ICAO Interoperability Test

 

​Introduction

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) will organize conformity and interoperability/crossover tests during the MRTD Regional Seminar that will be held in Madrid, Spain from 25 to 27 June 2014. The tests are based on the European Union States mandatory implementation of the ICAO Supplemental Access Control (SAC) mechanism for machine readable travel documents. The main beneficiaries of these tests are EU Member States. Depending on the number of EU Member States that will participate in the event, and under certain conditions, a limited number of non-EU ICAO Member States and private sector travel document manufacturers would be allowed to participate (on a first come first serve basis).

Recognizing that electronic passports (e-Passports) need to be protected, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) introduced the Supplemental Access Control (SAC) mechanism for Machine Readable Travel Documents. SAC provides an access control mechanism that is supplementary to Basic Access Control (BAC). This mechanism is based on Password Authenticated Connection Establishment (PACE) as specified by ICAO. The test will focus on the implementation of PACE v2 as specified in the Technical Report “ICAO Technical Report RF PROTOCOL AND APPLICATION TEST STANDARD FOR E-PASSPORT - PART 3” (version 2.01, February 2013).

For further information on BAC, SAC and PACE, please refer to
http://www.icao.int/Security/mrtd/Pages/Technical-Reports.aspx.

Accordingly, the European Commission has recently decided to enforce the use of this mechanism (PACE) for all travel documents issued as of 31 December 2014. Thus, it is important that global interoperability is achieved, to make the enhancement reliable for the document verification process. To assist EU States achieve such global interoperability, ICAO will host a global (e-Passport) interoperability test, which will take place commencing Monday, 23 June (registration - refer to last paragraph “How to Register”) to Friday, 27 June 2014 in conjunction with the MRTD Regional Seminar being held in Madrid, Spain.

Also, in some cases, States have issued e-Passports with Extended Access Control (EAC) to protect personal biometric information encoded therein, following the security guidelines introduced by ICAO. To ensure interoperability of e-Passport documents and the transitioning of these travel documents to implementing SAC, the interoperability test may also include the crossover tests required. 

Test Details

The test event targets both document manufacturers and document verification system providers.

ICAO, with the assistance of Member States experts, will lead and supervise the technical aspects of the tests. The independent services of various private sector document verification system providers and conformity test laboratories will be secured. Individual test results will be kept confidential.

The following scenarios will be investigated:

• Evaluation of document conformity according to the test specification “ICAO Technical Report RF  Protocol and Application Test Standard for e-Passport”, Part 3 (version 2.01); and
• Crossover tests: verify the readability of documents on different verifications systems  “readers” infrastructures and/or versions and evaluation of document behaviour in a regular  document verification process
  .

The ICAO Interoperability Test is Open to:

• States’ e-documents samples;
• E-documents from providers;
• Document verification system [crossover] providers; and
• Conformity laboratory testing providers.

Sample Mandatory Requirements

• Minimum 1 set of 5 samples and up to 2 sets of 5 samples each;
• All samples of a set must have same configuration and be of the same type. Although content (personal data, document number, etc.,) may differ among samples; and
• For each sample, the following data must be provided on USB memory sticks or one or more CD’s;
• MRZ content;
• CSCA certificate used to verify data stored on sample in binary format (DER);
• PACE algorithms supported by the document;
• Optionally: CAN number if CAN is supported; and
• if document supports EAC either the CVCA selfsigned certificate with its private key or the CVCA certificate with a valid DV certificate and valid IS certificate together with its private key.

Document Registration Details

The event begins with mandatory document registration on Monday, 23 June from 1300 to 1700 hours. Document conformity and crossover testing will commence on Tuesday, 24 June 2014. The results will be presented on 27 June 2014 at the morning session of the MRTD Regional Seminar and will include statistics and conclusions on the conformity and crossover results.

How to Register

To register your participation as a State or Document Provider who will submit samples for the interoperability test, please send your confirmation by email to ICAOTRIP@icao.int before the following deadlines:

State deadline: Friday, 30 May 2014

Private Sector deadline: Friday,  6 June 2014