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GB nº 23, EMV® Level 2 PIN Pad Change Process

v1.0 General Bulletin

General Bulletin No. 23 First Edition December 2004 EMV Level 2 PIN Pad Change Process

Related Documents

This General Bulletin should be read in conjunction with:

  • EMVCo Type Approval Terminal Level 2 Administrative Process, v1.3

Introduction

EMVCo has recently updated its level 2 procedures in order to test application kernels with multiple PIN pad submissions. These PIN pads are those that contain a portion of the EMV application kernel. This bulletin serves as an introduction to the requirements and procedures necessary to test an application kernel submitted with multiple PIN pads. The EMVCo Type Approval Terminal Level 2 Administrative Process, v1.3 contains additional details regarding this procedure. When an EMV level 2 application kernel is now submitted for testing the Implementation Conformance Statement (ICS) will indicate the subcomponents that comprise the application kernel to be tested. The ICS may also show a variety of PIN pads that may be deployed in combination with the application kernel. There is no limit to the number of PIN pads that may be defined in a single type approval submission. EMVCo believes this approach will offer considerable savings to vendors who support multiple PIN pads. The possible areas for savings are:

  • Time necessary to test a given number of kernel and PIN pad combinations
  • Cost savings in the test expense when considering the number of deployable kernel and PIN pad combinations finally approved
  • Flexibility in which PIN pads are tested and approved, while new PIN pads may be tested as necessary
  • Single administrative approval process for a given number of kernel and PIN pad combinations At this time the PIN pad change process is to be managed separately from the configurable kernel process. For this reason the two may not be combined. EMVCo may combine the two procedures once they are shown to be stable. This document contains proprietary and confidential information of EMVCo LLC. Copyright © EMVCo LLC 2004 Requirements for Submission EMVCo has specified a number of requirements that must be satisfied in order for a kernel to take advantage of the PIN pad change process. Most importantly, in order to qualify for this process the EMV application kernel code residing within all submitted PIN pads must be confined to PIN processing functions. All PIN pad functions must also be performed in a consistent and interchangeable manner, meaning each PIN pad must support an identical set of functions (offline plaintext PIN, offline enciphered PIN, etc.). No recompilation of the application kernel is permitted when changing PIN pads. Finally, a unique secondary checksum must be generated and associated with each PIN pad. This checksum is derived from the application logic associated with the PIN processing, and is in addition to the primary checksum used to identify the kernel itself. Changing of the PIN pad must not impact the primary checksum. Submission Procedure All level 2 application kernel submissions will be accompanied by an ICS describing the supported options. The ICS also describes what subcomponents comprise the whole of the application kernel. Multiple PIN pads, satisfying the above requirements, may also be identified on the ICS. When submitting the ICS the vendor may also specify the baseline. The baseline is a deployable kernel-PIN pad combination that will be fully tested against the EMVCo Level 2 test plan. Other deployable kernel-PIN pad combinations will receive limited regression testing. A vendor may choose not to specify the baseline, in this case the laboratory selects the baseline fully tested against the EMVCo Level 2 test plan. During test, failures may be discovered in either the baseline or subsequent PIN pad combinations. Depending on where the error occurs the vendor may have a choice of how to continue. Errors found in the baseline will result in a rejection of the entire kernel. Errors found in other deployable kernel-PIN pad combinations may either: be eliminated from the testing process, repair the PIN pad and resume the regression process (only permitted if no change required for the core application kernel), or repair the core application kernel and restart the type approval process. Please note, failures discovered during a regression PIN Pad test have no impact on the other PIN Pads already tested or PIN Pads yet to be tested. EMVCo does not require any additional testing when a failure is isolated to a single PIN Pad. Resubmission Procedure An application kernel supporting the PIN pad change process that has been approved without test failures may be resubmitted for testing of additional PIN pads. Resubmission testing must be conducted on the original sample stored at the test laboratory whenever possible. In instances where the kernel is no longer available, or is otherwise inoperable, the vendor may supply an identical kernel after having signed a disclaimer attesting that no modifications have been made This document contains proprietary and confidential information of EMVCo LLC. Copyright © EMVCo LLC 2004 to that kernel since last tested by a laboratory. There is no need for a vendor to return to the original testing laboratory; however, the vendor is responsible for any shipping costs incurred in delivering the original kernel to the new laboratory. The kernel resubmission must be accompanied with a complete ICS, describing the original kernel options and additional PIN pad components. The resubmitted kernel ICS must be reviewed by EMVCo before any testing may begin. EMVCo will compare the resubmitted ICS to the original and confirm there has been no change in options or supported values. Failures identified during resubmission are subject to the same process described above.

Conclusion

Additional details regarding this policy can be found in the EMVCo Type Approval Terminal Level 2 Administrative Process, v1.3. Testing for the PIN pad change process will be available December 20th. Comments or queries regarding this policy change can be directed to EMVCo via the standard web page communication. This document contains proprietary and confidential information of EMVCo LLC. Copyright © EMVCo LLC 2004