KitKat: How to route APDUs to the SIM

Question

I want to route APDUs I get from an NFC Reader to the SIM Card. According to the HCE documentation I thought it would be possible simply by creating an OffHostApduService wi

Answer 1

It's been a while since I last played with card emulation on Android but AFAIK (I could be wrong), secure element access (internal or inside SIM) has not yet been opened to all developers (without some hacking). There are many non-technical issues regarding SE control which seem not yet solved (who keeps the biggest slice of the cake the Telcos or service providers?).

The news is that Google has taken a different approach with KitKat and its HCE, which basically consists on implementing a NFC card emulation mode without hardware secure element. IMHO this basically breaks the security required for the interesting card emulation mode applications: e-payment, ticketing, authentication, etc. Nexus 5 lacks such secure element and I doubt Google will pander to carriers by easing the access to secure element inside SIM, so I guess it still will not be possible to send APDUs to the SIM with stock firmware.