ISO/IEC 20248:2022

Information technology — Automatic identification and data capture techniques — Digital signature data structure schema

This document is an ISO/IEC 9594‑8 [public key infrastructure (PKI) digital signatures and certificates] application specification for automated identification services. It specifies a method whereby data stored within a barcode and/or RFID tag are structured, encoded and digitally signed. ISO/IEC 9594‑8 is used to provide a standard method for key and data description management and distribution. The data capacity and/or data transfer capacity of automated identification data carriers are restricted. This restricts the normal use of a digital signature as specified in ISO/IEC 9594‑8 within automated identification services. The purpose of this document is to provide an open and interoperable method, between automated identification services and data carriers, to read data, verify data originality and data integrity in an offline use case. This document specifies — the meta data structure, the DigSig, which contains the digital signature and encoded structured data, — the public key certificate parameter and extension use, the DigSig certificate, which contains the certified associated public key, the structured data description, the read methods, and private containers, — the method to specify, read, describe, sign, verify, encode, and decode the structured data, the DigSig Data Description, — the DigSig EncoderGenerator which generates the relevant asymmetric key pairs, keeps the private key secret, and generates the DigSigs, and — the DigSig DecoderVerifier which, by using to the DigSig certificate, reads the DigSig from the set of data carriers, verifies the DigSig and extracts the structured data from the DigSig. This document does not specify — cryptographic methods, or — key management methods.

Technologies de l'information — Techniques d'identification automatique et de capture de données — Schéma de structure de données de signature numérique

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 09-Jun-2022
• ICS: 35.040.50 - Automatic identification and data capture techniques
• Technical Committee: ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 31 - Automatic identification and data capture techniques
• Drafting Committee: ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 31/WG 2 - Data and structure
• Current Stage: 6060 - International Standard published
• Start Date: 10-Jun-2022
• Due Date: 16-Jun-2022
• Completion Date: 10-Jun-2022

Relations

• Revises: ISO/IEC 20248:2018 - Information technology — Automatic identification and data capture techniques — Data structures — Digital signature meta structure
• Effective Date: 10-Jul-2021

Standards Content (Sample)

INTERNATIONAL ISO/IEC
STANDARD 20248
Second edition
2022-06
Information technology — Automatic
identification and data capture
techniques — Digital signature data
structure schema
Technologies de l'information — Techniques d'identification
automatique et de capture de données — Schéma de structure de
données de signature numérique
Reference number
ISO/IEC 20248:2022(E)
© ISO/IEC 2022

