provided in the data property of the following example:

String authenticatedData = container.authenticate(
                //data
                "I2e+u/sgy7fYgh+DWA0p2jzXQ7E=",
                //Digest algorithn
                DigestAlgorithm.SHA256,
                //Optional PIN
                "1234"
);

Response is a base64 encoded String representing the hash signed with the authentication certificate:

"W7wqvWA8m9SBALZPxN0qUCZfB1O/WLaM/silenLzSXXmeR+0nzB7hXC/Lc/fMru82m/AAqCuGTYMPKcIpQG6MtZ/SGVpZUA/71jv3D9CatmGYGZc52cpcb7cqOVT7EmhrMtwo/jyUbi/Dy5c8G05owkbgx6QxnLEuTLkfoqsW9Q="

Take notice that the PIN property can be omitted when using a smart card reader with pin-pad capabilities.

The 'algorithmReference' property can contain the following values: SHA1, SHA256, SHA512, MD5.

Generated Challenge

A server generated challenge can be provided to the Java library. In order to do so, an additional contract must be provided with the 'OCV API' (Open Certificate Validation API).