NIST Special Publication 800-96 PIV Card to Reader 

Interoperability Guidelines

September 2006

U.S. Department of Commerce

Carlos M. Gutierrez, Secretary

.

I N F O R M A T I O N S E C U R I T Y

Technology Administration

Robert C. Cresanti, Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology

James F. Dray

April Giles

Michael Kelley

Ramaswamy Chandramouli

Information Technology Laboratory

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Gaithersburg, MD, 20899-8930

National Institute of Standards and Technology

William Jeffrey, Director 

NIST Special Publication 800-96 PIV Card to Reader 

Interoperability Guidelines

September 2006

U.S. Department of Commerce

Carlos M. Gutierrez, Secretary

.

I N F O R M A T I O N S E C U R I T Y

Technology Administration

Robert C. Cresanti, Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology

James F. Dray

April Giles

Michael Kelley

Ramaswamy Chandramouli

Information Technology Laboratory

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Gaithersburg, MD, 20899-8930

National Institute of Standards and Technology

William Jeffrey, Director 
Special Publication 800-96 PIV Card to Reader Interoperability Guidelines 

REPORTS ON COMPUTER SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY

The Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 

promotes the U.S. economy and public welfare by providing technical leadership for the Nation’s measurement 

and standards infrastructure. ITL develops tests, test methods, reference data, proof of concept 

implementations, and technical analyses to advance the development and productive use of information 

technology. ITL’s responsibilities include the development of management, administrative, technical, and 

physical standards and guidelines for the cost-effective security and privacy of non-national security-related 

information in Federal information systems. This special publication 800-series reports on ITL’s research, 

guidelines, and outreach efforts in information system security, and its collaborative activities with industry, 

government, and academic organizations. 

National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 800-96, 10 pages 

(September 2006) 

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Special Publication 800-96 PIV Card to Reader Interoperability Guidelines 

Acknowledgements 

The authors, Jim Dray and Ramaswamy Chandramouli of the National Institute of Standards and Technology 

(NIST), April Giles of General Services Administration (GSA), and Michael Kelley of Bearing Point wish to 

thank their colleagues who reviewed drafts of this document and contributed to its development. The authors 

gratefully acknowledge and appreciate GSA’s leadership in developing significant portions of this document. 

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Special Publication 800-96 PIV Card to Reader Interoperability Guidelines 

Table of Contents

1. Introduction......................................................................................................................... 1

1.1 Authority...................................................................................................................... 1

1.2 Purpose and Scope .................................................................................................... 1

2. PIV Card Reader Requirements........................................................................................ 2

2.1 PIV Contact Card Reader (Logical Access)................................................................ 2

2.1.1 Application Programming Interface (API)........................................................ 2

2.1.2 Application Protocol Data Unit (APDU) Support ............................................. 2

2.1.3 Buffer Size....................................................................................................... 2

2.1.4 Programming Voltage ..................................................................................... 2

2.1.5 Support for Operating Class............................................................................ 2

2.1.6 Retrieval Time................................................................................................. 2

2.1.7 Transmission Protocol..................................................................................... 2

2.1.8 Support for PPS Procedure............................................................................. 3

2.2 PIV Contact Card Reader (Physical Access).............................................................. 3

2.2.1 Common Requirements .................................................................................. 3

2.3 PIV Contactless Card Reader (Logical Access).......................................................... 3

2.3.1 API .................................................................................................................. 3

2.3.2 APDU Support................................................................................................. 3

2.3.3 Buffer Size....................................................................................................... 3

2.3.4 ISO 14443 Support ......................................................................................... 3

2.3.5 Type A and B Communication Signal Interfaces............................................. 3

2.3.6 Type A and B Initialization and Anti-Collision.................................................. 3

2.3.7 Type A and B Transmission Protocols ............................................................ 4

2.3.8 Retrieval Time................................................................................................. 4

2.3.9 Transmission Speeds...................................................................................... 4

2.3.10 Readability Range........................................................................................... 4

2.4 PIV Contactless Card Reader (Physical Access)........................................................ 4

2.4.1 Common Requirements .................................................................................. 4

3. References .......................................................................................................................... 5

4. Abbreviations and Acronyms............................................................................................ 6

 

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Special Publication 800-96 PIV Card to Reader Interoperability Guidelines 

1. Introduction 

1.1 Authority

This document has been developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in furtherance 

of its statutory responsibilities under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) of 2002, 

Public Law 107-347. 

