strongSwan for Smart cards HOWTO¶

This howto will explain how to set up strongSwan with Smart Cards. The use of Smart Cards introduces Two-Factor authentication to the strongSwan setup.

Introduction¶

Software requirements¶

strongSwan supports PKCS#11 RSA standard using opensc libraries, which specifies how to store cryptographic information on devices.

To install opensc under Debian based distributions:

apt-get install opensc

Supported hardware¶

opensc supports a variety of smart card readers. Today, Omnikey 3121 CardMan USB Smard Card reader can be found on eBay for less than 10 euros.