[SmartcardServices-Dev] SmartCardServices in OSX 10.8

[Frank Marien]

Thomas,

I don't have the answers to your questions, exactly..
What I do know is that despite the fork involved with SmartCardServices,
the pcsc-lite project still builds on OSX, out-of-the-box (given
macports and proper command-line tools), and it could therefore quite
easily be packaged by "a third party" that would require an up-to-date
pcscd/ccid combo. We've been investigating doing exactly that and so
your scenario may be quite imminent.

We're wondering about the future, also. I don't really see how we can
continue to support the OSX platform, or begin supporting iOS, without
at least some information from the manufacturer.

Frankly, if it were a matter of personal choice, I would have dropped
the entire platform 2 years ago. With that kind of attitude..

WKR,
-f
>
> If a third party were to upgrade pcscd or the ccid driver to resolve
> problems with what is installed at the system level, what sort of
> issues would we encounter if Apple were to push an update these
> components (or is it planned to never update these)?
> - Would the apple update fail completely preventing further updates to
> the system?
> - Would the update ignore the update to a changed system component?
> - Would the update overwrite our changes?
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 12:09 PM, Shawn Geddis <geddis at me.com
> <mailto:geddis at me.com>> wrote:
>
>     On Feb 17, 2012, at 11:52 AM, Thomas Harning Jr. wrote:
>     > I see that 10.7 has CDSA and SmartCardServices deprecated,
>     meaning it
>     > is out the door for 10.8.
>     >
>     > How would one build TokenD implementations since CDSA is an integral
>     > dependency (TokenD directly exposes/consumes CSSM* types)?
>     >
>     > Is there a new pluggable-crypto system in the works? If so,
>     hopefully
>     > it can support software-driven interfaces (ex: those that aren't
>     > PC/SC, perhaps direct USB tokens or network-based devices)...
>
>     Thomas,
>
>     Deprecation of CDSA is what prompted the removal of the Tokend
>     modules from OS X Lion.  If you restore them on an OS X Lion
>     system, you will have capabilities restored.  The Tokend modules
>     have been based on CDSA in OS X 10.4, 10.5, 10.6 and still can in
>     10.7.  Deprecation of CDSA means that it is no longer THE
>      Crypto/PKI architecture to rely on and that it will be gone in
>     some future version of the OS - not exactly a guarantee it will be
>     gone, but you can’t count on it being there in a future release
>     once it has been publicly announced as deprecated.
>
>     Apple has not made any announcements with respect to future
>     frameworks to provide the same or similar functionality.  I can
>     say that it is extremely high on the customer request list for
>     Token/SmartCard support on iOS & OSX.  Since CDSA is deprecated
>     and was never going to make it to iOS (size/age/functionality
>     working against it), Apple was always faced with looking at
>     something new.
>
>     As for the "software-driven interfaces”, Tokend has been used
>     quite a bit with USB Tokens and Network HSMs.  The system-wide
>     support for abstracting Identities (of various types) for iOS /
>     OSX is quite important.
>
>     Stay tuned to this space for future information.
>
>     -Shawn
>     __________________________________________________
>     Shawn Geddis                                                      
>     geddis at me.com <mailto:geddis at me.com>
>     Security Consulting Engineer                            
>      geddis at apple.com <mailto:geddis at apple.com>
>
>     MacOSForge Project Lead:                           Smart Card Services
>             Web:    http://smartcardservices.macosforge.org/
>             Lists:  http://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo
>     __________________________________________________
>
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> -- 
> Thomas Harning Jr. (http://about.me/harningt)
>
>
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