Category Archives: Framework

Topics regarding the Java Card framework, including the Runtime environment and the management of application lifecycles.

Java Card RMI is useless

When we first presented GemXpresso in 1997, it was made by a bunch of (Gemplus) researchers. We were all very happy, because it was a very nice card, and because it was very simple to program, thanks to Remote Method Invocation (RMI), which freed us from these damn APDU’s. It was possible to generate automatically […]

Status words in ISO7816

Status words are very important in the ISO7816 specification, since they are used to indicate specific conditions. The ISO7816-3 specification states the following: 60 is the NULL byte, used to get additional time. Status words starting by 6X (except 60) have a “meaning [that is] independent of the application”. Status words starting by 9X (except […]

Exception handling in install

The JCRE specification does not describe how the exceptions thrown from the install command should be handled. The reason for this is that these exceptions are supposed to be handled by an installer application, and the JCRE specification (¶11.1.5)explicitly states: Java Card RE implementers shall also define other behaviors of their Installer, including (…) what […]

Throwing exceptions

Exceptions are a nice feature of the Java language, which is available to Java Card developers. The nice thing about exceptions is that you don’t have to deal with error codes. We here recall a few good practices about the use of exceptions in Java Card applications.