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QUANTAGIT Solutions

Project · GSMA IoT SAFE

IoT SAFE Applet

Secure end-to-end IoT communication, rooted in the SIM

IoT SAFE — IoT SIM Applet For Secure End-2-End Communication — is a standard developed by the mobile industry and implemented by Quantag. It lets device makers and service providers use the SIM as a robust, scalable, standardised hardware Root of Trust for IoT data.

Standard
GSMA IoT SAFE
Form factors
SIM · eSIM · iSIM
Platform
JavaCard
Transport
(D)TLS 1.2 and 1.3

The problem

Robust and effective IoT security at scale starts with where the keys live.

Leveraging a hardware secure element — a Root of Trust — to establish end-to-end, chip-to-cloud security is a key recommendation of the GSMA IoT Security Guidelines. That requires both provisioning and using security credentials from inside a secure place within the device.

The SIM card or smartcard is best suited to that role: it has advanced security and cryptographic features, and it is a fully standardised secure element, so it interoperates across vendors and behaves consistently for every device maker using it.

IoT SAFE gives that a common mechanism — securing IoT data communications with a highly trusted SIM instead of proprietary, potentially less trusted secure elements implemented elsewhere in the device.

Capabilities

What the applet does

  • 01Uses the SIM as a mini 'crypto-safe' inside the device to establish a (D)TLS session with the corresponding cloud application or server.
  • 02Compatible with every SIM form factor — SIM, eSIM and iSIM.
  • 03Compatible with all JavaCards.
  • 04Provides a common API so the highly secure SIM can serve as a hardware 'Root of Trust' for IoT devices.
  • 05Helps solve the challenge of provisioning millions of IoT devices.
Simplified GSMA M2M eUICC architecture: file system, network access applications and the IoT SAFE applet sit above MNO-SD, ISD-P and the eUICC operating system.
IoT SAFE SIM architecture (example) — GSMA M2M eUICC, simplified.

Security services

What it enables between device and backend

IoT SAFE workflow: on the device side an IoT client application talks to device middleware and a SIM carrying the IoT security applet; on the backend an IoT server application talks to server middleware and an IoT security service. Device and backend middleware are joined by a (D)TLS IP connection, the SIM and the security service by SIM OTA.
Device side and backend, and which of the interfaces between them GSMA defines, standardises or leaves to de-facto APIs.
  • 01IoT devices perform mutual (D)TLS authentication against a server, using either asymmetric or symmetric security schemes.
  • 02Devices compute shared secrets while long-term keys stay secret inside the secure element.
  • 03Provisioning and credential lifecycle management run from a remote IoT security service.

Specifications

Two applet builds

Cryptographic support compared across the two IoT Security Applet builds
FeatureIoT Security Applet 1IoT Security Applet 2
TLS version (D)TLS 1.2 and 1.3(D)TLS 1.2 and 1.3
RSA Yes* (2048 bit)No
ECC NIST P256No
ECDHE YesNo
ECDSA YesNo
PSK Yes* (512 bits)Yes* (512 bits)
SHA-256 YesYes
HMAC YesYes
HKDF YesYes

* Optional

Also under IoT SAFE

IoT SAFE Smartcard The same security model in a card you carry — FIDO2 L1 certified, for passwordless personal authentication, secure web access and physical access.

Building a connected device that has to stay trustworthy?

Applet integration, SIM provisioning, device middleware and the backend it authenticates against — tell us what the device does and we will tell you what securing it takes.

Request the IoT SAFE Applet IoT SAFE Smartcard