Skip to content

Connector · OpenPGP card

OpenPGP Card CSP & Minidriver

Enable your OpenPGP smart card on Windows — for logon, S/MIME, SSL and more.

Download minidriver & CSP Source code on GitHub

Free and open source

OpenPGP Card Minidriver
OpenPGP minidriver logo

The OpenPGP Card is an ISO 7816-4/-8 compatible smart card — but out of the box it cannot be used for Windows logon or Active Directory authentication because it lacks a CryptoAPI driver.

This minidriver bridges that gap, making the OpenPGP card fully usable on Windows for:

  • Smart card logon with EIDAuthenticate or Active Directory
  • SSL/TLS client authentication
  • S/MIME email signing and encryption
  • Any Windows CryptoAPI or CNG application

To generate a certificate on the card, follow this guide.

OpenPGP Card CSP

The CSP complements the minidriver by adding support for requesting certificates from the Windows PKI (ADCS) — enabling your OpenPGP card to work in environments that require enterprise-issued certificates.

Installation
  1. Copy the binaries to a known location (e.g. C:\Windows\System32)
  2. Edit the .reg file at the root of the project and add your card's ATR
  3. OpenPGP Card v2 & v3 ATRs are pre-configured
  4. Double-click the .reg file to register the CSP
Source code on GitHub
FAQ

Not immediately. To comply with Windows certification requirements, the card is treated as read-only by the driver. You must first generate a key and write a certificate using a third-party tool.

Use gpg --card-edit / admin / writecert 3 < mycertificate.der to import a certificate in X.509 DER format (GPG reference). Verify the certificate's public key matches the card's key with certutil -scinfo.

Or use the OpenPGP CSP which enables write support out of the box.

The published release does not support Windows XP, but only minor modifications are required to achieve compatibility. The source code is available on GitHub — contributions and patches are welcome.