androidtagsnfcfingerprinting

How to detect manufacturer from NFC tag using Android?


I am trying to detect the manufacturer name for an NFC tag. I found manufacturer codes here. But I can detect only Mifare Ultralight C tags using these IDs. The first byte of Ultralight C tag ID represents the manufacturer code. But other tags do not contain this property. This app can detect the IC manufacturer. Is it possible to detect the manufacturer for other NFC tags?


Solution

  • There is certainly no one-catches-all approach to this. Fingerprinting of NFC tags (to guess the manufacturer or even the exact tag type) is rather difficult and you will probably need to obtain the various datasheet/user manuals for the different tag types that you want to detect. Even then, most tags don't just tell you "I am XY developed by Z". In some application use-cases it is even considered undesirable (typically for security-by-obscurity reasons) to reveal the manufacturer or product code.

    For certain tag types, however, there are well-established mechanisms to obtain a manufacturer identifier: