Content
-------------------------------------------------------
1. Introduction
2. Needed Components
3. Server Setup
3.1. Security Mode
3.2. Adding Readers
3.3. File Permissions
4. Starting The Daemon
4.1. Disabling Poll Mode
5. Server Environment Variables
6. Client Setup
7. Using Libchipcard in your own Projects
8. Using Libchipcard With MacOS
9. Special Drivers and Readers
9.1. Generic CCID Driver
9.2. Reiner SCT Cyberjack
9.3. Omnikey CardMan 4000
9.4. SCM SPR 532
10. Distribution Specific Notes
11. Updating from Versions before 3.9.1
12. Projects Using Libchipcard
-------------------------------------------------------
1. Introduction
===============
Libchipcard is a library for generic access to chipcard readers. It contains
a complete ressource manager and uses the hardware drivers provided by
manufacturers of card readers. The number of readers to be used in parallel
is unbound.
Libchipcard has some advantages over existing card reader ressource managers:
- autodetection of readers at multiple buses
- readers are only allocated upon request by a client (while no client needs
access to a given reader this reader is not accessed by Libchipcard)
- it provides a fake CTAPI which can be used by any CTAPI-aware program
to use Libchipcard via CTAPI
Libchipcard autodetects and automatically configures readers at the following
buses:
- raw USB
- USB serial
- PCI
- PCMCIA
Libchipcard has been tested by myself with the following readers:
- Kobil Kaan Advanced USB (works)
- Towitoko Chipdrive Micro (serial, works)
- old Reiner SCT Cyberjack (0x100, works)
- new Reiner SCT Cyberjack (0x300, works)
- old Reiner SCT Cyberjack ECom (works)
- new Reiner SCT Cyberjack ECom (works)
- Omnikey CardMan 3621 (USB, works)
- Omnikey CardMan 4000 (PCMCIA, works)
- Cherry G80-1501 (mode 2, works)
- Cherry G80-1502 (mode 2, works)
- SCM SCR 3310 (works)
- SCM SCR 3311 (works)
- SCM SPR 532 (works with original driver, see 9.4)
2. Needed Components
====================
Libchipcard needs the following packages:
- Gwenhywfar http://gwenhywfar.sf.net/ [required]
- LibSysFS http://linux-diag.sf.net/ [strongly recommended]
If LibSysFS is available then the PCMCIA scanner code is built. This allows to
detect PCMCIA-based card readers. This library is also needed to scan for
USB devices.
If LibSysFS is missing autoconfiguration of USB devices is not possible.
3. Server Setup
===============
The chipcard daemon uses the configuration file
$PREFIX/etc/chipcard/server/chipcardd.conf
This file contains a description of which drivers to load and a list of
configured readers.
You can copy one of the example files installed to
"$PREFIX/etc/chipcard/server/". For USB-only readers the minimal example
can be used. For serial devices the file "chipcardd3.conf.example" can be used
as a starting point.
3.1. Security Mode
------------------
The underlying IPC (interprocess communication) model used allows a variety
of security modes:
a) local
This mode uses Unix Domain Sockets. These sockets are only available on
POSIX systems (not on WIN32 platforms), they can only be connected to from
the very same machine.
This is the recommended mode for local-only usage.
b) public
This mode uses simple TCP sockets for IPC. You should not use this mode
since it does not provide any encryption.
c) private
This mode uses SSL secured sockets. This is the recommended mode on
systems where there are no Unix Domain Sockets (i.e. the "local" mode is
not available).
d) secure
This mode is the same as "private", but it requires the client to present
a valid certificate. This certificate is looked up in a directory on the
server and if not found access will be denied.
You can use this mode if you want to be very safe. It also allows the
server to distinguish between multiple users accessing the server, so that
administration accounts can be realized (which will only allow special
users to execute administrative commands).
For security modes "private" and "secure" some additional setup is to be done.
You can do most of that additional setup with the following command:
#>chipcardd init
This will create all files necessary for "private" or "secure" mode (such as
Diffie-Hellman-parameters, a self-signed certificate etc).
You have to create the server configuration file first (e.g. by just copying
one of the example files provided by this package).
Please refer to the file doc/CERTIFICATES for details.
3.2. Adding Readers
-------------------
#>chipcardd3 addreader --rname ARG --dtype ARG --rtype ARG --rport ARG
Adds a reader to the configuration. Please see "chipcardd3 --help".
3.3. File Permissions
---------------------
Some systems (namely Debian) provide packages which start the chipcard daemon
as a special user ("chipcard") instead of root.
However, you have to make sure that this special user is able to access the
card reader (normally he isn't).
4. Starting The Daemon
======================
"chipcardd4 --help" lists all possible command line arguments.
However, in most cases the following does suffice:
#>chipcardd4 --pidfile PIDFILENAME
where PIDFILENAME is the name of the PID file (used to store the process id
of the server which can be used to send signals to it).
For debugging purposes the following is more usefull:
#>chipcardd4 --pidfile PIDFILENAME -f --logtype console --loglevel notice
For "loglevel" you can use "--loglevel info" to increase the verbosity even
more.
The option "-f" makes the daemon stay in the foreground. In this case you can
stop it using CTRL-C.
Please note that the server doesn't start if there is no line in the
configuration file saying "enabled=1".
4.1. Disabling Poll Mode
------------------------
The default setting of Libchipcard is to scan every 1-2 seconds for new
hardware. However, on modern udev-based systems this polling can be avoided
by setting "hardwareScanInterval" in the section "DeviceManager" of the server
configuration file "chipcardd.conf" to "0".
