A5000 Plug&Trust Click

How does it work?

A5000 Plug&Trust Click, as its foundation, uses the A5000, a secure IoT authenticator based on Integral Security Architecture 3.0™ from NXP Semiconductors, providing secure and efficient protection for authentication and anti-counterfeit use cases. This Click board™ is designed to be part of an IoT system; works as an auxiliary security device attached to a host MCU. A Common Criteria EAL6+ certification proves the efficiency of the security measures. It is ideal for many authentication use cases without the need to write security code, and comes with ECC asymmetric cryptographic and AES/3DES symmetric algorithms support to protect the A5000 even against sophisticated non-invasive and invasive attack scenarios.

The A5000 operates autonomously based on an integrated Java Card operating system and a full-fledged authentication applet. The Authentication Applet features a generic file system that stores secure objects and associated privilege management. Direct memory access is possible only by the NXP Authentication applet’s fixed functionalities. With that, the content from memory is fully isolated from the host system.

This Click board™ communicates with MCU using the standard I2C 2-Wire interface. The communication with the A5000 authenticator follows a command/response concept. It means that after sending the entire command to the authenticator, all data must be retrieved fully to allow sending of the following command. This board also allows the user to select the appropriate I2C communication speed by onboard SMD jumpers labeled as I2C SPEED to a proper position marked as 400Kb and 1Mb. Note that all the jumpers must be lined to the same side, or else the Click board™ may become unresponsive.

Besides, the A5000 provides a special power-saving mode offering maximum power saving. The way of activation of this mode is realized with the onboard switch marked as ENA SEL. In this way, Power-Saving Mode can be activated via the EN pin, routed to the CS pin of the mikroBUS™ socket, primarily by placing the switch to the EN position and then pulling the EN pin to a logic zero level. By placing the switch in the second position marked as ON, the A5000 is in normal operation mode.

This Click board™ can be operated only with a 3.3V logic voltage level. The board must perform appropriate logic voltage level conversion before using MCUs with different logic levels. However, the Click board™ comes equipped with a library containing functions and an example code that can be used, as a reference, for further development.

Specifications

Pinout diagram

This table shows how the pinout on A5000 Plug&Trust Click corresponds to the pinout on the mikroBUS™ socket (the latter shown in the two middle columns).

Notes	Pin					Pin	Notes
	NC	1	AN	PWM	16	NC
	NC	2	RST	INT	15	NC
Deep Power-Down Mode	EN	3	CS	RX	14	NC
	NC	4	SCK	TX	13	NC
	NC	5	MISO	SCL	12	SCL	I2C Clock
	NC	6	MOSI	SDA	11	SDA	I2C Data
Power Supply	3.3V	7	3.3V	5V	10	NC
Ground	GND	8	GND	GND	9	GND	Ground

Onboard settings and indicators

A5000 Plug&Trust Click electrical specifications

Software Support

We provide a library for the A5000 Plug&Trust Click as well as a demo application (example), developed using MikroElektronika compilers. The demo can run on all the main MikroElektronika development boards.

Package can be downloaded/installed directly from NECTO Studio Package Manager(recommended way), downloaded from our LibStock™ or found on Mikroe github account.

Library Description

This library contains API for A5000 Plug&Trust Click driver.

Key functions

• a5000plugntrust_apdu_write This function writes a @b frame_data to device.

• a5000plugntrust_apdu_read This function reads a @b frame_data from device.

• a5000plugntrust_apdu_transfer This function writes a @b frame_data and then reads return data from device and stores it in @b frame_data.

Example Description

This application is showcasing basic functionality of A5000 Plug&Trust Click board™. It gets identify data from device, selects card manager and applet. Then checks free memory, reads all objects and deletes not reserved ones. After that showcases a few of functionality: Generating random data, Creating, reading and deleting binary objects, Creating AES symmetrical key and cipher with it; In the end it is showcasing funcionality in the endless loop.

void application_task ( void ) 
 { 
     #define DATA_LEN 16 
     static uint8_t aes_value[ DATA_LEN ]    = { 0x40, 0x41, 0x42, 0x43,0x44, 0x45, 0x46, 0x47, 
                                                 0x48, 0x49, 0x4A, 0x4B,0x4C, 0x4D, 0x4E, 0x4F }; 
     static uint32_t binary_id               = 0xBBBBBBBB; 
     static uint32_t aes_id                  = 0xCCCCCCCC; 
     uint8_t random_data[ DATA_LEN ]         = { 0 }; 
     uint8_t read_data[ DATA_LEN ]           = { 0 }; 
     uint8_t encrypted_data[ DATA_LEN ]      = { 0 }; 
     uint32_t read_len = DATA_LEN; 

