Cryptographic Token Interface Standard

PKCS#11


Design goals

Cryptoki was intended from the beginning to be an interface between applications and all kinds of portable cryptographic devices, such as those based on smart cards, PCMCIA cards, and smart diskettes. There are already standards (de facto or official) for interfacing to these devices at some level. For instance, the mechanical characteristics and electrical connections are well-defined, as are the methods for supplying commands and receiving results. (See, for example, ISO 7816, or the PCMCIA specifications.)

What remained to be defined were particular commands for performing cryptography. It would not be enough simply to define command sets for each kind of device, as that would not solve the general problem of an application interface independent of the device. To do so is still a long-term goal, and would certainly contribute to interoperability. The primary goal of Cryptoki was a lower-level programming interface that abstracts the details of the devices, and presents to the application a common model of the cryptographic device, called a "cryptographic token" (or simply "token").

A secondary goal was resource-sharing. As desktop multi-tasking operating systems become more popular, a single device should be shared between more than one application. In addition, an application should be able to interface to more than one device at a given time.

It is not the goal of Cryptoki to be a generic interface to cryptographic operations or security services, although one certainly could build such operations and services with the functions that Cryptoki provides. Cryptoki is intended to complement, not compete with, such emerging and evolving interfaces as "Generic Security Services Application Programming Interface" (RFC 1508 and RFC 1509) and "Generic Cryptographic Service API" (GCS-API) from X/Open.


RSA Security Inc. Public-Key Cryptography Standards - PKCS#11 - v210