History of the OpenSC Project

Table of Contents

  1. The Emeritus
  2. Project chronology
    1. OpenCT 0.6.20 and OpenSC 0.11.13
    2. OpenCT 0.6.19 and Engine_PKCS!#11 0.1.8
    3. OpenSC 0.11.12
    4. OpenSC 0.11.11
    5. OpenSC 0.11.10
    6. Engine_pkcs11 0.1.7, Libp11 0.2.7
    7. OpenCT 0.6.18
    8. OpenSC 0.11.9 and OpenCT 0.6.17
    9. Libp11 0.2.6
    10. New engine_pkcs11 and libp11 releases
    11. New OpenSC release 0.11.8 with security updates
    12. New OpenCT release 0.6.16
    13. Improved Security Updates and new OpenSC and Pam_P11
    14. SCB obsolete, new windows binaries
    15. Security Updates and new versions
    16. Smart Card Bundle 0.10
    17. OpenSC 0.11.4
    18. OpenCT 0.6.14
    19. OpenCT 0.6.13
    20. OpenCT 0.6.12
    21. OpenSC 0.11.2
    22. pkcs11-helper 1.02
    23. OpenCT 0.6.11
    24. OpenCT 0.6.10
    25. OpenCT 0.6.9
    26. OpenCT 0.6.8
    27. LinuxTag 2006
    28. OpenSC, OpenCT and Web renewed
    29. opensc-project.org
    30. libp11 0.2.1 and engine_pkcs11 0.1.3
    31. OpenSC 0.10.0 and friends
    32. Pam PKCS#11 0.5.3
    33. OpenCT 0.6.6
    34. Windows Installer SCB 0.4
    35. OpenCT 0.6.5
    36. Windows Installer SCB 0.3
    37. OpenSC 0.9.6
    38. OpenCT 0.6.4
    39. Merry Chrismas OpenSC
    40. OpenSC 0.9.4
    41. Alpha and beta releases
    42. OpenCT 0.5.0
    43. OpenCT 0.1.0
    44. OpenSC 0.8.0
    45. IPSEC with Smart cards
    46. OpenSC 0.7.0
    47. OpenSC 0.6.1
    48. OpenSC 0.6.0
    49. OpenSC 0.5.0
    50. OpenSC 0.4.0
    51. libopensc 0.3.5
    52. libopensc 0.3.2
    53. OpenSC 0.3
    54. OpenSC 0.2

The Emeritus

The list of past OpenSC developers, in chronological order of retirement:

But many other people have contributed to OpenSC as well, see AuthorsAndCredits.

Project chronology

OpenCT 0.6.20 and OpenSC 0.11.13

On 2010-02-16 OpenCT 0.6.20 and OpenSC 0.11.13 were released, both with small fixes for the Rutoken S driver and other small bugfixes.

OpenCT 0.6.19 and Engine_PKCS!#11 0.1.8

On 2010-01-07 OpenCT 0.6.19 was released with improved udev rules to help the transition back from hal to udev. Engine_PKCS#11 0.1.8 was released with a fix for finding certificates and keys.

OpenSC 0.11.12

On 2009-12-18 OpenSC 0.11.12 was released with a fix for a regression in OpenSC 0.11.5 and later, that made some cards initialized with older versions of OpenSC no longer work with newer versions.

OpenSC 0.11.11

On 2009-10-26 OpenSC 0.11.11 was released with updates for "myeid" driver and fixing compile issues with OpenSSL 0.9.7 and 1.0.0.

OpenSC 0.11.10

On 2009-10-20 OpenSC 0.11.10 was released with a new driver "westcos" and support for MyEid? cards by Aventra (currently limited to using cards initialized with aventras software). Rutoken driver was extended to include GOST algorithm support.

Engine_pkcs11 0.1.7, Libp11 0.2.7

For both libp11 and engine_pkcs11 a patch fixing a small bug was posted. Since no other development happends with these packages, new releases were created on 2009-10-20 to push the bugfixes to the users.

OpenCT 0.6.18

On 2009-09-25 OpenCT 0.6.18 was released with support for rutoken S, fixes for usb on BSD systems and fixes for combining openct with pcsc-lite.

OpenSC 0.11.9 and OpenCT 0.6.17

On 2009-07-29 new versions of OpenSC and OpenCT were released, mostly with several smaller bug fixes, but also including updates to the piv card driver and support for the rutoken ECP.

Libp11 0.2.6

On 2009-07-22 libp11 0.2.6 was released fixing the exports file, which prior to this release was missing the symbol for the new function included in libp11 0.2.5.

New engine_pkcs11 and libp11 releases

New release of libp11 with an extra functions (thus increased library interface version), and a new version of engine_pkcs11 using it, with other small fixes too.

