# 3rd party uses of NHS Smart cards

**Category:** [open forum](https://openhealthhub.org/c/open-forum/9)
**Created:** 2018-01-23 16:04 UTC
**Views:** 2301
**Replies:** 5
**URL:** https://openhealthhub.org/t/3rd-party-uses-of-nhs-smart-cards/1402

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## Post #1 by @JMathiszig-Lee

Has anyone managed to get an NHS Smart to work with 3rd party apps beyond just authenticating with the spine. I've got a few ideas brewing but one of the main ones would be in implementing digital consent forms with them being sealed and signed cryptographically with a key. 

Given most people are wondering round with one loaded on their smart card that seems like a pretty logical choice. So anyone done anything similar, is it even possible?

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## Post #2 by @matthew.stibbs

I passed your post to an ex-colleague who I know fiddled with smart cards a fair amount. He said:

> Sure. There are two certificates on the card, one designed for authentication and the other for signing (eg prescriptions). You can use either for digital signing.
> 
> You need to use pkcs11 api to address the card for this - some higher level libraries like bouncy castle (java) can use a pkcs11 key store.
> 
> For c# you can use secureblackbox (commercial) but not the inbuilt stuff

Don't know if that's helpful at all!

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## Post #3 by @james

Wise words there, Matt :slight_smile:

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## Post #4 by @pacharanero

@matthew.stibbs good info!

@JMathiszig-Lee great to hear of people looking at wider uses smart cards as a potential source of a personal private key for signing and authentication. Incredible (but not surprising) that largely smartcards are seen as purely a mechanism for Spine authentication and nothing more.

When NHSbuntu/NHoS had a bash at an open-source and cross-platform Identity Agent last July, we used PKCS11 libraries (I say 'we'... I was utterly lost after a few minutes as @robdykedotcom and Ciàn Hughes from Deepmind Health zoomed off metaphorically into the distance) and our code from that escapade is here:

https://github.com/nhos-project/nhos-nhs-identity-agent

https://github.com/nhos-project/ifdokccid

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## Post #5 by @matthew.stibbs

Oh bloody hell if I’d known you were on here you could have answered it yourself!

Those were @james words above ^

😂

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## Post #6 by @JMathiszig-Lee

Great tips guys, think the smart cards are a great and underutilised tool. Think there's a ton of scope to do some cool stuff with them!

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**Canonical:** https://openhealthhub.org/t/3rd-party-uses-of-nhs-smart-cards/1402
**Original content:** https://openhealthhub.org/t/3rd-party-uses-of-nhs-smart-cards/1402