Patent attributes
A smart card, system, and method for securely authorizing a user or user device using the smart card is provided. The smart card is configured to provide, upon initialization or a request for authentication, a public key to the user input device such that the PIN or password entered by the user is encrypted before transmission to the smart card via a smart card reader. The smart card then decrypts the PIN or password to authorize the user. Preferably, the smart card is configured to provide both a public key and a nonce to the user input device, which then encrypts a concatenation or other combination of the nonce and the user-input PIN or password before transmission to the smart card. The smart card reader thus never receives a copy of the PIN or password in the clear, allowing the smart card to be used with untrusted smart card readers.