New OpenSC release 0.11.8 with security updates

On 2009-05-07 RSA keys are not secure if the public exponent is 1. It should be at least 3, better 65537 or higher. OpenSC PKCS#11 always sets it to a proper value, but a bug in OpenSC 0.11.7 caused pkcs11-tool to ask for public exponent 1 when creating new keys. Only the combination of pkcs11-tool from OpenSC 0.11.7 with a third party PKCS#11 Module and a card ignoring this bad value would create such an insecure key.

New OpenCT release 0.6.16

On 2009-05-04 Better hal support, several smaller fixes, improved polling loop for reduced power consumption and building/packaging fixes to make packaging easier were included in the new OpenCT release 0.6.16.

Improved Security Updates and new OpenSC and Pam_P11

On 2008-08-27 The Security Advisory was updated and OpenSC 0.11.6 was released with a security relevant fix. Pam_p11 was updated to 0.1.5 with fixed documentation (wiki to html export).

SCB obsolete, new windows binaries

On 2008-08-01 New windows binary packages version 001 were made public. These new packages were build using MinGW setup. The old SCB installer package for windows is now obsolete, as there is noone left to maintain it.

Security Updates and new versions

On 2008-07-31 A security update was found and a security Advisory was released. Also OpenCT 0.6.15, OpenSC 0.11.5, Libp11 0.2.4, Pam_P11 0.1.4 and Engine_Pkcs11 0.1.5 were released.

Smart Card Bundle 0.10

On 2007-09-11 SCB 0.10 was released with OpenSC updated to 0.11.4.

OpenSC 0.11.4

On 2007-09-10 OpenSC 0.11.4 was released with some support for CardOS M4 cards initialized with siemens software, and with the new AKIS driver.

OpenCT 0.6.14

On 2007-08-30 OpenCT 0.6.14 was released fixing openct_udev script.

OpenCT 0.6.13

On 2007-08-23 OpenCT 0.6.13 was released with hotplug improvements

OpenCT 0.6.12

On 2007-07-11 OpenCT 0.6.12 with many improvents and merging the rfid support.

OpenSC 0.11.2

On 2007-05-04 OpenSC 0.11.2 was released, with bugfixes, a free pkcs11.h header file, muscle support (in testing) and updated card drivers.

pkcs11-helper 1.02

On 2007-01-05 pkcs11-helper 1.02 was released, first standalone library for developers who wish to use PKCS#11 in their applications, but found it to be too complex.

OpenCT 0.6.11

On 2006-11-22 OpenCT 0.6.11 was released fixing non linux compiles.

OpenCT 0.6.10

On 2006-11-11 OpenCT 0.6.10 was released with minor bugfixes only.

OpenCT 0.6.9

On 2006-09-20 OpenCT 0.6.9 was released, the biggest change was moving to udev instead of hotplug for usb hotplug support.

OpenCT 0.6.8

On 2006-06-19 OpenCT 0.6.8 was released, fixing only a single small, but very annoing bug that caused spurious failures. Now openct works well, e.g. 1000 remote ssh logins in a row work without any failure.

LinuxTag 2006

From 2006 May 3rd to 6st we had a booth at  LinuxTag (in Wiesbaden, Germany). It was a big success with many people interested in using smart cards with OpenSC and friends. Some pictures of building the booth, the booth itself, our logo, the text in the background (left part and right part), lots of cards and readers and us (left: Andreas Jellinghaus, right: Peter Koch) are here.

OpenSC, OpenCT and Web renewed

On 2006-05-01 the new web pages was launched and new versions OpenSC 0.11.0 and OpenCT 0.6.7 were released.

opensc-project.org

On 2006-01-20 the web page was moved to opensc-project.org due to dns problems with our old domain name opensc.org.

libp11 0.2.1 and engine_pkcs11 0.1.3

Both released on 2005-11-23 fixed a few bugs. See the full announcement for more details.

OpenSC 0.10.0 and friends

To make maintainence of OpenSC easier it was split up into several subprojects - the core OpenSC stayed, but some code used on top of the PKCS#11 module was moved into a new library libp11, and the OpenSSL engine was moved into a new project engine_pkcs11. Also the pam module was abadoned in favor of the new Pam P11 and the well known Pam PKCS#11 modules. The windows installer was updated and a new installer for Mac OS X saw the light of the day. OpenSC 0.10.0, Libp11 0.2.0, Pam_p11 0.1.2, Engine_pkcs11 0.1.2, SCB 0.5 and SCA 0.1 were announced at the same time. See the full announcement for more details.

Pam PKCS#11 0.5.3

Pam PKCS#11 was developed already for a long time. But in 2005 the project migrated to the opensc server and with Pam-pkcs11 0.5.3 a new version with several bug fixes was released on 2005-09-12. See the full announcement for more details.

