NFC ID Reader: Chip ID Card

NFC ID Reader opens the chip inside a Vietnamese citizen ID card (CCCD gắn chip) and shows exactly what that chip stores about you.

Card data never leaves the phone: no database, no analytics, and nothing read from a card is ever sent to us or an ad network. Leaving the result screen wipes it from memory.

HOW IT WORKS
The chip is not an open book. Following ICAO Doc 9303 (the e-passport standard), it refuses every command until the reader proves it knows what is printed on the card: the 6-digit CAN, or the ID number plus birth and expiry dates. An app can skip the typing, not that.

1. Show the card to the camera: the app reads the QR code on the front or the machine-readable lines on the back. Poor light? Use a still photo, or type the numbers.
2. Hold the card flat against the back of the phone.
3. The app negotiates PACE, falls back to BAC, and reads the chip.

The camera only starts after you confirm the card is yours. No frame is saved anywhere: text recognition runs on the phone.

WHAT YOU SEE
• Portrait photo stored in DG2, decoded on the device
• Vietnamese details from DG13 with full diacritics: name, ID number, birth date, sex, nationality, origin, residence, issue/expiry dates
• The raw chip list beside the labelled view: Vietnam does not publish the DG13 layout, so labels are a best guess
• The DG1 machine-readable zone as printed
• Which protocol opened the card, the data groups it declares, and the read time
• Not included: fingerprint and iris (DG3/DG4), locked behind a Ministry of Public Security certificate

WHAT WAS ACTUALLY PROVEN
Every read opens with a panel separating reading a card from proving one. Each row is green, red, or unanswerable.

• The chip opened — the access key worked. A copied chip opens just as well, so alone this proves nothing.
• Data matches EF.SOD — every data group read hashes to the value in the chip's own signed index.
• EF.SOD signature is valid — checked against the signer certificate inside the card.
• The chip is not a copy — Active Authentication has the chip sign random bytes with a private key it never reveals; Chip Authentication repeats the proof while rekeying the channel. A clone can do neither.
• Issued by Vietnam — always marked as unanswerable: it needs Vietnam's root certificate (CSCA), which is not public. A well-made forgery with its own keys would still pass every green row.

WRITE A TAG
A second screen writes a standard NDEF record onto an NFC tag: link, text, Wi-Fi, contact, phone, location, SMS or email, then reads the tag back and compares it ("Written and checked"). A blank tag that had to be formatted first is not re-read. What you type goes onto the tag in your hand, never to a server. A tag is plaintext, so write only what you would let a finder read.

CHECK YOUR PHONE
The free Phone check shows whether the phone has NFC, whether it is on, and how many antennas Android reports (Android 14+). Tap any NFC card to list its technologies and whether your phone supports extended-length messages. Card contents are never read; nothing is saved or sent. Copy the result as text.

FREE WITH ADS, OR PRO
• Reading ID cards is free and never shows an ad. The free version shows one banner on the home screen only, never while scanning or on a card or result screen. Ads come from Google AdMob and Unity Ads, which use your advertising ID; card data is never passed to them.
• Pro (monthly, 3-month, or yearly with a 3-day free trial) removes the banner and unlocks tag locking, saved write templates, batch write (skips tags already written) and business templates. A short optional video on the Pro screen opens these tools for 30 minutes.
• Had the app before this update? You get Pro at no cost.

BEFORE YOU USE IT
Read your own card, or one whose holder has agreed. Vietnamese law (Luật Căn cước 2023, Nghị định 70/2024/NĐ-CP) treats identity data as sensitive personal data and requires consent.

Requires a phone with NFC hardware, Android 6.0 or newer.

Recent changes:
New in 1.6.0: Phone check, a free screen on the home tab that shows whether your phone has NFC, whether it is on, and how it talks to a card you tap (nothing is read or saved). Writing a tag now reads it back and compares it, so "Written and checked" means the data is really there. Batch write (Pro) skips a tag you already wrote in the same run. Rotating the phone no longer interrupts reading or writing a tag.