Smart Card T520 Installation

[MikalE]

Well, as Lady Luck would have it, the T520 (and probably the T510) use a proprietary keyboard bezel if this option is requested CTO. Either that, or they have assemblers breaking away all of the support ribs that hold up the palmrest when the smart card reader option is not installed.

They are quite easy to break away from the underside of the palmrest/keyboard bezel. They are relatively thin plastic ribs maybe 1/4" tall that rest on the magnesium framework in place of the card reader. When the card reader is requested these ribs are in the way of the reader and are not required any longer for support of the palm rest part of the bezel.

The install went perfect. I had to get out my hardware assortment and find three small screws. I used four tiny self-tapping screws. The fourth is not actually into a mounting ear on the reader, but the head of the screw is over the edge of the circuit card. I don't know if that is visible in the photos. The difference between the T510 and T520 is this one mounting screw. The ribbon connector for the reader is installed on all of the MB's and it plugged right in.

The cable came with my system pulled card reader, and in fact I ordered a second reader for one of my T510's after the price was dropped by another buck and a half.

The machine booted, found the drivers I previously downloaded, and when the card was inserted it found those drivers too. So it installed without a hitch, is recognized, and is working fine...

...if I could find a certificate for it somewhere. There is no way that I have yet found to download a certificate that I can use for Windows. I have to download one, install it into the certificate vault, and then assign it to the card so it will authenticate.

I tried to use the built-in feature in Windows and I get as far as Windows telling me (after trying to self-generate a certificate) that either the card driver is missing (which it isn't) or that I need the proper certificate. What the hell sense does that make when I'm trying to self-generate a certificate in Windows?

This is all very new to me and I did not know Smart Card certificates, Windows handling of them, middle-ware, and the rest was so complicated. I don't know if I'll ever figure this out. I've said before that I am very good with hardware, but I'm lacking quite a bit on the software side of operations.

All I want to do is to be able to use the card to log into Windows, or my Chrome browser, or my e-mail. Theoretically i should be able to do all of this and more with this card because of how 'smart' it's supposed to be with a large memory, microprocessor built in, etc, etc. None of that is going to be of any use if I can't find a certificate to use.

Here's some photos if anyone is interested:

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h146/ ... h2h7sv.jpg

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h146/ ... lpvnmj.jpg

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h146/ ... dxqexq.jpg

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h146/ ... wfp75a.jpg

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h146/ ... kkhybm.jpg

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h146/ ... we37bu.jpg

[MikalE]

Are there any IT Security professionals here at all?

[Pelikan3]

PM sent.

[MikalE]

The smart card reader for my T510 arrived today and its installation was identical to that of the T520. There are a couple of different FRU numbers for these readers but they all install into the W/T510/520 chassis and are recognised without problem.

This time I let Windows 10 find the drivers for both the ACOS5-64 smart card and the reader. They were found and installed immediately upon boot.

I'm still working on getting the card(s) to work with stand alone systems and I believe I will have to find another card. This particular format doesn't seem to want to work with any third-party software though at least one (EID Authenticate) claims to support this card format but so far I have not had any luck with any of them.

Aloaha does not, nor does SC Open, nor does VSEC. The ACS card I have will probably work if I purchase their development kit ($59) to be able to generate a certificate and keys for the card on my systems.

I'm also very curious as to what the model number of these systems would be had these card readers been ordered with the machines. I guess they could have been a straight CTO with no unique three digit suffix.