HSM2 Windows driver required?

Nitrokeys
1

Hi there
I’d like to know if I manually need to install an additional driver for the HSM2 under Windows 10 1903/1607 or if it can function as a smartcard out of the box.
Is it natively supported by the OS or is there a driver in the Windows Update Catalog or is the OpenSC software required?
Haven’t bought one yet.

Thanks in advance

2

Hi!

Installation of OpenSC is recommended. See below link for the Nitrokey HSM start guide:
https://www.nitrokey.com/documentation/installation#p:nitrokey-hsm&os:windows

3

Thanks for your answer.
Do you know by any chance if the installation of OpenSC is only recommended or an absolute requirement? The use case would be being able to take the Nitrokey, walk up to a different domain joined computer and login without the need to install any software.

4

For that case I think this is actually a strong requirement.

@nitroalex Could you confirm?

5

I have actually found it in the FAQ linked in the start page:
https://www.nitrokey.com/login-nitrokey-windows-domain-computers-using-ms-active-directory
(from https://www.nitrokey.com/documentation/applications#a:computer-login).

6

You indeed need some kind of middleware to get it working. Which one depends on your use case, but in general OpenSC is recommended as @szszszsz said.