NIST is responsible for developing standards and guidelines, including minimum requirements, for providing 

adequate information security for all agency operations and assets, but such standards and guidelines shall not 

apply to national security systems. This recommendation is consistent with the requirements of the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130, Section 8b(3), Securing Agency Information Systems, as 

analyzed in A-130, Appendix IV: Analysis of Key Sections. Supplemental information is provided in A-130, 

Appendix III. 

This recommendation has been prepared for use by Federal agencies. It may be used by non-governmental 

organizations on a voluntary basis and is not subject to copyright. Nothing in this document should be taken to 

contradict standards and guidelines made mandatory and binding on Federal agencies by the Secretary of 

Commerce under statutory authority. Nor should this recommendation be interpreted as altering or superseding 

the existing authorities of the Secretary of Commerce, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, or any 

other Federal official. 

1.2 Purpose and Scope 

The purpose of this document is to present recommendations for Personal Identity Verification (PIV) card 

readers in the area of performance and communications characteristics to foster interoperability. This document 

is not intended to re-state or contradict requirements specifically identified in Federal Information Processing 

Standard 201 (FIPS 201) or its associated documents. It is intended to augment existing standards to enable 

agencies to achieve the interoperability goal of Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12). 

The document provides requirements that facilitate interoperability between any card and any reader. 

Specifically, the recommendations are for end-point cards and readers designed to read end-point cards. 

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Special Publication 800-96 PIV Card to Reader Interoperability Guidelines 

2. PIV Card Reader Requirements 

2.1 PIV Contact Card Reader (Logical Access) 

2.1.1 Application Programming Interface (API) 

The reader shall be Personal Computer Smart Card (PC/SC) conformant when used with corresponding drivers 

for the host Operating System Platform. 

The reader, in conjunction with its corresponding driver, should handle the Application Protocol Data Unit 

(APDU) exchange with T=0 for case 4 commands (e.g., GET DATA, GENERATE ASYMMETRIC KEY 

PAIR) by reading all data from the card. In other words, the reader in conjunction with its corresponding driver 

should process all APDUs from the card consisting of SW1 = ‘61’ and SW2 = Number of bytes in the buffer, 

and should not transmit these APDUs through the PC/SC API to the software implementing the clientapplication programming interface (middleware). 

2.1.2 Application Protocol Data Unit (APDU) Support 

At a minimum, the contact interface shall support all card commands for contact based access specified in 

Section 7, End-point PIV Card Application Card Command Interface of SP 800-73-1, Interfaces for Personal 

Identity Verification. 

2.1.3 Buffer Size

The reader must contain a buffer large enough to receive the maximum size frame permitted by International 

Organization for Standardization International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) 7816-3:1997, Section 

9.4. 

2.1.4 Programming Voltage 

PIV Readers shall not generate a Programming Voltage. 

2.1.5 Support for Operating Class 

PIV Readers shall support cards with Class A Vccs as defined in ISO/IEC 7816-3:1997 and ISO/IEC 7816-

3:1997/Amd 1:2002. 

2.1.6 Retrieval Time 

Retrieval time1 for 12.5 kilobytes (KB) of data through the contact interface of the reader shall not exceed 2.0 

seconds. 

2.1.7 Transmission Protocol 

The PIV Reader shall support both the character-based T=0 protocol and block-based T=1 protocol as defined in 

ISO/IEC 7816-3:1997. 

 

1

 The time to retrieve a specified amount of data does not include activation/deactivation time. 

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Special Publication 800-96 PIV Card to Reader Interoperability Guidelines 

2.1.8 Support for PPS Procedure 

The reader shall support Protocol and Parameters Selection (PPS) procedure by having the ability to read 

character TA1 of the Answer to Reset (ATR) sent by the card as defined in ISO/IEC 7816-3:1997. 

2.2 PIV Contact Card Reader (Physical Access) 

2.2.1 Common Requirements 

The contact interface of the reader shall support all requirements in sections 2.1.2 to 2.1.8. 

2.3 PIV Contactless Card Reader (Logical Access) 

2.3.1 API 

The reader shall be Personal Computer Smart Card (PC/SC) conformant when used with corresponding drivers 

for the host Operating System Platform.

The reader, in conjunction with its corresponding driver, should handle the APDU exchange with T=0 for case 4 

commands (e.g., GET DATA, GENERATE ASYMMETRIC KEY PAIR) by reading all data from the card. In 

other words, the reader in conjunction with its corresponding driver should process all APDUs from the card

consisting of SW1 = ‘61’ and SW2 = Number of bytes in the buffer, and should not transmit these APDUs 

through the PC/SC API to the software implementing the client-application programming interface 

(middleware). 

