Service Authentication via Electronic Identification Cards: VoIP Service Authentication through the DNIe

User authentication is one of the most popular techniques used in access control systems. It provides with trustful confirmation about the identity of a person when she attempts to use a service. It ensures that a user is who she claims to be verifying by that she is allowed to use a certain service. Different governments and agencies have attempted to create a universal authentication device to allow easy access to e-government services and potentially to any corporative service. Authentication contributes to the unequivocal identification of the user. In this research, we focus on the Spanish electronic identification card (also known as DNIe). In our research we focus on authentication through the DNIe because it provides with two levels of security. Authenticating with the DNIe implies having the electronic identification card (eID card) and knowing the card holder´s verification password. We implement a methodology that integrates DNIe authentication in any application through a service library component seamlessly. This authentication methodology takes advantage of all the DNIe capabilities and includes the following steps: connection to the eID card, load of user certificates, generation of a verification challenge, signing and verification of this challenge by using cryptographic techniques, and finally, accepting or rejecting user identification. In order to validate this methodology, we integrate our seamless authentication library in a Voice over IP application. Currently, this methodology is being used in call-centres that need to unequivocally validate the identity of the operators in each call and operation they perform.