OpenCT 0.6.6

OpenCT 0.6.6 was released 2005-09-11 and added several new drivers including pcmcica based drivers. See the full announcement for more details.

Windows Installer SCB 0.4

Smart Card Bundle 0.4 was released 2005-06-16, now with a working version of Putty and Pageant, and applications like WinCVS had been successful used with smart card authentication.

OpenCT 0.6.5

OpenCT 0.6.5 was released 2005-05-17 and added several new drivers, Solaris support and many bug fixes. See the full announcement for more details.

Windows Installer SCB 0.3

Smart Card Bundle 0.3 was released 2006-05-10. See the full announcement for more details.

OpenSC 0.9.6

OpenSC 0.9.6 was released 2005-04-26. At the same time work on a new installer for windows was started. See the <a href="pipermail/opensc-announce/2005-April/000000.html full announcement] for more details.

OpenCT 0.6.4

OpenCT 0.6.4 was released 2005-04-26. See the full announcement for more details.

Merry Chrismas OpenSC

Belgium has choosen OpenSC as software basis for their national ID card and the source code changes to OpenSC have been published under LGPL license. Their modified version is published under the name "Belpic".

OpenSC 0.9.4

OpenSC 0.9.4 was released 2004-10-31.

Alpha and beta releases

OpenCT 0.6.0-alpha and OpenSC 0.9.0-alpha were released 2004-07-01 for testing. See the full announcement for more details.

OpenSC 0.9.1 and OpenCT 0.6.1 were announced as preview version on 2004-07-21.

OpenSC 0.9.2 was released as beta 2004-07-25. See the full announcement for more details.

OpenCT 0.5.0

OpenCT 0.5.0 was announced 2003-11-24. See the full announcement for more details.

OpenCT 0.1.0

OpenCT 0.1.0 was announced 2003-08-16. See the full announcement for more details.

OpenSC 0.8.0

OpenSC 0.8.0 was announced 2003-08-15. New card drivers for Aladdin eToken, Micardo 2 and Starcos were in this release, improved support for Windows and Mac OS X. Also this release included native support for accessing several usb crypto tokens, but that support was already deprecated by the new OpenCT 0.1.0 framework for card readers. See the full announcement for more details.

IPSEC with Smart cards

On 2003-07-09 Andreas Steffen released the X.509 patch version 1.40 for freeswan 2.00 which introduced support for smart cards. See the full announcement for more details.

OpenSC 0.7.0

OpenSC 0.7.0 was created 2002-06-3. It was the first version to work with OpenSSH without any patching. Also the opensc signer plugin for mozilla and netscape was integrated with the OpenSC source code. See the full announcement for more details.

OpenSC 0.6.1

OpenSC 0.6.1 was created 2002-03-20. The PKCS#11 Module was improved so it could be used in Mozilla for signing and decrypting emails. See the full announcement for more details.

OpenSC 0.6.0

OpenSC 0.6.0 was created 2002-03-13 by Juha Yrjölä, Antti Tapaninen, Timo Teräs and Olaf Kirch. PKCS #15 support was rewritten for this release and support for several cards was aadded. Also an abstraction layer for card readers was added. See the full announcement for more details.

OpenSC 0.5.0

OpenSC 0.5.0 was created 2002-01-24 by Juha Yrjöla, Antti Tapaninen and Timo Teräs, with additional thanks to David Corcoran for inspiration, moral support and valuable information. This releases added PKCS #15 generation support and a rewritten PKCS#11 module, as well as support for the Cryptoflex 16k card. See the full announcement for more details.

OpenSC 0.4.0

OpenSC 0.4.0 was created 2001-12-29 by Juha Yrjölä, Antti Tapaninen and Timo Teräs. Among other changes it added abstract card handling, so adding support for new cards became a whiz. With this release the libopensc and opensc-apps was mereged into one package. See the fullannouncement for more details. Also opensc-signer 0.1.1 was published at the same day.

libopensc 0.3.5

libopensc 0.3.5 and opensc-apps 0.3.5 was created 2001-12-15 by Juha Yrölä and Timo Teräs. Also opensc-signer 0.1.0 was published, a netscape plugin to generate digital signatures with smart cards.

libopensc 0.3.2

libopensc 0.3.2 and opensc-apps 0.3.2 were created 2001-11-28 by Juha Yrölä and Timo Terräs. It was the first version to use GNU Autotools.

OpenSC 0.3

OpenSC 0.3 was created 2001-11-23 by Juha Yrjölä and Timo Teräs.

OpenSC 0.2

OpenSC 0.2 was created on 2001-11-06 by Juha Yrjölä and Timo Teräs.

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