Symmetric cryptography, hashing and PIN block sanity checking for EftPos developers

PIN-block formats & encryption

Overview

When a card holder enters his PIN, the information is first encoded into a plain text PIN-block, derived from the PIN length, the PIN digits, a portion of the PAN (primay account number) and padding. The plain text PIN-block is then encrypted using a standard algorithm.

PED security

PIN numbers are entered on a PIN entry device (PED), which provides a trusted and secure environment. Such devices are tamper resistant and responsive, which means that they can detect and respond to attempts to retrieve sensitive data.

Security measures include encapsulating membranes, potting, physical sensors, secure micro-controllers and software countermeasures. The tamper response is erasure of protected data and the disabling of the device.

ISO-0 PIN-block format

The ISO-0 PIN-block format consists of the PIN length, PIN digits, and 'F' character padding, exclusive-ORed with the rightmost 12 PAN digits, excluding the check digit.

For example, for PIN 1234 and PAN 4987654321098765, we need to work out 04.1234.FFFFFFFFFF XOR 0000.765432109876 which gives us 0412.42AB.CDEF.6789.

PIN-block encryption standards
StandardMechanismPIN-block
format
Encryption
ANS X9.8 (1995)MK/SKISO-0DES
ANS X9.8 (2003)MK/SKISO-0triple DES
ANS X9.24 (1998)DUKPTISO-0DES
ANS X9.24 (2004)DUKPTISO-0triple DES
Acronyms
AcronymDescription
DESData encryption standard
DUKPTDerived unique key per transaction
HSMHardware security module
MK/SKMaster key / session key
PANPrimary account number
PEDPIN entry device
PINPersonal identification number
TRSMTamper resistant/responsive security module