MiFare 1K RFID smart-card support in Rohos Logon

Updated 10 May 2011.

Tesline-service announce that now Rohos Logon Key support wireless smartcard MiFare 1K/4K. This contactless smartcard technology (RFID) with over 1 billion smart card chips and 10 million reader modules sold. And now this RFID technology can be used with Rohos products for secure login into Windows, Mac or encrypted Rohos Disk.

There are few different types of MiFare that Rohos can support but we have carried out tests with MIFARE Classic (Standard) 1K in smart card factor. There are also label like tags (like Touchatag).

Rohos Logon Key allows using MiFare cards for 2-factor authentication into any Windows, Active Directory network and Remote Desktop Services. A single RFID card can used to access multiple Pcs and accounts.

How to try MiFare in Rohos

  • Download Rohos Logon Key
  • Open Rohos Logon Key > “Options”
  • Choose “MiFare 1K RFID” as USB Key device from the list
  • Click on “Options” link below the list and setup Mifare options and choose default RFID reader device.

Notes on MiFare support in Rohos Logon

  • Rohos allows to reuse existing RFID solution for Windows Authentication - it allow customize the starting block number (sector) where to store rohos data and co-exist with 3rd party Mifare software.
  • Rohos allows to use customized default key A . This will allows to use protected Mifare cards but rohos will not prompt PIN code each time. Default KeyA is “FF FF FF FF FF FF”
  • Rohos data size on Mifare occupies 100 bytes minimum (1+ 7 sectors ) and up to 528 bytes.
  • “Change PIN” command changes Mifare Key A to PIN value (6 bytes) of the trailer blocks of the selected block range.

MiFare 1K options

Rohos Logon > Options > Authentication device options.

MiFare options in Rohos allows to :

  • Change default Key A
  • Set a starting block number (sector) for rohos data.
  • Set a default PC/SC reader name
  • Test mifare memory to analyze Mifare memory.

By default, Rohos is able to use default Key A to read/write card without asking for a PIN code. If PIN code is changed then it will be asked each time Rohos accesses the card.

Compatible with 3rd party RFID systems

Please note - If you are using 3rd party RFID solution:

  • You need to test your RFID cards to find out free memory block that can be reused by Rohos Logon.
  • Authentication Key in RFID card can be customized by 3rd party Application. But probably there is a few memory blocks available with default Authentication Key A. So you can find these blocks.

How to test your RFID card to use it in Rohos Logon:

  1. At the “Test RFID card” group enter 10, 20, 30… 100 into “Block#” and click “Read”.
    if this Block# is the free and uses default authentication key -
    The Output should be 16 chars length.
    If the Output contains many zeros at the end “XXXXX 0000000000000000″ - it means the memory is free.
  2. When you found the first free block you may set it as “Starting Block#”
  3. Try to use Setup USB Key dialog to configure RFID card for Rohos logon.

At the end you need to set this value “Starting Block#” at all PCs where Rohos Logon Key is installed.

Licensing policy:

Rohos Logon Key require each RFID tag to have its own “Rohos token license key”.

Known Issues:

Please note after installing Rohos Logon you need to Open options and select “Mifare 1K RFID” as authentication device.

Rohos display error “There is no connected RFID reader”
- open Rohos Logon > Options > Device Options and check out “Available readers” value. You may copy/paste a listed RFID reader name into “Default Reader” field and try again.

When I try to “Setup USB Key” rohos detects MiFare card but display “Enter PIN” dialog. What is default PIN?
- Rohos already uses a default PIN i.e. authentication key A for MiFare (FF FF FF..).  “Enter PIN” means -

  • a) entire RFID is formatted with a custom authentication key, you need to know it.
  • b) there is a RFID solution in your company that occupied some RFID memory blocks.

In any case you need to test your RFID card before use in Rohos.

If you have any other problems contact support and attach rohos logon *.log files from c:\program files\rohos folder

Tested hardware:

  • ACS ACR122 NFC Contactless Smart Card Reader or ACR128
  • SCM SCL010 RFID reader
  • SCM SCL011G and SCL3711
  • Mifare 1K smart card or Yubikey OTP token with RFID module.

The sample of NFC Reader ACR122 and SCM SCL010 and sample of MiFare cards were provided by our partner Futako Co, LTD Taiwan.

Download Rohos Logon Key (for Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Seven)

January 6th, 2010 in RFID | tags: , , , ,