USB Card Reader (Gemalto) does not work

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Level 1

8 points

USB Card Reader (Gemalto) does not work

I have a macbook air with the latest version of High Sierra. I attempted to install the driver for a new Gemalto IDBridge CT30 USB card reader, downloaded from this site: https://ccid.apdu.fr/files/. After downloading the software nothing seemed to happen, and when I plugged in a card with a smart chip, nothing happened. Does anyone know if this works for mac and how? Thank you!

macOS High Sierra (10.13.4)

Posted on May 7, 2018 8:37 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

MrHoffman

Level 10

146,479 points

May 9, 2018 1:43 PM in response to steelyeye99

According to the Gemalto support page for the CT30: "Since Mac OS X Yosemite 10.10, no need to install this package as Apple includes a recent version natively."

If the device is not working as intended and if the anti-malware and other add-ons have been removed and the system rebooted (see below), please consider contacting Gemalto for assistance in testing and resolving issues with this device. Some feasible alternatives for testing here include a boot into Safe Mode and try testing the CT30 there, or to install a clean copy of macOS High Sierra downloaded from Apple onto an external disk and select and boot and test the CT30 with that. Basically, if it's not working out of the box, it's probably something that's been added.

I'd remove the various add-on security tools and the other bits identified as installed here, and would use the in-built Gatekeeper and XProtect tools, would revert the hosts file, and would ponder carefully whether work and home and kids should all be mixed on the same computer (or in the same VM guest instance, if there's not enough hardware around to dedicate use). If your work requires specific add-on anti-malware beyond the integrated tools, ask them which specific package they require. (Anti-malware can end up causing more problems than it solves, too. Beyond the instabilities and weirdnesses that have been caused by various add-on security packages over the years, and beyond the vulnerabilities that various anti-malware packages have added to the configurations, this particular system configuration has adware and other dreck, for instance.)

In general, I'd also consider creating separate installations of macOS for home use, separating out the work files, software and apps. That requires more storage, but also avoids getting work data and work-related backups and any required add-on tools and the rest all tangled together with home and kids.

I'd also ponder whether the lessons to be learned from that Covenant package are the ones intended, or whether the lessons learned are around parental mistrust and the use of VPNs and VM guests and other techniques to bypass monitoring. Kids are pretty smart and learn very quickly on their own and from other folks the 'net. But that's fodder for another time.

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Answer 2

etresoft

Level 9

56,686 points

May 9, 2018 6:30 AM in response to steelyeye99

Hello steelyeye99,

An EtreCheck report is not going to help with the smart card driver. However, your EtreCheck report does show some issues that need to be fixed.

1) You have some ancient antivirus installed. I suggest you remove it since it obviously hasn't helped.

2) You have spyware installed. Uninstall the Covenant Eyes software.

3) You have adware installed. Go to Safari > Preferences > Extensions and remove everything

4) Your host file is scrambled. Here are instructions on how to fix that: Fixing a hacked /etc/hosts file

Make sure to use only vendor-provided uninstallers or uninstallation instructions. If you can't find them, look for them. Never attempt to manually delete files in hidden directories. Never use an "app zapper".

I apologize that EtreCheck did not detect your adware. I will make sure to fix that in the next version.

Regarding your Smart Card driver, I can't say anything more than what JimmyCMPIT said. I can say that if the developer has put that little effort into building this product, then you aren't likely to get much support. Did you follow the installation instructions? Installation requires at least the Command Line Developer tools, if not all of Xcode. You might have better luck with a commercial product like this: http://www.thursby.com/products/pkard-mac

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Answer 3

JimmyCMPIT

Level 7

29,306 points

May 8, 2018 5:48 AM in response to steelyeye99

"should work but not tested by me" is a claim that' not backed up by any proof

For futher analysis of your system you may post an Etrecheck report. The link is http://www.etrecheck.com

If you have any concerns about this software do not hesitate to ask questions to anyone here about its legitimacy.

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Answer 4

etresoft

Level 9

56,686 points

May 9, 2018 12:22 PM in response to steelyeye99

steelyeye99 wrote:

Thank you etresoft for your reply and your help. I am responding to your points:

1. Which antivirus do you mean? I use ESET NOD32 antivirus. It was updated today. I need it for my work. Do you mean another antivirus software?

Yes. That's the one. The macOS operating system already includes multiple layers of malware protection. You don't need anything else.

