macOS Tahoe and smart cards status

Ludovic Rousseau

2025-10-02 16:59

I will compare this version to the previous one, Sequoia, which I presented in macOS Sequoia and smart cards status.

CCID

% grep -A 1 CFBundleShortVersionString /usr/libexec/SmartCardServices/drivers/ifd-ccid.bundle/Contents/Info.plist
  <key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key>
  <string>1.5.1</string>

My CCID driver has not been updated in macOS since Sonoma (released in 2023). It is still version 1.5.1.

Updated CCID driver

If you need a CCID driver newer than the version 1.5.1 provided by Apple, you can contact me.

I just released version 1.7.0 today.

Apple Open Source

The Open Source components included in macOS are listed at <https://opensource.apple.com/releases/>

The Open Source components for Tahoe 26.0 are not yet available.

Apple CCID driver

% defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.smartcard.plist
Domain /Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.smartcard.plist does not exist

The Apple CCID driver is enabled by default (as expected).

If you want or need to use my CCID driver, simply follow follow the instructions at Apple's own CCID driver in Sonoma.

Changes compared to Sequoia

% diff -u /Volumes/Sequoia/System/Library/CryptoTokenKit/usbsmartcardreaderd.slotd//Contents/Info.plist /System/Library/CryptoTokenKit/usbsmartcardreaderd.slotd//Contents/Info.plist
--- /Volumes/Sequoia/System/Library/CryptoTokenKit/usbsmartcardreaderd.slotd//Contents/Info.plist       2025-09-05 17:46:41
+++ /System/Library/CryptoTokenKit/usbsmartcardreaderd.slotd//Contents/Info.plist       2025-09-09 09:15:49
@@ -27,21 +27,21 @@
        <key>DTCompiler</key>
        <string>com.apple.compilers.llvm.clang.1_0</string>
        <key>DTPlatformBuild</key>
-       <string></string>
+       <string>25A336</string>
        <key>DTPlatformName</key>
        <string>macosx</string>
        <key>DTPlatformVersion</key>
-       <string>15.7</string>
+       <string>26.0</string>
        <key>DTSDKBuild</key>
-       <string>24G201t</string>
+       <string>25A336</string>
        <key>DTSDKName</key>
-       <string>macosx15.7.internal</string>
+       <string>macosx26.0.internal</string>
        <key>DTXcode</key>
-       <string>1630</string>
+       <string>2600</string>
        <key>DTXcodeBuild</key>
-       <string>16E6052g</string>
+       <string>17A6264k</string>
        <key>LSMinimumSystemVersion</key>
-       <string>15.7</string>
+       <string>26.0</string>
        <key>NSHumanReadableCopyright</key>
        <string>Copyright © 2020 Apple. All rights reserved.</string>
 </dict>

The source code for the Apple driver is not available. Therefore, I cannot say much about it.

Known bugs

The page listing the bugs I found in Sonoma is available at macOS Sonoma and smart cards: known bugs.

Apple has not informed me that a bug has been fixed in Tahoe (or Sequoia). I therefore assume that the bugs are still present.

Conclusion

As I wrote for Sequoia, if you encounter a problem with your smart card under macOS Tahoe, I suggest you first switch from the Apple driver to my CCID driver, then check again.