Warning regarding not-erasable cards in Quickstart

[ecki@…]

The Quick Start Guide of SCB states:

Erase your card, if something failed

pkcs15-init --erase --use-default-transport-key

The OpenSC SecureSetup says:

However,anyone knowing the transport key and who has access to your card can delete the pkcs15 directory with all its keys, certs, data, ...

This is not true for all cards. There should be a warning regarding cards that are not erasable. Maybe a list of cards known to be not erasable or a hint how to test ones card. In that case, you must not loose your SO-PIN and -PUK, even if you just want to test the card/software. I dont know if its possible to delete single objects on such cards. If not, the warning should also say so. Useless test keys/certs own a rather expensive card would be annoying. An unsuspecting user could discard his PINs/PUKs just to realize that he cant erase the card.

[nils]

perhaps we should issue a warning when calling pkcs15-init -C, i.e. something like "Warning token cannot be erased once personalized

Do you want to preceed anyway (yes/no) ?"

[martin]

So ...

• We should change documentation to warn users correctly?
• We should add a 'do you want to proceed?' question to pkcs15-init tool ?
• We should maintain a list of known cards that can be erased even after being personalized and NOT ask the previous questions if we think that the card can be erased even after being personalized for these cards?

1: Yes, ASAP, 2: Yes, why not - this would count as 'extra documentation' 3: I don't have the knowledge to answer with something sensible.

I suggest correcting the documentation for next release, also maybe add the extra confirmation for next version but leave the possible relation between the question and the list of cards for a future release.

If this ticket could be split for better tracking, please do it.