This article describes how you create descriptions for the Idopte middleware. An encoding description contains the information for the electronic personalization of a card. You import the encoding description from a file. This can be used in Smart ID Identity Manager.

Smart ID Desktop App and Smart ID Identity Manager communicate via Smart ID Messaging. Smart ID Identity Manager uses the Inside Server for secure channel establishment and authentication to the card.

Smart ID Identity Manager communicates with the client- and server-side part of the Idopte middleware via the webservice endpoints. Smart ID Messaging and Smart ID Desktop App communicates with the client-side.

Prerequisites

• The machines with the card readers must have Idopte middleware and Smart ID Desktop App installed locally and a browser to access Smart ID Identity Manager.

• Smart ID Identity Manager version 23.04.16 or later (for 23.04 series)/ 23.10.15 or later (for 23.10 series).
  Earlier versions have more limited or missing support for Idopte.

• Smart ID Desktop App version 1.12.2 or later. 

• Idopte Middleware  6.23.0.30 or later

• Inside Server version 1.4.3 or later with attached HSM for handling secrets

Authentication communication

Idopte Web App Certificate authenticates Identity Manager Operator against Idopte middleware installed on the machines with the card readers.

1. Create a key pair, that is, a private key and a public key.

2. Send the public key together with a symbolic URL (for example https://smartiddesktopapp.customerdomain), to the Idopte company. You will then receive a certificate in X.509 format (previously a custom format was used).
   This certificate has a limited validity of several months and needs to be refreshed regularly.

Configuration

Configure Idopte web app certificate

You must configure the certificate together with the private key in Identity Manager Operator.

1. Configure the Idopte Web App Certificate in idm-operator/WEB-INF/classes/system.properties. 

   Example: Web App Certificate

   hermodEncodingService.idopteCert=MIIEZ...etc...+3MA=

   For docker-based installations, you must configure the Idopte Web App certificate in docker/compose/identitymanager/operator/docker-compose.yml as shown below:
   Example

2. Store the private key in an HSM or encapsulated in a password protected .p12 file (named idopteAuthentication.p12 in the example below) alongside the actual X.509 web application certificate, which contains the symbolic URL as SAN URI extension. 

3. Configure the .p12 file in idm-operator/WEB-INF/classes/engineSignEncryptConfig.xml.

Identity Manager Operator can now prove its identity against the Idopte Middleware when the communication starts.

Example

An HSM can also be used.

Example: engineSignEncryptConfig.xml

Configure Inside Server

Identity Manager must connect to the Inside Server to handle certain secrets used for the secure channel and authenticating to the card.

A two-way TLS handshake is needed between Identity Manager and the Inside Server. 

1. Configure the Inside Server URL in idm-operator/WEB-INF/classes/system.properties. See an example below:

   Example: Inside server URL

   For docker-based installations you need to edit docker/compose/smartid.env. See an example below:

   Example: Inside server URL definition (smart.env) - Docker

   The variable must be referenced by docker/compose/identitymanager/operator/docker-compose.yml. See an example below:

   Example: Inside server URL reference (docker-compose.yml) - Docker

2. Configure the Identity Manager p12 file to use as client authentication for the Inside Server in idm-operator/WEB-INF/classes/engineSignEncryptConfig.xml

3. Add the Inside Server certificate to the Identity Manager truststore (for example tomcat/conf/prime.truststore), via a suitable application like Keystore Explorer or Java's keytool command:

   Keytool import example

    

Example

An HSM can also be used.

Example: Client auth keystore

Configure Pinpad Timeout

By default the Idopte middleware has a pinpad timeout of 30 seconds.
Starting with version 6.23.0.30 of Idopte SSMW (which ships with IDM 23.04.15 / 23.10.5 and above), this can be overridden as follows:

1. Create the file idoss.conf in docker/compose/identitymanager/config/ to configure the pinpad timeout as desired (120 seconds in the example below):

2. Create a volume mount for the new file in docker/compose/identitymanager/operator/docker-compose.yml. See an example below:

3. Restart the IDM Operator container, if already running, by running

   from the docker/compose/identitymanager/operator/ folder, to make sure the new config file is used.

