Skip to main content

SIM Card Tools: Filesystem, APDU & eSIM

OmniWeb does more than discover and present SIMs. It gives you a set of low-level card tools that reach through any reader on any agent to talk to the card directly. You can browse and edit its file system, send raw APDUs by hand, watch the live APDU trace of a remote-SIM session, and manage eSIM profiles on an eUICC. This page is the operations guide for those tools.

← Operations Guide

These tools sit next to the existing SIM features and reuse them. Start here for the bigger picture:

  • SIM Bank: the inventory: which SIMs are in which readers across every agent. Every tool on this page targets a reader from that inventory, and the SIM Bank's per-slot actions deep-link straight into them.
  • SIM Images (SAIP Profile Packages): how to save a read-out file system as a portable image, and how to browse or diff saved images.
  • Remote SIM & Virtual SIM: how to present a SIM (real or virtual) to a modem over the network through card emulators.
  • OTA SIM Management: the same file-level editing, but it reaches a card over the air with secured (03.48 / SCP80) packets instead of a local reader.

All four tools below live in the sidebar under the SIMs group.

One reader, one consumer at a time

Only one thing at a time can drive a physical PC/SC reader. A tool on this page may need a reader that something else already holds: another operator who reads it, or a live remote-SIM banking session that presents it to a modem. The tool then shows who holds it and why, and offers an explicit Take over. There is no silent kick: when you take over, OmniWeb cancels the other session (and, for a banking session, disconnects that SIM↔cardem link). To edit or send is a control action gated behind the SIM-bank control permission. Without it you can view readers but not drive cards.


SIM Filesystem Explorer

Pick a reader and read the whole file tree of its card: the MF, DF.GSM / DF.TELECOM, ADF.USIM and ADF.ISIM and all their EFs, with every readable file decoded into named fields. A full read touches many files, so a progress bar shows the walk ("read X of Y files: EF.…").

  • Search the tree by file code (FID), short name, or description. A search for "Emergency Call Codes" finds EF.ECC, not just 6FB7.
  • PIN-protected files are flagged, never read: the explorer will not burn PIN retries.
  • Edit an EF (with the control permission): the detail pane offers a schema-driven form (decoded fields, typed) where available, and falls back to raw hex. A write is destructive and asks for confirmation. Where an EF needs authentication, use Verify CHV/ADM first. It tests a PIN/ADM key against the card (it reports remaining tries and never burns the last retry). Once it is proven, the explorer reuses it for the write. The SIM key store offers saved keys for a card's ICCID automatically.
  • Save image snapshots the decoded tree as a named SIM Image. Compare with image diffs the live card against a saved one. Saved images opens the image library. You can also open a saved image as a tree (?image=<id>) to browse a card you no longer have in a reader.

The reader must be free (not held by a remote-SIM session), or you can Take over as above.


APDU Terminal

The APDU Terminal is a hand console for the card: type a raw APDU in hex, send it to the card in a chosen reader, and see the response decoded. The decode shows the command's INS name, the status word and its meaning, and an expanded interpretation of any response data (an FCP TLV tree, decoded EF fields, or an AUTHENTICATE result). Canned buttons (SELECT MF, STATUS, READ BINARY, GET RESPONSE, …) fill common commands. Input is whitespace/colon-tolerant and validated (whole bytes, at least CLA/INS/P1/P2).

Two modes:

ModeBehaviourUse for
Single-shotEach APDU is self-contained; the card resets to the MF between sends.One-off probes.
SessionOpens a persistent, exclusive card session so state (selection, authentication) persists across APDUs: a SELECT then a READ BINARY works, and a VERIFY shares its auth with a later UPDATE. The reader stays held until you close the session.Stateful sequences.

The SIM Bank's per-slot APDU action deep-links here with that exact reader preselected. Same one-consumer/Take-over rules apply.


APDU Log

Where the terminal is you driving one card, the APDU Log is a passive live trace of the command/response APDUs exchanged between a modem and a (remote) SIM through the remote-SIM / cardem chain. Turn on capture and it tails the exchange: each row pairs a modem→card command with its decoded status word, plus the same response decoding as the terminal (FCP tree, EF fields, ATR/reset events). You can pause the view (capture keeps running), filter by command/hex/SW, and auto-scroll.

Use it to see what a modem actually asks the SIM during an attach or an IR.38 test run: which files it selects, where a VERIFY fails, whether an AUTHENTICATE succeeds. You do not have to instrument the modem. It pairs naturally with Remote SIM, which sets up the modem↔SIM link the log then traces.


eSIM (LPA)

The eSIM tool manages an eUICC through the agent's Local Profile Assistant (LPA). An eUICC is a physical eSIM chip in one of your readers. It holds several profiles, but only one is active at a time.

  • eUICC card: shows the chip's EID.
  • Installed profiles: every profile on the card: its state (active/disabled), nickname, provider, name, and ICCID. Per profile you can enable (make it the active eSIM), disable, rename (nickname), or delete. A delete removes the profile from the eUICC and is irreversible, so it confirms first.
  • Download a profile: pull a new profile from an operator's SM-DP+ and install it onto the card. Use a whole activation code (LPA:1$smdp.example.com$MATCHING-ID) or a split SM-DP+ address + Matching ID, with an optional confirmation code.

This is for eSIM (eUICC) cards specifically. For classic SIM/UICC file editing use the Filesystem Explorer above. To edit a card remotely use OTA.

SIM Toolkit (STK)

The SIM Toolkit client drives STK applets on a SIM card. It sends a terminal profile to the card, then presents each proactive command as an interactive screen: menus, text display, single-key entry, and text input. Use it to navigate operator-resident services, trigger OTA configuration flows, or test SIM-resident applet logic.

See SIM Toolkit for the full operations guide.