Hi all,

Someone in another mailing list inspired me to ask the following questions:

1. Are there free/libre device firmware and kernel driver/modules that allow interacting with security tokens that follow the ITU-T X.509 standard? If yes, which ports they use (/e.g./: USB, custom one)?

2. Are there free/libre programs that can pass/manage these signatures (such as locking, unlocking, and so on) to the top-level/user-facing applications? Or did I misunderstand something and XAdES/CAdES/PAdES don't need a dedicated manager in order to work?

One year ago I organized an event in Brazil where, during the break, one of the speakers told me that one of the issues we now have in free/libre software and public administration is that there doesn't seen to exist software freedom when dealing with ITU-T X.509, security tokens and XAdES/CAdES/PAdES ([1]). However, recently in a mailing list that *appears to be* about free/libre software in Brazil, someone asked more or less the same question ([2]), and I wonder if the situation has changed.

[1] https://flisol.info/FLISOL2017/Brasil/BalnearioCamboriu

[2] http://listas.softwarelivre.org/pipermail/psl-brasil/2018-January/005383.htm...