RACS: Remote APDU call secure creating trust for the internet

This paper presents the emerging RACS (Remote APDU Call Secure) protocol, whose goal is the virtualization of secure elements, i.e. remote use of software applications running in these tamper resistant devices. These secure microcontrollers, shipped per billion, are usually used by smartcards or embedded in NFC (Near Field Communication) chips. In a connected world context (always on and ubiquitous internet access), mobile devices (smartphones, tablets...) or virtual machines (VM) could use RACS when trustworthy computing is requested, typically for cryptographic operations. The main RACS concept is to host secure elements in dedicated servers and to transport ISO7816 messages over a TLS/TCP/IP stack. This paper details RACS features and its security policy guideline. First experimental implementations are reviewed both for servers and clients.