2.3.2 APDU Support 

At a minimum, the contactless interface shall support all card commands for contactless based access specified 

in Section 7, End-point PIV Card Application Card Command Interface of SP 800-73-1, Interfaces for Personal 

Identity Verification. 

2.3.3 Buffer Size

The reader shall contain a buffer large enough to receive the maximum size frame permitted by ISO/IEC 7816-

3, Section 9.4.

2.3.4 ISO 14443 Support 

The PIV Reader shall support parts (1 through 4) of ISO/IEC 14443 as amended in the References of this 

publication. 

2.3.5 Type A and B Communication Signal Interfaces 

The contactless interface of the reader shall support both the Type A and Type B communication signal 

interfaces as defined in ISO/IEC 14443-2:2001. 

2.3.6 Type A and B Initialization and Anti-Collision 

The contactless interface of the reader shall support both Type A and Type B initialization and anti-collision 

methods as defined in ISO/IEC 14443-3:2001. 

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Special Publication 800-96 PIV Card to Reader Interoperability Guidelines 

2.3.7 Type A and B Transmission Protocols 

ed

in ISO/IEC 14443-4:2001.

s.

2.3.9 Transmission Speeds 

), fc/64 (~212 kbits/s), and 

/64 and fc/32 may be 

configurable to allow activation / deactivation. 

2.3.10 Readability Range 

PIV card more than 10cm from the reader. 

2.4 PIV Contactless Card Reader (Physical Access) 

2.4.1 Common Requirements 

The contactless interface of the reader shall support all requirements in sections 2.3.2 through 2.3.10. 

The contactless interface of the reader shall support both Type A and Type B transmission protocols as defin

2.3.8 Retrieval Time 

Retrieval time for 4 KB of data through the contactless interface of the reader shall not exceed 2.0 second

The contactless interface of the reader shall support bit rates of fc/128 (~106 kbits/s

fc/32 (~424 kbits/s) as defined in ISO/IEC 14443-3:2001/Amd.1:2005. Bit rates fc

The reader shall not be able to read a 

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Special Publication 800-96 PIV Card to Reader Interoperability Guidelines 

3. References 

ISO/IEC 7816-3:1997 Information technology - Identification cards - Integrated circuit(s) cards with contacts - 

Part 3: Electronic signals and transmission protocols 

ISO/IEC 7816-3:1997/Amd. 1:2002 Information technology - Identification cards - Integrated circuit(s) cards

with contacts - Part 3: Electronic signals and transmission protocols AMENDMENT 1: Electrical characteristics 

and class indication for integrated circuit(s) cards operating at 5 V, 3 V and 1.8 V 

ISO/IEC 14443-1:2000 Identification cards - Contactless integrated circuit(s) cards – Proximity cards - Part 1: 

Physical Characteristics 

ISO/IEC 14443-2:2001/Amd. 1:2005 Identification cards - Contactless integrated circuit(s) cards – Proximity

cards - Part 2: Radio frequency power and signal interface AMENDMENT 1:Bit rates of fc/64, fc/32 and fc/16. 

ISO/IEC 14443-3:2001/Amd.1:2005/Amd.3:2006 Identification cards – Contactless integrated circuit(s) cards – 

Proximity cards Part 3: Initialization and anticollision. AMENDMENT 1: Bit rates of fc /64, fc /32 and fc /16, 

AMENDMENT 3: Handling of reserved field and values. 

ISO/IEC 14443-4:2001/Amd.1:2006 Identification cards – Contactless integrated circuit(s) cards – Proximity 

cards Part 4: Transmission Protocol AMENDMENT 1: Handling of reserved fields and values 

PC/SC - Interoperability Specification for ICCs and Personal Computer Systems Part 2. Interface Requirements 

for Compatible IC Cards and Readers, Revision 2.01.02, September 2005 

SP 800-73-1 - NIST Special Publication 800-73 Revision 1, Interfaces for Personal Identity Verification. March 

2006. 

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Special Publication 800-96 PIV Card to Reader Interoperability Guidelines 

4. Abbreviations and Acronyms

APDU Application Protocol Data Unit 

API Application Programming Interface 

ATR Answer to Reset 

FIPS Federal Information Processing Standards 

HSPD Homeland Security Presidential Directive 

IEC International Electrotechnical Commission 

ISO International Organization for Standardization 

KB Kilobyte 

kbit/s Kilobits / second 

NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology 

PC/SC Personal Computer / Smart Card 

PIV Personal Identification Verification 

PPS Protocol and Parameters Selection 

TPDU Transport Protocol Data Unit 

Vcc Voltage at the Common Collector 

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