# OpenSC/OpenSC

Open source smart card tools and middleware. PKCS#11/MiniDriver

Repository: https://github.com/OpenSC/OpenSC
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/opensc
Homepage: https://github.com/OpenSC/OpenSC/wiki
Language: C
License: LGPL-2.1
License Family: copyleft
Topics: pkcs11, minidriver, smartcard, security, c, opensc
Last push: 2026-08-25T08:46:00+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 80/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 45, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5538, "days_push": 8, "days_rel": 155, "gap_med": 251.0, "n_releases_24m": 3}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 3078, forks 847 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:41.828843+00:00)

## What it is
OpenSC is a set of open-source libraries and command-line tools for working with smart cards, focused on cards that perform cryptographic operations. It implements standard smart card APIs including PKCS#11, Windows Smart Card Minidriver, and macOS CryptoTokenKit, enabling use in authentication, email encryption, and digital signatures.

## Use cases
- use smart cards for authentication on linux
- sign documents with a smart card on windows
- access pkcs#11 tokens from applications
- manage and inspect smart card contents from the command line
- enable smart card login and email encryption on macos
- integrate cryptographic smart cards into security applications

## When to choose
- you need a mature, cross-platform PKCS#11 middleware for cryptographic smart cards
- you want OS-native integration via Windows Minidriver or macOS CryptoTokenKit
- you need command-line tools to manage, initialize, or debug smart cards

## When to avoid
- you only need software-based cryptography without hardware tokens
- your smart card is unsupported by OpenSC's driver list
- you need a pure userspace HSM abstraction rather than smart card middleware

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: cryptography, security, auth, sdk, cli, developer-tools
- domain: security, privacy, developer-tools, cross-platform
- platform: windows, cross-platform, cli
- tags: smartcard, pkcs11, minidriver, cryptotokenkit, digital-signatures, middleware, c, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- OpenSC/OpenSC (main) score 80

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:41.828843+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T07:27:52.301758+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/OpenSC/OpenSC (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:41.828843+00:00, sha d6350208738b)
  - homepage: https://github.com/OpenSC/OpenSC/wiki (fetched 2026-08-29T09:43:00.953440+00:00, sha 5f7eb2d6c8b1)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.