The Secure CAC/PIV technology is licensed from Thursby Software, Inc. The smart card technology is the same code used by the Pentagon, Army, Navy, White House, NIH and SEC across tens of thousands of Mac users since the mid 2000s.
DAVE was a commercial grade Microsoft Windows file and print sharing SMB/CIFS software for Apple Macs from Thursby Software Systems[1].
DAVE was first introduced in 1996. Microsoft DFS support was added in 2002.
Thursby co-wrote the Mac SMB/CIFS standards with Microsoft in 2002.[2]
Although it is true that Mac OS X does have Samba support, the built-in SMB support with early OS X versions had limitations that DAVE attempted to overcome, offering better compatibility & performance for enterprise environments and specifically in networked use of Mac apps such as Final Cut Pro, Creative Suite, Avid and Office.[3]
The ADmitMac and ADmitMac PKI products build on DAVE, adding enhanced support for Microsoft Active Directory and US government Public-key infrastructure systems.[4]
In 2017, Thursby announced[5] that DAVE and ADmitMac were now end-of-life products, writing:
Thursday, July 27, 2017 (Arlington, TX) - Today Thursby Software Systems, Inc. (Thursby) announced the end-of-life for both their legacy DAVE® and ADmitMac® products for the Apple Macintosh.
DAVE was first introduced in 1996, 21 years ago, as the first Microsoft SMB file-sharing client on the Mac. In 2003, Thursby introduced ADmitMac as the first Active Directory solution for the Mac.
Since that time, Apple has continued to improve their operating system by inclusion of their own SMB and Active Directory technology, in part with the help of Thursby. With the recent announcement of the High Sierra operating system, Thursby believes that Apple has finally culminated a total Microsoft file systems to the quality that eliminates the need for either DAVE or ADmitMac.
Thursby will continue to support customers under contract, but does not expect any enhancements for the next operating system release. Legacy licenses with 30-day configuration support will continue to be available to all customers.
The final versions were DAVE v13[6] and ADmitMac v10[7].
References[edit]
- ^'Thursby Software Systems, Inc'. Thursby Software Systems, Inc. Retrieved 2018-04-19.
- ^[1] SNIA Technical Reference
- ^[2] Thursby DAVE Demo
- ^[3] Thursby DAVE Fast Facts
- ^'Thursby Announces End-of-Life of DAVE® and ADmitMac®'. www.thursby.com. Retrieved 2018-04-19.
- ^'DAVE Online Purchase'. www.thursby.com. Retrieved 2018-04-19.
- ^'ADmitMac Online Purchase'. www.thursby.com. Retrieved 2018-04-19.
According to Thursby Software Systems, its free, Version 2.0 update to PKard Reader is the first such mobile app to provide support for Dual Persona CAC, a common occurrence with defense personnel. The update also offers refinements for wide-scale deployments and it complies with the latest Security Technical Implementation Guide standards, the company said. The update is available free through the Apple iTunes Store.
Dual Personas occur when someone is employed by more than one defense organization; for example, as a soldier in the National Guard and as a civilian contractor. These personals are required to take extra steps for certification and identity validation on the Common Access Card mobile device. Dual Persona support was first added to Thursby's Mac solution, PKard for Mac v1.3, which was rolled out in the spring.
Thursby Software Systems
Other features of the update include improvements for organizational policy management in the enterprise and certificate revocation checking. The update notes say that 'CRL data is not loaded unless a WiFi connection is available; Users will be prompted to accept a certificate.'
Thursby Cac Driver
In addition, the company said PKard Reader 2.0 provides options for Zero Data At Rest, a situation where mobile devices, removable storage devices, network servers and other systems, can have sensitive data 'at rest' in memory and awaiting a read or retrieval. To eliminate vulnerabilities, this data often requires special encryption solutions.
Thursby said the development of PKard Reader and its Mac CAC software leveraged the company's PKard Toolkit 2.0 SDK.
Not simply an SDK to access the “chip” on a CAC/PIV card, but an entire public key development environment including a special Mac OS X emulator to simplify the basic programming of the mobile app using the latest Apple programming tools as well as the debugging of those applications. The toolkit provides a device independent and comprehensive API including PC/SC, PKCS11 and OpenSSL support. It also includes fully integrated solutions such as HTTPS delivered through Apple standard APIs making secured network programming seem trivial. The toolkit provides for a validated FIPS 140-2 framework for secure policy management based on cryptographically signed policy data. Provided as a royalty-free license to use on any mobile device that has a valid PKard license.