Determining if a contactless VISA transaction was MSD vs EMV/qVSDC

Question

I'm configuring a terminal for use with contactless VISA cards. I understand that terminals can be setup to support legacy MSD mode, EMV/qVSDC mode or both.

I have an EMV testing tool, so I am able to see all the communication between the testing card and the terminal. Generally, I've found AIP Byte 2 bit 8 gives an indication if the card supports EMV contactless mode, but this doesn't seem to be the case for VISA cards.

Assuming a terminal is configured for both, how would someone recognise if a transaction occurred using MSD mode or qVSDC mode?

Answer 1

MSD mode is implemented for infrastructures which are not yet upgraded to process full grade emv transactions, but at the same time wants to use the capability of the chip to increase the security. In case of MSD transaction, the there will not be DE55 elements, but a dynamic cvv(CVN 17) in track. Otherwise, it will look like a magnetic stripe transaction.

Where as qvsdc is a full grade EMV transactions, it has cryptogram and other DE55 elemsts.

In fact I heard Visa is looking to establish a sunset date for the contactless MSD processing.

Answer 2

Per the visa contactless implementation guide dcvv is sent with msd and NO chip data. CVN17 is for when msd data AND chip data. and CVN18 is for full emv contactless.