CODEWITHSUNDEEP
cryptographysmartcardpkcs#11
Thorsten Scherf
Thorsten Scherf

Reputation: 1011

PKCS#11 libraries from different software packages

What is the difference between the PKCS#11 library provided by the libp11 and the OpenSC project. Are they mutually exclusive or do they depend on each other?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 371

Answers (1)

KC Wong
KC Wong

Reputation: 2479

The Wiki pages of the two projects stated:

https://github.com/OpenSC/OpenSC/wiki

OpenSC implements the PKCS#11 API so applications supporting this API (such as Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird) can use it. On the card OpenSC implements the PKCS#15 standard and aims to be compatible with every software/card that does so, too.

https://github.com/OpenSC/libp11/wiki

libp11 is a library implementing a thin layer on top of PKCS#11 API to make using PKCS#11 implementations easier.

So OpenSC is an implementation of PKCS#11 supporting PKCS#15 smartcards, while libp11 is a wrapper trying to make the PKCS#11 easier to use.

Upvotes: 1

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