Develop Bugs

[Q] Is my NFC broken? Hints for troubleshooting NFC

Hi guys,
I believe that the NFC chip in my device (battery) is broken. I have tried two different NFC reader applications and swiped my library card, my RFID keyring for work and my gym card with no success. I turned NFC off and on, rebooted the phone, nothing.
Is there anything else I can do to troubleshoot the NFC chip? I want to make sure its a hardware fault before I turn it in.
I have unlocked the bootloader and rooted via superboot, and it's been flashed with yakju 4.0.2 from googles website.

ipkryss said:
Hi guys,
I believe that the NFC chip in my device (battery) is broken. I have tried two different NFC reader applications and swiped my library card, my RFID keyring for work and my gym card with no success. I turned NFC off and on, rebooted the phone, nothing.
Is there anything else I can do to troubleshoot the NFC chip? I want to make sure its a hardware fault before I turn it in.
I have unlocked the bootloader and rooted via superboot, and it's been flashed with yakju 4.0.2 from googles website.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does NFC enable in settings? Capture a logcat when enabling.
Are you sure that the tags you are scanning operate on the correct frequency (13.56 Mhz)? If so capture a logcat when you try to scan the tags. Capture a logcat when trying to read a tag.

I know this might sound stupid but I'm being serious. Can someone actually explain to me what NFC is, how GNEX can use it and what can be done now with it? I just need it simple terms, searching it online just drove me crazy.
Thanks, appreciate the help.

krohnjw said:
Does NFC enable in settings? Capture a logcat when enabling.
Are you sure that the tags you are scanning operate on the correct frequency (13.56 Mhz)? If so capture a logcat when you try to scan the tags. Capture a logcat when trying to read a tag.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for helping. Yes, NFC seems to startup alright according to logcat, no error messages or warnings when I do this. I also see messages "NFC-EE routing ON" and "NFC-C polling ON". The log is too long to post it for you.
I also tried logcat during scan but it didnt notice anything.
No, I am not sure that my tags are operating at 13.56 Mhz... Perhaps they arent. Have to look this up!
Somebody in Sweden knows anything I could test my NFC against?

bal1985 said:
I know this might sound stupid but I'm being serious. Can someone actually explain to me what NFC is, how GNEX can use it and what can be done now with it? I just need it simple terms, searching it online just drove me crazy.
Thanks, appreciate the help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NFC is for Near-Field Communication and is a wireless communication standard that only operates at a very short instance, eg. 1-4 cm. It can be used as a replacement for regular debit cards so instead of using your card when you go to the shop you just swipe your mobile phone against the shops sensors and enter your pin code to pay. It can also be used to perform a secure handshake, for example if I come to a friends house and I want to access his WiFi, I'll just swipe my phone close to his Wifi Router and they will pair and share the network encryption key. The security in this is that no unauthorized person should be able to get within 1-4 cm of the router to get the encryption key - and NFC simply does not operate at longer ranges then this. These are a couple of things I know are coming with the NFC technology, there's probably alot more stuff we can do with this. Oh btw, we got the Android Beam aswell!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_Field_Communication
http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/18/google-announces-nfc-based-android-beam-for-sharing-between-phon/

ipkryss said:
Hi guys,
I believe that the NFC chip in my device (battery) is broken. I have tried two different NFC reader applications and swiped my library card, my RFID keyring for work and my gym card with no success. I turned NFC off and on, rebooted the phone, nothing.
Is there anything else I can do to troubleshoot the NFC chip? I want to make sure its a hardware fault before I turn it in.
I have unlocked the bootloader and rooted via superboot, and it's been flashed with yakju 4.0.2 from googles website.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do you have an extended non Samsung battery or just a non Samsung battery? Or is your battery exterior damaged in any way?

ipkryss said:
Thank you for helping. Yes, NFC seems to startup alright according to logcat, no error messages or warnings when I do this. I also see messages "NFC-EE routing ON" and "NFC-C polling ON". The log is too long to post it for you.
I also tried logcat during scan but it didnt notice anything.
No, I am not sure that my tags are operating at 13.56 Mhz... Perhaps they arent. Have to look this up!
Somebody in Sweden knows anything I could test my NFC against?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
see if you can find someone with one of the latest nokia phones with NFC support, or is there any nokia show room nearby, you can try connecting their NFC/BT headsets.

