CCID (chip card interface device) protocol is a

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical ...

protocol that allows a

smartcard A smart card (SC), chip card, or integrated circuit card (ICC or IC card), is a card used to control access to a resource. It is typically a plastic credit card-sized card with an embedded integrated circuit (IC) chip. Many smart cards include a ...

to be connected to a computer via a

card reader A card reader is a data input device that reads data from a card-shaped storage medium and provides the data to a computer. Card readers can acquire data from a card via a number of methods, including: optical scanning of printed text or barcod ...

using a standard USB interface, without the need for each manufacturer of smartcards to provide its own reader or protocol. This allows the smartcard to be used as a

security token A security token is a peripheral device used to gain access to an electronically restricted resource. The token is used in addition to, or in place of, a password. Examples of security tokens include wireless key cards used to open locked door ...

for authentication and data encryption, such as that used in

BitLocker BitLocker is a full volume encryption feature included with Microsoft Windows versions starting with Windows Vista. It is designed to protect data by providing encryption for entire volumes. By default, it uses the Advanced Encryption Standard ...

. Chip card interface devices come in a variety of forms. The smallest CCID form is a standard USB

dongle A dongle is a small piece of computer hardware that connects to a port on another device to provide it with additional functionality, or enable a pass-through to such a device that adds functionality. In computing, the term was initially synony ...

and may contain a

SIM card A typical SIM card (mini-SIM with micro-SIM cutout)A SIM card or SIM (subscriber identity module) is an integrated circuit (IC) intended to securely store an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) number and its related key, which are u ...

Secure Digital Secure Digital (SD) is a proprietary, non-volatile, flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA). Owing to their compact size, SD cards have been widely adopted in a variety of portable consumer electronics, including digi ...

card inside the USB dongle. Another popular interface is a USB smart card reader

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Mus ...

, which in addition to being a standard USB keyboard, has an built-in slot for accepting a smartcard. However, not all CCID compliant devices accept removable smartcards, for example, select Yubikey hardware authentication devices support CCID, where they play the role of both the card reader and the smartcard itself. As the protocol is based primarily around interaction with smartcards, it builds around the ISO/IEC 7816-4 and ISO 7816-3 as main way of communication with the smartcard, or with the device itself in case of some USB security tokens.

Hardware implementation

According to the CCID specification by the USB standards work group, a CCID exchanges information through a host computer over USB by using a CCID message that consists of a 10-byte header followed by message-specific data. The standard defines fourteen commands that the host computer can use to send data and status and control information in messages. Every command requires at least one response message from the CCID.

Software driver

CCID driver support has been natively supported by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

beginning with

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft, targeting the server and business markets. It is the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RT ...

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

has included some form of native CCID support since

Mac OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

, with support evolving alongside

Common Access Card The common access card, also commonly referred to as the CAC, is the standard identification for active duty United States defense personnel. The card itself is a smart card about the size of a credit card. Defense personnel that use the CAC inc ...

and Personal Identity Verification specifications set by the

US Federal Government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct branches: legislative, execut ...

. Apple's has included native CCID support on iOS since 16.0 and iPadOS since 16.1. On

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

and other Unixes, CCID and CT-API devices are usually accessed with user-space drivers, for which no special

kernel Kernel may refer to: Computing * Kernel (operating system), the central component of most operating systems * Kernel (image processing), a matrix used for image convolution * Compute kernel, in GPGPU programming * Kernel method, in machine learnin ...

adaptation is required.{{cite web, url=https://ccid.apdu.fr/, title=CCID free software driver, accessdate=June 22, 2018

List of CCID providers

* Advanced Card Systems * ActivIdentity * Baltech * Bit4id *
BLUTRONICS
] * Elyctis * FEITIAN Technologies *

Gemalto Gemalto was an international digital security company providing software applications, secure personal devices such as smart cards and tokens, e-wallets and managed services. It was formed in June 2006 by the merger of two companies, Axalto and ...

Giesecke & Devrient Giesecke+Devrient GmbH (G+D) is a German international security technology company operating in the fields of Computer security, digital security, financial platforms, and currency technology. Founded in 1852, the company evolved from a manufactu ...

* HID Global * JaCarta * rf IDEAS *

SafeNet SafeNet, Inc. was an information security company based in Belcamp, Maryland, United States, which was acquired in August 2014 by the French security company Gemalto. Gemalto was, in turn, acquired by Thales Group in 2019. The former SafeNet' ...

* SecuTech Solutions * SpringCard *

Verisign Verisign, Inc. is an American company based in Reston, Virginia, that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen root nameservers, the authoritative registry for the , , and generic top-level d ...

* Yubico * Reiner Kartenlesegeräte * DUALi

References

Computer access control Microsoft Windows security technology Smart cards