Integrating web application with DSC card

Question

I am working on a new application where I have a requirement to use the end-user digital card to sign a document which is being uploaded in the application. I will be creating a Java/J2EE based application. Now the question is that how do I get the information of the digital signature in my web application. The end-user will plug in the USB DSC card on his/her system and that is to be used for signing the document.

How can my web application interact with the digital certificates present in the end user system?

I have no idea on how this can be done, however I have seen web application where the application asks for the certificate to be used for signing and that certificates are picked up from the user system.

I searched over net but didn't get any solution or pointer for this. Any pointers on any documentation will be very helpful.

Answer 1

You will need to write java applet which will interact with the card on the client side. In most cases such applets can use Sun PKCS#11 provider to create signature with signing keys stored on smartcard. Similar applet is developed as a part of Digital Signature Service open source project.