[Q] Copy tag to phone

Hi
Here at the university we use a NFC card to check in. Is it possible to copy the tag to my phone so I don't have to carry my student card around?

Depends
Sent from my LS670 using XDA

Shark_On_Land said:
Depends
Sent from my LS670 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, helpful much?
I'd like to know this too.

thx
arjun rajput

+1
I like to know this to.

(Here at the university we use a NFC card to check in. Is it possible to copy the tag to my phone so I don't have to carry my student card around?)
Hi Samuel
I believe this is not possible right now, as there are security measures in place to prevent fraudulent use, but give it a couple of months there will be apps you can download , to copy re-writeable NFC tags to your phone, making your phone work as an emulator of some sort.

virus007 said:
(Here at the university we use a NFC card to check in. Is it possible to copy the tag to my phone so I don't have to carry my student card around?)
Hi Samuel
I believe this is not possible right now, as there are security measures in place to prevent fraudulent use, but give it a couple of months there will be apps you can download , to copy re-writeable NFC tags to your phone, making your phone work as an emulator of some sort.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To emulate cards with your NFC phone, you have to have full control of the secure element. In the Nexus phones, access to the secure element is restricted to Google - only they have the codes to access it. In non-Nexus phones like the SGS2, they don't even have built-in secure elements and therefore have to rely on SIMs, which are in turn controlled by operators. Without access to the secure element, you won't be able to emulate another card. So, no, even in a few months you won't be able to copy a tag and emulate it from your phone. Unless Google opens up the secure element to, which is unlikely.
To OP: Even if you could actually copy the contents of the card and then emulate it, this might not be enough. Many schools use just the UID of the card to associate it with your account on their system. This means that there's a good chance that your card actually has no data on it. Furthermore, phones aren't currently able to emulate UIDs. You're out of luck.

LoveNFC said:
To emulate cards with your NFC phone, you have to have full control of the secure element. In the Nexus phones, access to the secure element is restricted to Google - only they have the codes to access it. In non-Nexus phones like the SGS2, they don't even have built-in secure elements and therefore have to rely on SIMs, which are in turn controlled by operators. Without access to the secure element, you won't be able to emulate another card. So, no, even in a few months you won't be able to copy a tag and emulate it from your phone. Unless Google opens up the secure element to, which is unlikely.
To OP: Even if you could actually copy the contents of the card and then emulate it, this might not be enough. Many schools use just the UID of the card to associate it with your account on their system. This means that there's a good chance that your card actually has no data on it. Furthermore, phones aren't currently able to emulate UIDs. You're out of luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Clearly, a direction NFC will follow. There's no way users will allow something like that to remain as neutered as it currently is. It just (seemingly) has not worked that way in the past.

thanks
thanks

[Q] Copy NFC tag to another NFC tag

Hi everyone, this has probably been asked before but I didn't want to i guess bump a necro thread.
Basically I was wondering is it possible for me to copy an nfc tag to another nfc tag. From a post I saw here, it said it is possible as long as the tag isn't encrypted.
So basically what i was hoping to know is one how would be the best way I would know if its encrypted and two what would be the easiest way to do this.
If it helps my mindset is basically I want to copy the NFC tag from my bus card onto a wristband so that I don't need to use the card anymore. What I'm guessing is that everything is set electronically in terms of card cost and stuff like that as I read that I can recharge and view my balance online so I'm assuming the card just acts like a connecter to your specific account and doesn't actually contain any money information on it.
I tried an app to read from the card and it did show me what I think is numerous files, in which the one I saw said that I was allowed to read from the device but no write access which I'm guessing is fine since all I want to do is read and copy from that NFC tag and then write it to another one I can buy.
The other thing I could do is just cut up my bus card and get the nfc part and place it under a watch or something, the bus company said I can get a new card for free whenever I like if I lose my current one so that's another way but seems a bit crude to me.

