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How do I enable DoD CAC smartcard authentication in Firefox, on macOS Catalina 10.15?

  • 3 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 15 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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Smartcard reader is not recognized by Firefox when accessing DoD websites that require CAC, like https://cyber.mil/ . I've already imported and trusted the DoD root and intermediate CA certificates.

Safari in macOS Catalina now has first-class, integrated smartcard support.

Smartcard reader is not recognized by Firefox when accessing DoD websites that require CAC, like https://cyber.mil/ . I've already imported and trusted the DoD root and intermediate CA certificates. Safari in macOS Catalina now has first-class, integrated smartcard support.

All Replies (3)

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Did you install the smart card driver in Firefox ?

  • Options/Preferences -> Privacy & Security
    Certificates: Security Devices

Don't know whether this applies:

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What version of Firefox are you running? If you have at least 75 (in beta right now), you can try setting the preference "security.osclientcerts.autoload" to true in about:config rather than loading the smart card driver.

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According to the System Details list, the OP is using the current Firefox 74 release on Mac OS X 10.15.

I see that on Mac osclientcerts (#1586915) got added with Firefox 75 (Windows: Firefox 72), so the OP would have to try out the current beta.

Installing multiple versions on Mac OS X is basically dragging the Firefox application out of the DMG file to the desktop and rename the folder. You can drag the renamed Firefox application folder to the Applications folder like you would normally install Firefox. You can possibly eject the DMG file and and trash the installer.