A Generic Proxy for Secure Smart Card-Enabled Web Applications

Smart cards are commonly used for tasks with high security requirements such as digital signatures or online banking. However, systems that Web-enable smart cards often reduce the security and usability characteristics of the original application, e.g., by forcing users to execute privileged code on the local terminal (computer) or by insufficient protection against malware. In this paper we contribute with techniques to generally Web-enable smart cards and to address the risks of malicious attacks. In particular, our contributions are: (i) A single generic proxy to allow a multitude of authorized Web applications to communicate with existing smart cards and (ii) two security extensions to mitigate the effects of malware. Overall, we can mitigate the security risks of Web-based smart card transactions and—at the same time—increase the usability