eitherrideordie said:
Basically I was wondering is it possible for me to copy an nfc tag to another nfc tag. From a post I saw here, it said it is possible as long as the tag isn't encrypted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can copy any information you can actually read. BUT the following is not working:
If it helps my mindset is basically I want to copy the NFC tag from my bus card onto a wristband so that I don't need to use the card anymore. What I'm guessing is that everything is set electronically in terms of card cost and stuff like that as I read that I can recharge and view my balance online so I'm assuming the card just acts like a connecter to your specific account and doesn't actually contain any money information on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wrong assumption. A card used for banking etc has a private key on it that the bank will use to authenticate you. In order to do this they let the card sign some data and verifies the signature. If everyone could read that key, that would be horrible unsafe. Everybody that would be able to read the key could sign the data on your behalf. That is why the key is on the card and never leaves it.
I tried an app to read from the card and it did show me what I think is numerous files, in which the one I saw said that I was allowed to read from the device but no write access which I'm guessing is fine since all I want to do is read and copy from that NFC tag and then write it to another one I can buy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I said above, this works for cards that contain only data. You can copy any data that is readable, but cards that give you the functionality you want are not copyable via nfc.
The other thing I could do is just cut up my bus card and get the nfc part and place it under a watch or something, the bus company said I can get a new card for free whenever I like if I lose my current one so that's another way but seems a bit crude to me.
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Click to collapse
Same as above. Id guess your buscard is some sort of mifare card. You can only read/write those if you have the keys. And I don't think you will have them. Well it depends on the exact card but still.

Damastus said:
You can copy any information you can actually read. BUT the following is not working:
Wrong assumption. A card used for banking etc has a private key on it that the bank will use to authenticate you. In order to do this they let the card sign some data and verifies the signature. If everyone could read that key, that would be horrible unsafe. Everybody that would be able to read the key could sign the data on your behalf. That is why the key is on the card and never leaves it.
As I said above, this works for cards that contain only data. You can copy any data that is readable, but cards that give you the functionality you want are not copyable via nfc.
Same as above. Id guess your buscard is some sort of mifare card. You can only read/write those if you have the keys. And I don't think you will have them. Well it depends on the exact card but still.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess I had too much I was hoping would work, but from reading what you said it doesn't sound like it will . I do get that it has a private key, I was just kind of hoping that in this case it wouldn't since the card doesn't really seem like its worth much, such as compared to something like a visa card or something like that.
Each card has a unique number on them written on the back, so I guess I just kind of assumed each number was assigned for each account type thing and if you lost a card they would just change the account with another different number since you can own multiple bus cards, and that would be all I need, but it seems like you are most likely correct. Our buscard only came into affect about a month or two a go, but I'm assuming they probably paid a company of some sort to do it, and if thats the case they probably would have it encrypted either way
Is there still a way I could check? Just in case theres like some sort of miracle and it is only just a basic card type thing? Even though thats most likely wrong?
You can copy any data that is readable, but cards that give you the functionality you want are not copyable via nfc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If this is the case though I guess its impossible
Cheers though

eitherrideordie said:
Is there still a way I could check? Just in case theres like some sort of miracle and it is only just a basic card type thing? Even though thats most likely wrong?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could try to identify the card. Maybe use sth. like NFC TagInfo or ReTAG to see what type of card it is. These TagInfo will also show you whats in the card when its readable. But dont get your hopes too high.

Damastus said:
You could try to identify the card. Maybe use sth. like NFC TagInfo or ReTAG to see what type of card it is. These TagInfo will also show you whats in the card when its readable. But dont get your hopes too high.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, thanks heaps, had a go at using NFC TagInfo and this is what I get
Tag information says the tag type is ISO/IEC 14443-4 smart card
mifare desfire evi(mf3ICD2I)
Under the ISO/IEC 14443-4 Smart card part
it talks about the mifare desfire
Within there it says
Key configuration changeable YES
Master Key required for application creation/deletion YES
Master Key required for application directory list NO
Master Key changeable YES
Available Keys KEY 0: Key version 1
Another key configuration says the exact same thing but also says
Key change permissions AUTHENTICATE WITH KEY 0 application master key
And there's a whole heap of files in there, most of which are readable but some say read fail.
From the sound of all this, its starting to not look that good , I'm assuming if there's keys and things that the only way would be to break them and I don't want to do anything against the rules to be honest .

