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Viktor Tarasov edited this page Dec 15, 2012 · 6 revisions

Welcome to OpenCT

OpenCT implements drivers for several smart card readers. It comes as driver in
ifdhandler format for PC/SC-Lite, as CT-API driver, or as a small and lean middleware,
so applications can use it with minimal overhead. OpenCT also has a primitive mechanism
to export smart card readers to remote machines via tcp/ip.

See our OverView page for more details.

OpenCT was written by an international team and is licensed as Open Source software
under the LGPL license.
For a list of all authors and contributers as well as detailed license information see AuthorsAndCredits.

Linux Note

We found a number of problems with linux kernel, udev, and distribution setup. We document our findings
and how to solve them in OperatingSystems and QuickStart.

Readers

All recent usb readers most likely implement the CCID specification and thus the generic USB CCID driver should work.
Below the full list of all smart card readers supported.

Note: you need support for the smart card reader in OpenCT, and you still need some application that supports your specific
smart card (for example OpenSC). Usb crypto tokens combine those two features, still you need
support at both levels.

Tested:

Not well tested:

Starting Points

  • OverView — A short introduction how applications use OpenCT.
  • OperatingSystems — What your operating system needs to have for OpenCT to work.
  • Download the latest OpenCT release.
  • QuickStart — How to install OpenCT and configure it.
  • SecureSetup — How to tighten your OpenCT setup for security.
  • FilesTools — Files and tools in OpenCT.
  • TroubleShooting — How to debug OpenCT if it doesn’t seem to work.
  • RemoteAccess — How to setup OpenCT for remote access.
  • MailingLists — How to contact us.
  • ResourcesLinks — Standards, Documents, etc.
  • DevelopmentPolicy — the how and why of OpenCT development.
  • WritingDrivers — A short tutorial on how to write a simple driver for OpenCT

Also see our API documentation for writing new drivers in the source code (doc/api/ directory)
and soon available at http://www.opensc-project.org/doc/openct/api/

Unsupported?

If your smart card reader isn’t listed above, here is a list of websites
with drivers for PC/SC-Lite. Maybe one of them has support for your reader:

Or if you feel like writing a new driver, it might help to capture a log file
of the windows driver (usb only). See: