Red Hat Training

A Red Hat training course is available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux

48.3.4. How Smart Card Login Works

This section provides a brief overview of the process of logging in using a smart card.
  1. When the user inserts their smart card into the smart card reader, this event is recognized by the PAM facility, which prompts for the user's PIN.
  2. The system then looks up the user's current certificates and verifies their validity. The certificate is then mapped to the user's UID.
  3. This is validated against the KDC and login granted.
How Smart Card Login Works

Figure 48.5. How Smart Card Login Works

Note

You cannot log in with a card that has not been enrolled, even if it has been formatted. You need to log in with a formatted, enrolled card, or not using a smart card, before you can enroll a new card.