Hosted on
Welcome to the Free Crypto Token – FCT Project
Please note
that FCT and its homepage are under heavy development! Some parts may only be preliminary!
FCT is boosted by the Boost.org C++ library.
FCT uses Peter Gutmann’s cryptlib.
News
2002.08.30
The domain FreeCryptoToken.org is finaly up and
running! Both FreeCryptoToken.org and
www.FreeCryptoToken.org point to
this page hosted on SourceForge.net.
CVS is also
reachable thru cvs.FreeCryptoToken.org.
The Vision behind FCT
The vision
behind FCT is to create a portable and extendable open-source framework for PKCS#11
modules. The reason why I started this project is that I believe that strong
cryptography must become a integral and regularly used part of all our
communication methods in order to achieve better privacy in our business as
well as in our private live.
There are
numberless reasons why to publish such a framework as open-source, some of them
are:
- When using closed-source you
have to put trust in a company, you can not put trust into the software
directly because you don’t know exactly how, why und under which
conditions it may work properly or not (at least not without getting hold
of the source code which typically is very expensive and you are very
likely not allowed to share it with someone else). With open-source you
have at least the chance to be able to really trust a piece of software.
It is possible to share knowledge with others in order to improve and
extend it. The more people are involved the more likely it is that
problems where found and corrected. If you don’t know about all the
technical stuff and just want to use the software, you are probably
willing to put trust in the (hopefully big) community that developers and
maintains it.
- Another very important aspect
is accessibility, every one can afford open-source! Privacy must not only
be a luxury for the rich but a guaranteed right for everyone.
- Trust worth crypto software
must be independent of governments and companies. Only open-source
software can be independent.
In the long
run FCT should implement all the book keeping and management that is needed in
a PKCS#11
module. This should make developing software support for both new and existing hardware
not only faster and cheaper but also more secure. You can avoid all the
problems and pitfalls others have already fallen into.
Disclaimer
Free Crypto
Token is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty. The
author does not give any guarantee that it is suitable for any purpose nor is
he liable for any damage or loss that is directly or indirectly caused by Free
Crypto Token or other parts of the Free Crypto Token project.
Please note
that the source code available via CVS is untested
and under heavy development.
All
interfaces and implementations may be subject to change without prior notice.
License
TBD
What’s on the roadmap
R1.00.00
The first version
of FCT shall a least have the following features:
FCT PKCS#11 framework
(FCT.Pkcs11):
- The implementation must adhere to the PKCS#11
standard version 2.10.
If a PKCS#11
enabled application expects non-standard behaviour it should be possible
to put FCT.Pksc11 in non-standard mode by either configuration or autodedection.
(I guess Netscape Communucator is such a candadate.)
- It must be possible to
sign/encrypt and verify/decrypt mails as well as doing certificate based
client authentication for SSL connections using recent versions of
Netscape Navigator.
Concrete module implementations
using the FCT.Pkcs11:
- At least one standard key file
format must be supported.
- At least one platform must be
supported. (Win32)
- At least one smartcard reader
driver architecture must be supported. (PC/SC)
- Support for at least one
smartcard with secure data and key storage that is able to perform RSA
private key operations and supports appropriate user/owner authentication.
(Most likely this will be cards with Microsoft Windows for Smart Cards with
a non-standard card structure/file system layout)
The
following restrictions may apply:
- PKCS#11
modules build on FCT.Pkcs11 may only allow one instance at a time on a
host. (i.e. are not multi application safe)
- Only a minimum of mechanisms
defined in the PKCS#11
standard may be supported.
TODOs
Besides
many others the following TODOs are the “big ones”:
- Stabilize existing code.
- Most of the PKCS#11 framework
implementation is has not even started …
- Documentation
- Testsuits
- Inspection for multi thread
safety
- Inspection for exception safety
- See also “// TODO:” comments
within the source code.
- … and much more
Release Cycle Definition
Version
types:
Alpha:
All builds that get flagged in the CVS
may be of type Alpha, even Prototypes. Alpha builds may have incomplete/missing
and untested features.
Beta: Beta builds must be feature complete but
may have untested features and/or environments.
Release: Release
builds must be feature complete and fully tested in all supported environments.
Only Beta source trees may mutate into a Release. There should not be more than
one Release builds for one version, if there are multiple the one with the
highest build number is the official release. Release candidates (RC) must be
flagged as Beta as they are not fully tested.
Version Number Format
T
MM.mm.pp.bbb
T … type : A… Alpha, B…
Beta, R… Release
MM ... major version number, must
not have leading zeros.
mm ... minor version number, must
have leading zeros.
pp ... patch number, must have
leading zeros.
bbb ... build number, must not
have leading zeros.
Version
numbers may not always include the type, build or patch number. The type
information ‘R’ for Release may be omitted but ‘B’ and ‘A’ must always be used.
For example
in a documentation or online help it makes no sense to include the build and
patch numbers nor may it be to include the ‘R’.
Files that
contain version information must always use the full format, including type.
About-Dialogs,
Splash-Screens and command line tools explicitly asked to give version
information must use full version format, the ‘R’ may be omitted.
Program/Window
titles and command line tools should omit the build number and the ‘R’.
Version examples: A 1.00.00.1 Version
1.00 Alpha, no patches, build 1.
R
1.12.05.99 Version 1.12 Release, patch
5, build 99
Modules
Crypto
Lib
SmartCardReader
Base
Pkcs11
WfscCard
Pkcs11Dump
JPkcs11
Pkcs11Test
Configuration
JPkcs11_Native
Initial Description of FCT
Free Crypto Token will be a free, operating system independent and standard driven interface to smartcards, key files and other hard- and software crypto tokens. In fact FCT will be a framework for PKCS#11 modules that will also include some implementations for concrete tokens.
FCT will be released under the GPL (GNU Public License) or a less restrictive
license (“less restrictive” here applies to the restriction that the GPL puts on work that uses GPL source code or is based on GPL source code) like the LGPL, the BOOST license (www.boost.org) or as
„Public Domain“. Please note that there may be different licenses for the
framework and for implementations for a concrete token.
Please note that it is not yet
decided under which exact license what parts of FCT will be released!
Links
Free Crypto Token at SourceForge
PKCS Standards by RSA
Security Inc.
© Copyright 2002 by Bertolt Mildner. Last update 2002-08-28.