Interfaces for Personal Identity Verification: Part 2 – PIV Card Application Card Command Interface

FIPS 201 defines the requirements and characteristics of government-wide interoperable identity credentials. It specifies that these identity credentials must be stored on a smart card and that additional common identity credentials, known as derived PIV credentials, may be issued by a federal department or agency and used when a PIV Card is not practical. This document contains the technical specifications to interface with the smart card to retrieve and use the PIV identity credentials. The specifications reflect the design goals of interoperability and PIV Card functions. The goals are addressed by specifying a PIV data model, card edge interface, and application programming interface. Moreover, this document enumerates requirements for the options and branches in international integrated circuit card standards [ISO7816]. The specifications go further by constraining interpretations of the normative standards to ease implementation, facilitate interoperability, and ensure performance in a manner tailored for PIV applications.