Hi,
First I apologize
for the newbee posting and the enormous amount of questions in here. I'm looking
at smartcards from the point of view of a user and not a developer. I think I
have a pretty solid idea about what smartcards can do, but I'm having trouble
piecing together the information enough to actually build a
solution.
Let me first
identify my (end) goal: I want understand howto fully integrate smartcards
into our mixed linux/windows environment. That means, I wish to issue a
smartcard for every user. That smartcard should (ideally)
provide:
-) strong
authentication for windows logins
-)
authentication for ssh logins (from linux/windows) hosts
-) signing
and encryption of s/mime messages (if the same key could work for outlook
and netscape that would be fantastic)
I believe all of
these are individually possible. Respecting that this is a group of linux (and
perhaps not M$) experts, is there anything stopping me from having a single
smartcard handle all of them?
Now some logistical questions:
-) which
smartcards should I buy (i.e. which are best supported under linux, if it even
matters)
-) do I want a
'javacard'or ISO standard solution? What are the relative
merits?
-) I
understand that there is a 'formatting' step where the card is given a
'template' of its functionality. Do I need to develop this template myself or is
there a standard source. Or does the template come integrated with whatever
cards I buy. Can I 'reformat' it myself?
-) I
understand that if a user fails to correctly enter a PIN a certain number of
times, then the card is disabled. This is going to be obnoxious, though clearly
necessary. Can it be 're-enabled'? If so, how?
-) do I need
to purchase the 'sdk' from my smartcard vendor in order to do these steps or are
the generic/free tools available?
-) Suppose a user forgets his PIN, can an administrator
'reset' the PIN for him?
-) Suppose
someone loses their card. I understand the authentication tokens can be
re-issued. But what is the right way to handle the e-mail encryption key? Should
I be 'escrowing' a copy when I issue the user a card so that it can be
recovered? Or is there another way?
-) Can a
smartcard be permanently rendered inoperable by failing to enter a correct PIN
too many times?
Thanks in
advance,
-michael