     if ( A5000PLUGNTRUST_OK == a5000plugntrust_get_random_numbers( &a5000plugntrust, random_data, DATA_LEN ) ) 
     { 
         log_printf( &logger, " > Generated random data: 0x" ); 
         log_buf_hex( random_data, DATA_LEN ); 
         log_printf( &logger, "rn" ); 
     } 
     else 
     { 
         log_error( &logger, " Random" ); 
     } 
     Delay_ms( 2000 ); 
     if ( A5000PLUGNTRUST_OBJECT_DOESNT_EXIST == a5000plugntrust_check_object_exist( &a5000plugntrust, binary_id ) ) 
     { 
         log_printf( &logger, " Write random data to binary object...rn" ); 
         if ( A5000PLUGNTRUST_OK != a5000plugntrust_write_binary_object( &a5000plugntrust, binary_id,  
                                                                         0, DATA_LEN, random_data ) ) 
         { 
             log_error( &logger, " Write Binary" ); 
         } 
         else 
         { 
             log_info( &logger, " Status OK" ); 
         } 
     } 
     else 
     { 
         log_error( &logger, " Binary object already exist" ); 
     } 
     Delay_ms( 2000 ); 
     if ( A5000PLUGNTRUST_OBJECT_DOES_EXISTS == a5000plugntrust_check_object_exist( &a5000plugntrust, binary_id ) ) 
     { 
         if ( A5000PLUGNTRUST_OK == a5000plugntrust_read_object( &a5000plugntrust, binary_id, 0, 0,  
                                                                 read_data, &read_len ) ) 
         { 
             log_printf( &logger, " > Read data from binary object: 0x" ); 
             log_buf_hex( read_data, read_len ); 
             log_printf( &logger, "rn" ); 
         } 
         else 
         { 
             log_error( &logger, " Read binray object" ); 
         }  
     } 
     else 
     { 
         log_error( &logger, " Binary object doesn't exist" ); 
     } 
     Delay_ms( 2000 ); 
     log_printf( &logger, " Create AES key...rn" ); 
     create_128_aes_key( aes_id, aes_value ); 
     Delay_ms( 2000 ); 
     if ( A5000PLUGNTRUST_OK == cipher_data_with_aes_key( aes_id, A5000PLUGNTRUST_P2_ENCRYPT_ONESHOT,  
                                                          read_data, encrypted_data ) ) 
     { 
         log_printf( &logger, " > Encrypted data: 0x" ); 
         log_buf_hex( encrypted_data, DATA_LEN ); 
         log_printf( &logger, "rn" ); 
     } 
     else 
     { 
         log_error( &logger, " Encrypting data" ); 
     } 
     Delay_ms( 2000 ); 
     if ( A5000PLUGNTRUST_OK == cipher_data_with_aes_key( aes_id, A5000PLUGNTRUST_P2_DECRYPT_ONESHOT,  
                                                          encrypted_data, read_data ) ) 
     { 
         log_printf( &logger, " > Decrypted data: 0x" ); 
         log_buf_hex( read_data, DATA_LEN ); 
         log_printf( &logger, "rn" ); 
     } 
     else 
     { 
         log_error( &logger, " Decrypting data" ); 
     } 
     Delay_ms( 2000 ); 
     log_printf( &logger, " Delete Binary and AES object...rn" ); 
     if ( ( A5000PLUGNTRUST_OK != a5000plugntrust_delete_object( &a5000plugntrust, binary_id ) ) ||  
          ( A5000PLUGNTRUST_OK != a5000plugntrust_delete_object( &a5000plugntrust, aes_id ) ) ) 
     { 
         log_error( &logger, " Deleting objects" ); 
     } 
     log_printf( &logger, "*****************************************************************************rn" ); 
     Delay_ms( 5000 ); 
 }

The full application code, and ready to use projects can be installed directly from NECTO Studio Package Manager(recommended way), downloaded from our LibStock™ or found on Mikroe github account.

Other Mikroe Libraries used in the example:

• MikroSDK.Board
• MikroSDK.Log
• Click.A5000PlugnTrust

Additional notes and informations

Depending on the development board you are using, you may need USB UART click, USB UART 2 Click or RS232 Click to connect to your PC, for development systems with no UART to USB interface available on the board. UART terminal is available in all MikroElektronika compilers.

mikroSDK

This Click board™ is supported with mikroSDK – MikroElektronika Software Development Kit. To ensure proper operation of mikroSDK compliant Click board™ demo applications, mikroSDK should be downloaded from the LibStock and installed for the compiler you are using.

For more information about mikroSDK, visit the official page.