libopensc is a library for accessing smart card devices. It is also the core library of the OpenSC project. libopensc also supports usb crypto tokens (they usually have a smart card inside).
Basic functionality (e.g. SELECT FILE, READ BINARY) should work on any ISO 7816-4 compatible smart card. Encryption and decryption using private keys on the smart card is possible with PKCS #15 compatible cards, such as the FINEID (Finnish Electronic IDentity) card.
The base platforms are Linux and Mac OS X; some parts have been ported to Windows.
Supported cards:
* Finnish FINEID (SetCOS)
* Swedish Posten eID (SetCOS)
* Cryptoflex 16k and 8k
* GPK 4K, 8K, 16K
* USB tokens based on CardOS/M4, such as Aladdin eToken PRO, etc.
* MioCOS 1.1
* TCOS 2.0
* Starcos SPK 2.3 (e.g. Rainbow iKey 3000)
* Micardo 2.1
* Oberthur AuthentIC
* OpenPGP 1.0
* JCOP 31bio
* Estonian ID card, EstEID (Micardo 2.1)
Builtin PKCS#15 initialization is supported for the following cards:
* CryptoFlex 8K, 16K
* GPK 4K, 8K, 16K
* CardOS M4.00, M4.01a
* Starcos SPK 2.3
* JCOP 31bio
* MioCOS 1.1
Builtin PKCS#15 emulation is supported for the following non-PKCS#15 cards:
* OpenPGP 1.0
* EstEID
* StarCert V2.2
* Italian Infocamere card (type 1202 and 1203)
* TeleSec NetKey
* Italian Postecert card
Note: the current PKCS#15 emulation support offers only a read-only access the card.
The Belgian ID card is not yet supported by OpenSC. However you can download a modified version of OpenSC with full source code under LGPL license. Thanks to Belgium for donating code to OpenSC. We will try to merge this code, but it might take a while.
General features
Some functionality included in the OpenSC package.
* PAM module
This module allows you to log in to your local machine using private RSA keys present on your smart card.
* OpenSSH support
A smart sard is one of the safest places to keep your private keys, assuming that the access restrictions on the keys have been set-up correctly.
* opensc-tool
This small program will do all sorts of card and framework independent things, such as raw APDU sending and file listing.
* opensc-explorer
Generic interactive utility for accessing smart card and similar security token functions
* pkcs15-tool
A tool for checkout out of the contents of the PKCS #15 structure.
* pkcs15-crypt
A tool for testing the cryptographic functions of your PKCS #15 card. Only RSA decryption and digital signing are supported as of now.
* pkcs15-init
Smart card personalization utility.
* A working PKCS #11 module for using PKCS #15 cards is also provided.
