Smartcard

This page is heavily out of date - please check out gnupg.org for latest info.

The OpenPGP card

The OpenPGP Card is a specification of an ISO 7816-4,-8 compatible smartcard and also an actually available implementation of this specification as a standard sized card.

Note: g10code is not the vendor of the card. We implemented the support for the card in GnuPG and helped with the specification. The card sold by kernel concepts (now known as FLOSS-Shop) are based on a hardware and the Card OS provided by ZeitControl; the software on this card is not available as free software due to NDAs required for certain parts.

Front matter

Front (click to enlarge)

Front matter (ID-000)

ID-000 version

Back matter

Back

Features of the version 2.0 card

The specification makes some card featured optional; here are the features of the currently distributed card.

  • 3 independent 2048 bit RSA keys (signing,encryption,authentication).
  • Key lengths reducable to 1024 bit; key length of signature keys increasable to 3072 bit.
  • Key generation on card or import of existing keys.
  • Signature counter.
  • Data object to store an URL to access the full OpenPGP public key.
  • Data objects for card holder name etc.
  • Data object for login specific data.
  • Data onject to store a X.509 certificate
  • Length of PIN between 6 and 32 characters.
  • T=1 protocol; compatible with most readers.
  • Version with chip out ID-000 card available.
  • Factory reset feature.
  • Specification freely available and usable without any constraints.
  • Reasonable priced.

Availability

The cards are distributed by our partner FLOSS-shop.

Software

GnuPG supports this card since version 1.4 and 2.0. See the announcement of 1.4.0.

Pre-compiled binaries for Microsoft Windows are available at ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/binary/. The support is also included in the full featured GnuPG installer available at gpg4win.org

Sample code for the OpenPGP application of the ZeitControl based card can be downloaded here but be aware that this version is not identical to the code on the sold cards. For further questions please contact the author of that software (see the source code).

Documentation

The specification for this card is available as a PDF document: