scardkbd -- Writes the user ID on an inserted smartcard to the X keyboard buffer.

Description

scardkbd reads the card holder's identifier from the smart card and places it into the keyboard input buffer. Whatever program is currently in the foreground will receive the identifier as though it had been typed in at the keyboard. This offers a simple method of upgrading legacy systems to use the smart chip, especially those applications that currently use a barcode scanner physically attached to the keyboard connector.

Note that this is suitable for relatively low security applications only, since it is possible for a dishonest user to create a smart card that has someone else's identifier in it. (However, it is not generally possible to alter the identity already stored in a Cambridge smart card -- in order to impersonate someone else you must first obtain a blank card.) The security is slightly better than barcode systems, since a barcode can be copied with a photocopier, or printed with a standard printer and suitable barcode font.

The program is cobbled together from various bits as my knowledge of direct Xlib programming is pretty poor. Its particularly ugly and is not recommended as a good example of how to code :)

To use, simply run the program and insert a smartcard.

Download

scardkbd can be downloaded here.

Requirements

©2001 Rich Wareham
Last modified: Mon Sep 17 09:54:34 BST 2001