DutchGrid CA eToken Limited Field Test

The DutchGrid CA is currently doing a limited field test for the use of secure hardware tokens for automated clients. Following the introduction of "Robot Certificates" in the policy, the DutchGrid CA intends to use Aladdin eToken PRO USB to hold the keypair associated with such Robot certificates. The field test should clarify usability and portability issues when such tokens are used in grid authentication scenarios with portals and normal users (as opposed to our own experts experimenting with them).

The tokens used are "PRO 32K" versions with CardOS 4.2B. The following background information on their installation and use has been collected in the evaluation phase:

Note that, although others have seen success with this tokens and the standard OpenSC software, the latest version of the CardOS (4.2B) is not correctly recognised by OpenSC, even in the latest CVS checkout to date (May 1st, 2007).

We got these tokens from USA Smart Card at this shop page, but of course there are other resellers as well.

The secure hardware token field test is supported by the Virtual Laboratory for e-Science Scaling and Validation programme. The engineering work was performed by Jan Just Keijser.