Submitted 3 weeks ago by BonkTheAnnoyed@lemmy.blahaj.zone to technology@lemmy.world
I recently picked up an older but perfectly adequate HP Z Book Firefly with a built-in smart card reader and I’m wondering what possible use is this little bit of tech? Can I, like, auth with my credit card or whatever? (mostly joking, I briefly looked at the PAM config for that and prefer my current hobbies lol)
New-ish EU national IDs have NFC capability and certificate in them so you can probably sign something with that if you figure out how
Your laptop is a cash counter.
leaves the laptop alone with a sheet of paper, a pen, and a bag of cash
comes back 4 hours later you haven’t done anything!
sets the money atop the laptop
ohh, cash counter, I get it now…
You can store a private/public key pair on a smart card and use it for digitally signing or encrypting things like email, or just for authenticating to your PC. Some banks also support authentication by client certificate; web browsers can access your smart card for authenticating to web sites.
maybe works with pam_usb . it works with most removable media.
You could get a bunch of the cheap EEPROM type smart cards and use them to launch programs or play music or something.
partial_accumen@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
CAC cards
prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
This is one of the more common uses of them, but the tech works with other card types.
That said I’ve never seen a company invest in the security infrastructure for using smart cards.