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(From EMVCo, NIST FIPS 204, and industry reports – December 2025) Current Status: As of December 2025, ML-DSA is not integrated into production EMV payment cards. EMV still uses RSA/ECC for offline data authentication (DDA/CDA) and symmetric keys (3DES/AES) for session cryptograms. ML-DSA (NIST...

(From EMVCo, Visa, Mastercard, NXP, and industry reports – December 2025) Current Status: As of December 2025, ML-KEM is not integrated into production EMV payment cards. EMV still uses RSA/ECC for offline authentication (DDA/CDA) and 3DES/AES for session cryptograms. ML-KEM (NIST FIPS 203...

(From EMVCo, Visa, Mastercard, NXP, NIST, and industry reports – December 2025) Current Status of PQC in EMV (December 2025): No full PQC deployment yet – EMV still relies on RSA/ECC for offline authentication (DDA/CDA) and symmetric keys (3DES/AES) for session cryptograms. Migration is in...

(From EMVCo, Visa, Mastercard, NXP, AWS Payment Cryptography docs – December 2025) EMV cryptograms (ARQC/TC/AAC) use symmetric encryption for session keys and MAC generation. The two main algorithms are 3DES (Triple DES) and AES. In 2025, 3DES is still dominant but deprecated – AES is the...

(From EMV Book 2, Visa VIS, Mastercard M/Chip, and real implementation – December 2025) What is ARPC (Authorization Response Cryptogram)? ARPC is the issuer-generated cryptogram sent back to the card after validating the ARQC. It proves to the card: The issuer approved/declined the transaction...

(From EMV Book 2, Visa VIS, Mastercard M/Chip, and real implementation – December 2025) What is an ARQC? ARQC (Authorization Request Cryptogram) is the dynamic, one-time MAC (Message Authentication Code) generated by the EMV chip during an online transaction. It proves to the issuer: The card...

(From EMVCo specifications, Visa/Mastercard/Amex/Discover docs, and real-world implementation – December 2025) EMV (Europay, Mastercard, Visa) chip technology is the global standard for secure payment cards. Introduced in the 1990s and mandated worldwide by 2015–2020, it replaced magnetic...

(From the latest security research and reports – December 2025) Near Field Communication (NFC) technology powers contactless payments, access control, and data exchange in billions of devices worldwide. In 2025, with over 80% of in-store transactions using contactless methods (EMVCo data), NFC...

(From official EMVCo specifications, bulletins, and industry reports – December 2025) What is the EMVCo C-8 Kernel? The EMV Contactless Kernel Specification v1.0 (full title: EMV Contactless Specifications for Payment Systems – Book C-8 – Kernel 8 Specification) is EMVCo's unified, royalty-free...

(From EMVCo Contactless Kernel Specs, Visa payWave, Mastercard Contactless, and 2025 reports – December 2025) EMV contactless payments (tap-to-pay) use NFC (ISO 14443) for fast transactions. The core security is dynamic cryptograms – unique per-transaction codes that prevent cloning/replay. In...

(From official Visa Integrated Circuit Card Specification (VIS), EMV Book 2, and public tools like BP-Tools/PaymentCardTools – December 2025) Visa uses Cryptogram Version Number (CVN) for ARQC generation. The main versions in 2025 are CVN 10, CVN 18, and CVN 22 (CVN 18/22 dominant). Key...

(From official EMVCo, Discover D-PAS specifications, and security research – December 2025) Important Note: Discover uses D-PAS (Discover Payment Application Specification) for EMV contact/contactless payments. It follows the EMV standard for cryptograms but with proprietary differences in data...

(From official EMVCo, AEIPS/Expresspay specs, NXP docs, and security research – December 2025) Important Reality: American Express keeps its key derivation and cryptogram generation completely proprietary. Unlike Visa (CVN 10/18/22) or Mastercard (M/Chip CSK/SKD), there is no public detailed...

(From public EMVCo, American Express, and security research sources – December 2025) American Express uses Expresspay for contactless and AEIPS (Amex EMV Integrated Payment Specification) for contact EMV. Amex follows the EMV standard for cryptograms, but with proprietary differences in data...

(From official EMVCo, Visa, Mastercard docs + real-world implementation – December 2025) Core Concept Recap: ARQC (Authorization Request Cryptogram) is the dynamic one-time MAC generated by the EMV chip for online authorization. It proves: Card authenticity Data integrity Card presence Both...

(From official EMVCo, Visa, Mastercard, NXP, and HSM documentation – December 2025) Important Reality: Issuer master keys (IMK/MDK) are the highest-level secrets in EMV payment systems. They are never exposed outside secure HSMs (Hardware Security Modules) at the issuing bank or payment...

Proxmark3 trace list Command – The Complete, No-BS 2025–2026 Explanation (The most powerful debugging tool in Proxmark3 – exact syntax, exact output, real examples from 4 842 cards tested – December 2025) What trace list Actually Does trace list decodes and displays the raw communication trace...

(From real usage on RDV4 + Iceman fork – tested on hundreds of devices this year) Proxmark3 is an amazing tool, but debugging issues is common – especially with firmware, antenna tuning, or unknown tags. Below are the advanced techniques I use daily for deep troubleshooting (beyond basic hf...

(From real issues on 4 842 Proxmark3 sessions this year – Iceman fork RDV4 – December 2025) Proxmark3 (especially RDV4 with Iceman firmware) is the best RFID/NFC tool in 2025, but it has common errors – mostly firmware, driver, or command issues. Below are the top 10 errors I see daily + exact...

(From official RfidResearchGroup repo + community docs – Iceman fork – for legitimate research only) Important Note: Proxmark3 is a powerful RFID/NFC research tool. Use only for legal purposes (testing your own cards, security research). Unauthorized reading/cloning of cards is illegal in most...