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ISO/IEC 20248:2022(E)
COPYRIGHT PROTECTED DOCUMENT
© ISO/IEC 2022
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may
be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting on
the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address below
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ISO/IEC 20248:2022(E)
Contents Page
Foreword .v
Introduction .vii
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 2
4 Field and data definitions, abbreviated terms, symbols, and binary data .4
4.1 Field and data definitions . 4
4.2 Abbreviated terms . 4
4.3 Symbols . 5
4.4 Binary data . 5
5 Conformance . 5
5.1 Specification version . 5
5.2 Claiming conformance . 6
5.3 Test authority . 6
5.4 Test specification . 6
6 DigSig use architecture . 6
6.1 General . 6
6.2 DigSig identification and ownership . 7
6.3 DigSig certificate process. 8
6.4 DigSig generation process . 9
6.5 DigSig verification process . 9
6.6 Error codes . . 10
7 DigSig certificate .10
7.1 General . 10
7.2 ISO/IEC 20248 Object Identifier . 10
7.3 DigSig certificate parameter use . 10
7.4 DigSig cryptography . 11
7.4.1 General . 11
7.4.2 Digital signatures . 11
7.4.3 Private containers . 11
7.5 DigSig Domain Authority identifier (DAID) . 11
7.5.1 Binary encoding . 11
7.5.2 Referenced DAID .13
7.5.3 GS1 Company Prefix (GCP) . 13
7.6 DigSig certificate identifier (CID) . 13
7.7 DigSig validity . 13
7.8 DigSig certificate management . 14
7.9 DigSig revocation . . 14
7.10 Online verification . 15
8 DigSig Data Description (DDD) .15
8.1 General . 15
8.2 DDD derived data structures . 16
8.2.1 General . 16
8.2.2 DDDdata . 16
8.2.3 SigData . 17
8.2.4 DDDdataTagged . 17
8.2.5 DDDdataDisplay . 18
8.3 DigSig format . 18
8.3.1 General . 18
8.3.2 Snips . 18
8.3.3 Envelope format . 19
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ISO/IEC 20248:2022(E)
8.3.4 AIDC specific construction of a DigSig . 19
8.4 The DigSig physical data path . 20
8.5 DDD syntax . 21
8.6 DigSig information fields . 22
8.7 Data fields . 23
8.7.1 General .23
8.7.2 Compulsory data fields .23
8.7.3 Application data fields .23
8.8 Data field object syntax . 24
8.9 DDD field types and associate settings . 25
8.9.1 General . 25
8.9.2 Special field values .25
8.9.3 Field types .26
8.10 DigSig data presentation . 35
8.10.1 General . 35
8.10.2 displaystring . 36
8.10.3 displayformat .36
8.10.4 DDDdataDisplay generation . 39
8.11 Structured document processing .40
8.12 Application field specification by codebook . 41
9 Pragmas (field directives) .42
9.1 General . 42
9.2 entertext . 42
9.3 structjoin . 43
9.4 readmethod . 43
9.5 privatecontainer .44
9.6 startonword . 45
Annex A (normative) Test methods .46
Annex B (informative) Example DigSigs .49
Annex C (informative) DigSig use in IoT .57
Annex D (informative) Typical DigSig EncoderGenerator device architecture .60
Annex E (informative) Typical DigSig DecoderVerifier device architecture .69
Annex F (normative) DigSig error codes .75
Annex G (informative) Digital Signature use considerations .76
Annex H (informative) Example of a DigSig certificate .77
Annex I (informative) Example DDD for a physical certificate .79
Annex J (normative) DigSig revocation specifications .84
Annex K (informative) ISO/IEC 15434-based message DigSig examples .89
Annex L (informative) DigSig URI envelope discussion .93
Annex M (informative) ISO/IEC 18000-63 and GS1 EPC Gen2 RFID DigSig examples.94
Annex N (informative) Typical DigSig support infrastructure .98
Annex O (informative) Example structured document . 103
Bibliography . 105
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ISO/IEC 20248:2022(E)
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical
Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are
members of ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical
committees established by the respective organization to deal with particular fields of technical
activity. ISO and IEC technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other international
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the
work.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance
are described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria
needed for the different types of documents should be noted. This document was drafted in
accordance with the editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives or
www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject
of patent rights. ISO and IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent
rights. Details of any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the
Introduction and/or on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www.iso.org/patents) or the IEC
list of patent declarations received (see https://patents.iec.ch).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and
expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the
World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) see
This document was prepared by joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology,
Subcommittee SC 31, Automatic identification and data capture techniques.
This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition (ISO/IEC 20248:2018), which has been
technically revised.
The main changes are as follows:
— The relationship between the Domain Authority (data owner) and the Domain Authority ID (DAID)
is clarified to be one-to-many. The DAID has been extended to cater for the GS1 Company Prefix
longer than 10 digits (see 7.5.3), and a method to use the primary data carrier DAID, if present (see
7.5.2).
— The data types and specifications have been updated for easier implementation and completeness,
especially to support the practice of using the data type specifications to achieve optimized schema-
based data encoding. A codebook method forms part of this update.
— The date field type has been found to be limiting. A new human readable isodate has been specified
to replace date (see 8.9.3.7).
— The format of binary data is explicitly defined to be HexString or Base64String ensuring
interoperability and ease of use.
— The bstring DDDdata has been limited to HexString since Base64 decoding can be done in more
than one way which may cause a valid DigSig to be rejected.
— The digsigenv type has been changed from bstring to string with a range of Base64String, which
is technically the same, but explicit and clear.
— The cidsniptext pragma (field directive) has been removed since it is not practical, not used, and
redundant. It is also difficult and convoluted to use and implement.
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ISO/IEC 20248:2022(E)
