Third-party CAC enablers break Mac OS Catalina / Big Sur and newer

macos

Symptoms

Cannot use CAC after upgrading to macOS 10.15 or later.

Likely cause

Third-party enablers (PKard, CACKey, Centrify, CSSI, OpenSC) collide with the native CryptoTokenKit pivtoken.

Fix

1. Uninstall every third-party enabler per militarycac.com/macuninstall.htm. 2. Re-enable the native pivtoken: sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.smartcard DisabledTokens -array && sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.smartcard EnabledTokens -array com.apple.CryptoTokenKit.pivtoken (run twice). 3. Reboot. 4. When prompted to pair the CAC, cancel - pairing increases lockout risk.

Sourced from militarycac.com. Rewritten for clarity.

Didn't work, or need it tailored to your setup?

Ask the AI assistant