NFC war problem

I downloaded the app NFC war by radiowar and whenever I click on read a card
or war it tells me to touch a NFC tag but when I do nothing happens..
Could someone send me a tutorial for this app or explain to me how it works?

yonatansss said:
I downloaded the app NFC war by radiowar and whenever I click on read a card
or war it tells me to touch a NFC tag but when I do nothing happens..
Could someone send me a tutorial for this app or explain to me how it works?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure about the specific app, but typically with NFC (RFID) make sure:
1. Your phone has NFC capability and is turned ON (yes, there have been people trying it without their phone supporting it!!!)
2. Make sure you know where the NFC antenna is on your phone and place the tag right on top of it
3. Maximum distance between the tag and your NFC antenna ~3cm. It might work at greater distance, but typically the shorter the better
4. Your NFC tag is working! If one does not work, try another one. Dead tags is not uncommon.
5. The application may not be compatible with your phone's NFC chip! In that case, the app will simply not work. Check with the developer regarding compatible handsets.

nfc
is this nfc an hardware, my phone doesn't have, can I get it with rom updates?

ztobs said:
is this nfc an hardware, my phone doesn't have, can I get it with rom updates?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, NFC is hardware. If your phone doesn't have it then you're out of luck.

Might have figured this already but sometimes you need to leave the card on for between a minute and 30 seconds before it can read all the data

SimonsVoss keycard

I'm moving into a new appartment, this is the key for the building it is in.
It says Simonsvoss on it, its the name of the company.
You just have to hold it in front of the lock and it opens automatically.
I thought maybe it uses NFC and you can read out the key and also use your phone as a key.
I tried some NFC reader apps, but none of them got any signal.
I'm not sure if NFC works on my phone (i have a galaxy s3 with cyanogenmod 11 M6 installed).
Anyone knows if this thing even uses NFC?

I'm no expert but it was my understanding that nfc is Bluetooth and these fobs use some other radio signal
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app

There's a number of different reasons why your smartphone can't read it:
- it doesn't support that particular tag: it does happen, perhaps it works on a different frequency, or uses unknown protocols. There isn't much you can do about it.
- that key is not an nfc tag: it sounds unlikely to me, since the way you described how it works makes me think it is actually an nfc tag, but who knows.
- the cyanogenmod you installed doesn't support nfc: have you tried reading other tags with it? What kind of software are you using for reading it? Make sure you can successfully read other kinds of tags: if you happen to have Mifare Ultralight tags, you may use an app I developed a few days ago, UltraManager. if you have other kinds of tags (even the most recent passports have nfc tags embedded), apps like NFC TagInfo should do
- you have accidentally removed part of your nfc hardware accidentally: I know this sounds unlikely, and I would've never suggested it, but earlier today I talked to a guy who claimed he couldn't read any tags: turned out that he had changed his smartphone's battery with an unofficial one, and since that particular smartphone had the hardware on the battery, he obviously couldn't use nfc.

I know this thread is dead, but...Probably not NFC, since I can even scan and copy my Passport (hex codes of fingerprints and so on).
Would be to easy to break into a appartment secured like this
Sent from my GT-I9505 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app on OmegaRom v19

Radio Frequency
The Transponder is a radio transponder, it unlocks the lock by sending a radio frequency which cannot be cloned like traditional RFID ..
Simons-Voss stated this information on their website, in fact that was their main selling point is that the transponders cannot be cloned .. I know this thread is old and all, but I would be interested to know if anyone has figured out a way to hack these locks. I used them, so I am interested to know how their level of security is holding up after all these years ..