[locusofself]

That's pretty neat. It sounds like Java Card (or at least some other cards) actually "boot up" by way of inductive coupling, ie, via the "contactless" card readers where you just hold your card in proximity to the reader thing. Did not know that, I assumed it was just reading a key via NFC or something.

[Sharlin]

The whole reason there’s a thing called a chip in the card is that it actually does computing (indeed they’re called smart cards) and that it does the sort of computing (cryptographic challenge-response) that makes these cards much more secure than oldschool magnetic stripe cards.

Even fully passive NFC tags contain logic that needs power to talk NFC back to the reader, there’s no such thing as just reading data via NFC.

[pests]

This is a classic defcon talk about it. They developed their own cell network with their own sim cards for an event and even built custom JavaCard applications their users could use. They have released all their information and tools used to build and compile Java Card software.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-nxemBCcmU

[Nursie]

A lot of people assume this, but with contactless EMV there is a whole transaction flow between the card and the reader going on.

You know those 4 lights on a contactless card reader? They indicate different transaction stages between the card and the terminal. I don’t find them that useful because it’s so fast they all appear to light at the same time, but that’s what they are!

If they were just passive tags, they wouldn’t be very secure, they have cryptographic processors onboard with private keys that can sign stuff for the terminal and your bank. The specs for the interaction are all public if you’re interested (I wouldn’t be!) and lookup contactless EMV.