Re: Smart Card

Goetz Babin-Ebell <[email protected]> writes:

>If the private key ever leaves the Smart Card (exception: key backup), the
>security model of your environment is broken.

Even if the key doesn't leave the card, if it's attached to a compromised host
then it's as good as broken because the host can have the card do anything it
wants, unless it's one of the (very rare) card setups with PIN entry via the
reader, a secure (meaning not controlled by the host) display on the reader,
and the card only allows one transaction before the user has to re-
authenticate.  I've only ever seen a few readers like that, and they were
quite expensive and faded from use fairly quickly.

Peter.