Checking absence of illicit applet interactions: A case study

Abstract

This paper presents the use of a method - and its corresponding tool set - for compositional verification of applet interactions on a realistic industrial smart card case study. The case study, an electronic purse, is provided by smart card producer Gemplus as a test case for formal methods for smart cards. The verification method focuses on the possible interactions between different applets, co-existing on the same card, and provides a technique to specify and detect illicit interactions between these applets. The method is compositional, thus supporting post-issuance loading of applets. The correctness of a global system property can algorithmically be inferred from local applet properties. Later, when loading applets on a card, the implementations are matched against these local properties, in order to guarantee the global property. The theoretical framework underlying our method has been presented elsewhere; the present paper evaluates its practical usability by means of an industrial case study. In particular, we outline the tool set that we have assembled to support the verification process, combining existing model checkers with newly developed tools, tailored to our method. © Springer-Verlag 2004.