I don't know if the antivirus is interfering with the normal operation of your system. If you are having problems, removing low-level system modifications like antivirus software is always the first step. If your machine then starts to work normally, then you know the antivirus is what caused the problem.

2. I use covenant eyes to protect my family from getting into bad things on the internet. It generates reports, but it also blocks sites.

3. Done.

I have tried to talk people out of that software before and failed miserably. All I can say now is that my instructions were sequential. I assumed you would be uninstalling the Covenant Eyes software. One of your Safari Extensions was part of Covenant Eyes. I guess you would need to restore that extension if you removed it.

4. I followed all your instructions. When I got to the last part and had copied and pasted your code into the "hosts" file, after I hit "save", it reverted to this:

Sorry about that. I had encountered this before but forgot about it. That is one of the modifications of the Covenant Eyes software. I guess you'll have to leave it alone.

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Answer 5

Eric Root

Level 10

685,257 points

May 9, 2018 12:50 PM in response to steelyeye99

ESET Antivirus Un-install

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Answer 6

JimmyCMPIT

Level 7

29,306 points

May 7, 2018 10:54 PM in response to steelyeye99

you would need to ask the developers of the product. any functionality or support for this is entirely their responsibility.

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Answer 7

steelyeye99 Author

Level 1

8 points

May 7, 2018 10:56 PM in response to JimmyCMPIT

Ok.... But is there anything that can be done from the Mac end? It's a simple device that "should work" according to this site: https://ccid.apdu.fr/ccid/shouldwork.html. I figure I goofed up installing the driver, patch, etc., which wasn't as straightforward as I thought it would be....

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Answer 8

steelyeye99 Author

Level 1

8 points

May 9, 2018 10:55 AM in response to JimmyCMPIT

Ok, thank you so much Jimmy. I do have some slowness issues going on with my mac right now. Here is the report:

EtreCheck version: 4.2.1 (4C020)

Report generated: 2018-05-09 12:22:46

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 10:45

Performance: Poor

Problem: Beachballing

Description:

Many of the apps freeze frequently for a minute or so, and you see the beach balling colorful circle.

Major Issues:

Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention.

Poor performance - EtreCheck report took over 10 minutes to run. This is very unusual.

Obsolete hardware - This machine may be considered obsolete.

Minor Issues:

These issues do not need immediate attention but they may indicate future problems.

Clean up - There are orphan files that could be removed.

Unsigned files - There is unsigned software installed. They appear to be legitimate but should be reviewed.

Corrupt hosts file - Hosts file is corrupt.

Insufficient permissions - EtreCheck running under a standard user. Diagnostic information may not be available.

32-bit Apps - This machine has 32-bits apps that may have problems in the future.

Hardware Information:

MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2011) - Obsolete!

MacBook Air Model: MacBookAir4,2

1 1.7 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-2557M) CPU: 2-core

4 GB RAM Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0 - 2 GB DDR3 1333 ok

BANK 1/DIMM0 - 2 GB DDR3 1333 ok

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 227

Video Information:

Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 384 MB

Color LCD 1440 x 900

Drives:

disk0 - APPLE SSD SM256C 251.00 GB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

Internal SATA 3 Gigabit Serial ATA

disk0s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

disk0s2 () 250.79 GB

disk1s1 - M**n (APFS) 250.79 GB (221.39 GB used)

disk1s2 - Preboot (APFS) [APFS Preboot] 250.79 GB (25 MB used)

disk1s3 - Recovery (APFS) [Recovery] 250.79 GB (518 MB used)

disk1s4 - VM (APFS) [APFS VM] 250.79 GB (5.37 GB used)

Mounted Volumes:

disk1s1 - M**n 250.79 GB (23.37 GB free)

APFS

Mount point: /

Encrypted

disk1s4 - VM [APFS VM] 250.79 GB (23.37 GB free)

APFS

Mount point: /private/var/vm

Network:

Interface en0: Wi-Fi

802.11 a/b/g/n

One IPv4 address

Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge

Interface en2: Bluetooth PAN

System Software:

macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 (17E202)

Time since boot: About 2 days

System Load: 4.22 (1 min ago) 3.71 (5 min ago) 5.64 (15 min ago)

Configuration Files:

/etc/hosts - Count: 200 - Corrupt!

Security:

System	Status
Gatekeeper	Mac App Store and identified developers
System Integrity Protection	Enabled

Unsigned Files:

Launchd: /Library/LaunchAgents/com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist

Executable: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Resources/Java Updater.app/Contents/MacOS/Java Updater -bgcheck