The daemon will then only initially scan for connected hardware. It can be
notified about hardware changes via signals (SIGUSR2). Upon receiption of this
signal the daemon immediately scans for new hardware
(e.g. "killall -SIGUSR2 chipcardd" will trigger a hardware scan).
5. Server Environment Variables
===============================
LCDM_DRIVER_LOGLEVEL
--------------------
Loglevel to be used for drivers.
Version before 1.9.16alpha used LC_DRIVER_LOGLEVEL" instead.
LCSV_SERVICE_LOGLEVEL
---------------------
Loglevel to be used for services.
Version before 1.9.16alpha used "LC_SERVICE_LOGLEVEL" instead.
LC_CTAPI_LOGLEVEL
-----------------
Loglevel to be used by the fake CTAPI.
6. Client Setup
===============
Clients for libchipcard use the configuration file
$PREFIX/etc/chipcard/client/chipcardc.conf
This file contains a description of the chipcard servers to connect to.
7. Using Libchipcard in your own Projects
==========================================
Please have a look at the file in tutorials/. They pretty much explain how
Libchipcard can be used.
8. Using Libchipcard With MacOS
================================
The following commands will compile Libchipcard on MacOS:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
./configure --prefix=/sw LDFLAGS=-L/sw/lib CFLAGS=-I/sw/include CPPFLAGS=-I/sw/include
make
sudo make install
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The configuration files are then expected in /sw/chipcard/server.
9. Special Drivers and Readers
===============================
Most USB readers (like Cherry ST-1044u) might need you to add the following
udev rule to your system (e.g. by creating a file with the following lines
in /etc/udev/rules.d) when using Debian (or Ubuntu):
-------------------------------------------------------------------X8
SYSFS{idVendor}=="046a", SYSFS{idProduct}=="002d", GROUP="chipcard"
-------------------------------------------------------------------X8
This example is for the Cherry reader, for your reader you will have to use
the correct values for "idVendor" and "idProduct".
9.1. Generic CCID Driver
-------------------------
Libchipcard has improved support for this GPL licensed driver. It can use
this driver as installed by your distribution (tested with Debian's binary
packages).
However, if you need to compile the driver yourself some precautions have to
be taken:
Recent versions of this driver need libpcsclite installed at build-time,
but not at runtime. So please do this:
- install libcpsclite (and devel-packages, if any)
- compile the driver
- deinstall libpcsclite (because it might want to start the PC/SC daemon which
unfortunately tries to completely take over control over all card readers it
can lay its hands on)
It is safe to leave the package libpcsclite on Debian installed, but the
package containing the PC/SC daemon (pcscd) MUST NOT be installed, because
that daemon grabs all readers it can find so other daemons (like the quite
cooperative daemon of Libchipcard) are unable to use them.
9.2. Reiner SCT Cyberjack
--------------------------
If you are using a Reiner SCT Cyberjack card reader on Debian then you should
issue the following command to grant libchipcard access to the reader:
"gpasswd -a chipcard cyberjack".
This adds the user "chipcard" (under which the chipcard daemon runs on Debian)
to the group "cyberjack" thus allowing libchipcard to access this driver.
9.3. Omnikey CardMan 4000
--------------------------
Current kernels (2.6.17 as of this writing) already include the module needed
to access the reader at kernel level (module "cm4000_cs").
However, you will need the CardMan driver package from Omnikey which contains
the library "libcm4000.so".
Please download that package from http://www.omnikey.com/. The package
contains a script called "install".
DO NOT USE THAT!
Just copy the included file "libcm4000.so" to /usr/lib/. That's all.
If your system starts the chipcard server as a user other than root (e.g.
Debian does this) you should add the following udev rule (e.g. write the
following line into a file and place it under "/etc/udev/rules.d"):
--------------------------------------------X8
SUBSYSTEM="cardman_4000", GROUP="chipcard"
--------------------------------------------X8
This grants Libchipcard access to the cardman as soon as the reader is
plugged-in.
9.4. SCM SPR 532
----------------
Libchipcard no longer uses the generic CCID driver for this reader because
with that driver it is impossible to perform secure verification or
modification. Therefore we fallback to the driver of the manufacturer.
However, this needs the reader to have the old firmware 4.15 installed, newer
versions do not work.
You can get the driver and firmware from http://www.libchipcard.de/.
10. Distribution Specific Notes
===============================
10.1. Debian
------------
Debian packages use a special user which runs the chipcard server: "chipcard".
This user must have the permissions to access the device files needed by the
different drivers.
11. Updating from Versions before 3.9.1
=======================================
Starting with Libchipcard 3.9.1beta all references to the major version have
been removed. This means that the server configuration is no longer searched
for in $PREFIX/etc/chipcard3/server but in $PREFIX/etc/chipcard/server
instead. Also the name of the file has been changed from chipcardd3.conf to
chipcardd.conf.
This is also true for client configuration files.
12. Projects Using Libchipcard
===============================
The following is a list of projects which use Libchipcard. This list
is rather incomplete, please contact the author if you want your project
listed here as well.
- AqBanking
- QBankManager (via AqBanking)
- Gnucash (via AqBanking)
- KMyMoney (via AqBanking)
- Grisbi (via AqBanking)
- Gnumed
Martin Preuss, Hamburg/Germany, 2007/10/27