Card support

Supported card types

Only the following cards are supported by IDM when used with the Idopte middleware:

• JCOP 3 (P60) cards with one specific custom profile, see JCOP 3 cards with Idopte middleware for details.

• JCOP 4.5 (P71) based on common IN Groupe profile, see JCOP 4.5 cards with Idopte middleware for details.

Card type detection

You can detect whether you are dealing with a JCOP 3 or JCOP 4.5 card by reading the token info JSON, as shown in Reader/card selection and information in Identity Manager .

The resulting JSON object will contain the attribute "jcopVersion", set to either "3" or "4.5".

Smart ID Desktop App requirement

Specify device ID

Encoding via the Idopte middleware is supported only for Smart ID Desktop App (version 1.12.2 or higher). 
For encodings on card operation tasks you need to specify the appropriate device ID ("8711").

Define the device ID in the encoding description. See the example below:

Example: Device ID location

Middleware selection

Select Idopte middleware

You must specify the name "idopte" since a webservice-interface is used instead of the PKCS#11 interface to enable use of the secure channel.

Add Idopte in the encoding description. 

Example: Select Idopte middleware

Idopte middleware limitations

Idopte incompatibility with Alcor Micro USB smart card readers

The Idopte middleware is incompatible with Alcor Micro USB Smart Card Readers, which are often integrated in Lenovo notebooks. If you try to connect to the card, the PC/SC connection is lost. This appears to be a driver/hardware issue.

Unsupported encoding parameters

The following is a non-exhaustive list of encoding parameters which are unsupported in encodings for the Idopte middleware.

Using unsupported parameters in most cases will result in encoding failure due to an "UnsupportedOperationException". The exception message can include a hint about parameters that possibly need to be removed from the encoding description.

• PUK=...

• SignPUK=...

• CardManagerKey=... (ignored, no exception thrown)

• NewCardManagerKey=...

• TokenInfoJsonField=...

• MDCardID=...

• MDCardSerialNumber=...

• CMSCardSerialNumber=...

• CardOSSkiThumbprintField=...

• OSVersionField=..

• PackageInformationField=...

• DeleteProfile=...

• UseCardManagerKey=...

• BlockCard=...

• InitialSignPUK=... (ignored, no exception thrown)

• InitialLabel=... (ignored, no exception thrown)

Limited PIN dialog support

Card activation (InitPin=true) does not support PIN dialogs (for transport/global/signature PIN). Any PIN must be passed in from the process or entered through a PIN pad.

No CSR signing with keys from card

CSR signing with the corresponding private key on the card is not supported. PKCS#10 certificate requests are protected by the secure channel instead.

Require PIN Input For Renewal

Configure Extra PIN Input

Certificate and key writing is authenticated using various symmetric keys.

If you want to additionally enforce having the card holder enter the PIN / signature PIN during renewal, you can set the IdopteExtraPinInput flag to true and specify which PIN(s) to enter, like in the following examples:

Require input of global PIN via dialog or pinpad (autodetect)

Require input of signature PIN via dialog

Require input of both PINs via pinpad

This will force the card holder to authenticate with the required PIN(s) before any certificate requests can be processed.

Troubleshooting

ERROR: PinPad unsupported CKR_ARGUMENTS_BAD

This error can occur when using outdated PIN pad reader drivers that are not able to recognize the PIN pad reader. If an older Idopte middleware version is already installed, the installer will only unpack the drivers but not reconfigure the device to use them.

Solution:

• To use the new drivers, open the device manager and select the smart card reader. If the PIN pad reader is not visible, click update driver and select the appropriate PIN pad reader.

• To verify, open the Idopte middleware and select general information, where you can see the reader name and PIN pad authentication information. PIN pad authentication must be true when any PIN pad reader is connected.

Additional information