1. EXTERNAL
NXP, THE NXP LOGO AND NXP SECURE CONNECTIONS FOR A SMARTER WORLD ARE TRADEMARKS OF NXP B.V.
ALL OTHER PRODUCT OR SERVICE NAMES ARE THE PROPERTY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS. © 2020 NXP B.V.
3 1 S T J U LY 2 0 2 0
Sandra Fuchs
Principal Customer Application Engineer
TRANSACTION TIMER
A MIFARE® DESFire® EV3 & MIFARE Plus® EV2 KEY FEATURE
VIDEO

2. 1EXTERNAL
RESTRICTING TRANSACTION TIME TO MITIGATE MAN-IN-THE-MIDDLE ATTACKS
V I A T RAN S AC T I O N T I M ER F E AT U R E
• Newly available feature on MIFARE DESFire EV3 and MIFARE Plus EV2 products
• Transaction Timer allows card issuer to configure a maximum time a transaction can take to avoid interference by Man-in-the-Middle attacker
• Enablement of transaction timer limits the possibility of keeping the card powered and not finishing (holding) the ongoing transaction by an
attacker
• The value of the Transaction Timer can be set for each application individually (1, 10, 100 seconds can be chosen)
• Once threshold of Transaction Timer is exceeded, the card will automatically reset itself, go into IDLE mode and abort the transaction
• As long as the Transaction Timer does not expire, regular command execution is not influenced by the feature at all
− Applicable for existing infrastructures without changing reader terminals
Enhanced security
without changing
existing
infrastructures
Helping to avoid
Man-in-the-Middle
attacks and
transaction holding
Individual
configuration of
maximum time a
transaction can
take

3. 2EXTERNAL
RESTRICTING TRANSACTION TIME TO MITIGATE MAN-IN-THE-MIDDLE ATTACKS
V I A T RAN S AC T I O N T I M ER F E AT U R E
Valid Transaction Reader
Terminal
Commit Transaction
Successful Transaction
• Finalized in time
Incomplete Transaction
• Not finalized in time
• Transaction Timer expired
Valid Transaction Reader
Terminal
Commit
Transaction

4. 3EXTERNAL
TECHNICAL DETAILS: HOW TO ENABLE TRANSACTION TIMER ON THE CARD
On MIFARE DESFire EV3
• Individual enablement for each application (independently)
• Different Transaction Timer values for different applications
• Enablement is done using the SetConfiguration command with option 0x55
• Once enabled, timer setting will be reflected in the response to the AuthenticateEV2First
command in the parameter PDCap2.2
• The timer starts counting for every application selection
On MIFARE Plus EV2
• Can be enabled once for each card
• Enablement is done by writing the PDCap2.2 value inside the FieldConfigurationBlock to the
chosen Transaction Timer setting
• Once enabled, timer starts counting when receiving the first command after ISO/IEC 14443-4
card activation
• The Transaction Timer is active in SL1, SL3 and SL1SL3MixMode (not supported in SL0)

5. 4EXTERNAL
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE TRANSACTION TIMER FEATURE
Item Number Availability
Datasheet - MIFARE DESFire EV3 DS4489 NXP DocStore (confidential)
Datasheet - MIFARE Plus EV2 DS5223 NXP DocStore (confidential)
Application Note - MIFARE DESFire EV3 Quick-Start Guide AN5755 NXP website (public)
Application Note - MIFARE DESFire EV3 Features and Hints AN5881 NXP DocStore (confidential)
Application Note - Feature and Functionality Comparison between
MIFARE DESFire EV2 and MIFARE DESFire EV3
AN5756 NXP website (public)
Application Note - MIFARE Plus EV2 Features and Hints AN5760 NXP website (public)
Application Note - Comparison between MIFARE Plus EV2 and
previous types
AN5762 NXP website (public)
RFID Discover Software SW1866 NXP DocStore (confidential)
NXP Reader Library (Windows based) SW1717 NXP DocStore (confidential)
https://www.nxp.com/products/rfid-nfc/mifare-hf/mifare-desfire
https://www.nxp.com/products/rfid-nfc/mifare-hf/mifare-plus
https://www.docstore.nxp.com/

6. NXP, THE NXP LOGO AND NXP SECURE CONNECTIONS FOR A SMARTER WORLD ARE TRADEMARKS OF NXP B.V. ALL OTHER PRODUCT OR SERVICE NAMES ARE THE PROPERTY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS. © 2020 NXP B.V.