Now if reading the serial number from the card is not good enough (it’s yet to be a problem) then it may be possible to read one of the numbers on the other sectors. To do this you will need a special type of card reader, something the industry calls a “playback reader”. We have no idea why they are called playback readers but they are a similar cost and look exactly the same as other readers. It’s just the firmware that acts differently.

These playback readers can be programmed via a downloadable configuration utility to read certain sectors from a card. It’s a simple matter of ticking a box for the sector you wish to read and then click “save”. This then flashes the reader’s firmware.

Programming the card reader to look at a particular sector and getting anything out of it are unfortunately two different things. Most sectors would be encrypted by whoever put the information on the card to start with (the door access or cashless catering supplier for example) so the configuration utility needs to have an encryption key entered into it, so it can read from that sector. Most people protect a MIFARE card with 2 keys (A and B).

Key A normally reads the sector while key B allows you to read and write to the sector. You would only need key A as all we wish to do is read the information on the chosen sector. We expect most companies would be happy to give you the key A information if you are using the systems they supply.

Remember - PaperCut doesn’t care what number is on the card and the site shouldn’t worry either. No one ever sees that number. Trying to get PaperCut and door access/cashless catering to read the same number is not required.

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