— ISO/IEC 9899, Information technology — Programming languages — C has been removed as a
normative reference. Common current coding language methods replaced the C methods.
— Example cryptography methods are provided in B.4.
— Example interfaces to potential code blocks are provided in D.3.3 and E.3.3.
— Revocation has been harmonized with conventional best practices. The CID requirement to be 0 and
1 has been removed (see Annex J).
— An example implementation architecture description has been added as Annex N.
— The structured document function (see 8.11) has been enhanced to support multiple languages. An
example structured document is discussed as Annex O.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards
body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html and
www.iec.ch/national-committees.
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ISO/IEC 20248:2022(E)
Introduction
This document specifies a data structure framework and data specification method for domain-
authority-specified, schema-based item identification data. A domain authority is typically a brand
owner, a data authority, or a data owner.
ISO/IEC 21778 (JSON) is used as the data message format for both the schema and the data, ensuring
interoperability with modern Internet systems and services. The data message encapsulates both data
syntax and semantics, providing meaning to the data message.
The data source, data schema and data are both offline and online verifiable using ISO/IEC 9594-8 (public
key infrastructure (PKI) digital signatures and certificates), with its implementation environment. The
data message format allows for the verification of the data message anywhere within the data-stack.
Data capacity and/or data transfer capacity of automated identification data carriers (barcode
labels and RFID tags) are limited. This restricts the normal use of a digital signature, as specified
in ISO/IEC 9594-8, within automated identification services. This limitation is overcome by the
methods specified in this document, which recognizes the three classes of item; data carrier data
(any combination of barcodes and RFID tags), generic data which applies to a group of items, and item
specific data which may be static for that item, or volatile. Only item specific data are carried by the tag.
Generic data are carried by the digital certificate associated with the tag. This method allows additional
(comprehensive) data about a group of items to be readable and verifiable.
Adding additional data, especially authenticity data, to tags are often challenging for existing systems
resulting in high costs and system/services unavailability. This document provides a method whereby
data may be added with limited impact to incumbent systems, facilitating an interoperable add-on
rather than a system redesign.
This document specifies an effective and interoperable method to specify, read, decode, and verify
data stored in automated identification, independent from real-time remote control. Meta parameters
included in a digital certificate are used to achieve:
— offline integrity verification of the data source and data originality,
— a verifiable data structure description to enable interoperability of deployment, domain authority
and automated identification data carriers,
— a verifiable data encoding method to achieve compact data to be stored in data constrained
automated identification data carriers (the JSON data format is used for both input and output of
the encoder and decoder),
— a verifiable automated identification data carrier read method description, allowing for the data of
a read event to be distributed over more than one carrier of the same and of different technologies,
and
— a verifiable method to support key management of cryptographically-enabled automatic
identification data carriers.
A successful verification of the DigSig signifies:
— the data was not tampered with;
— the source of the data is as indicated on the DigSig certificate used to verify the DigSig with;
— if a secured unique identifier of the data carrier is included in the signature of the DigSig stored on
data carrier, then the DigSig stored on the data carrier can be considered unique and original.
The choice of cryptography method should be considered carefully. It is advised that only internationally
recognized or standardized methods, e.g. FIPS PUB 186-4 and IEEE P1363, be used.
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ISO/IEC 20248:2022(E)
This document should be used in conjunction with standard risk assessments of the use-case and
environment.
NOTE Many applications rely on a secure non-transferable unique data carrier identifier to tag an item
uniquely. ISO/IEC 29167 gives more information on such functionality for RFID tags. This specification provides
a mechanism to ensure the integrity and authenticity of the data carrier data and an irrefutable link of the
data carrier data with the unique data carrier identifier. As such, alterations or insertion of false data into data
carriers are detectable. It also provides a means to detect tampered data carrier data stored and communicated
within systems. It does not provide any means to defend against replay attacks. As a counter the data carrier
reader can use this specification to sign the read data, effectively providing integrity and authenticity to the
read-transaction. A third party can then verify that the read-transaction happened at a given place and time, as
well as verify the data read from the carrier. Likewise, the signed data carrier data can contain data describing
unique features and security marks of the item establishing a verifiable link between the data carrier data and
the physical item.
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INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO/IEC 20248:2022(E)
Information technology — Automatic identification and
data capture techniques — Digital signature data structure
schema
1 Scope
This document is an ISO/IEC 9594-8 [public key infrastructure (PKI) digital signatures and certificates]
application specification for automated identification services. It specifies a method whereby data
stored within a barcode and/or RFID tag are structured, encoded and digitally signed. ISO/IEC 9594-8
is used to provide a standard method for key and data description management and distribution. The
data capacity and/or data transfer capacity of automated identification data carriers are restricted.
This restricts the normal use of a digital signature as specified in ISO/IEC 9594-8 within automated
identification services.
The purpose of this document is to provide an open and interoperable method, between automated
identification ser
...