In cryptography, PKCS #11 is a Public-Key Cryptography Standards that defines a C programming interface to create and manipulate cryptographic tokens that may contain secret cryptographic keys. It is often used to communicate with a Hardware Security Module or smart cards.
The PKCS #11 standard is managed by OASIS[1] with the current version being 3.1 [2] PKCS #11 is sometimes referred to as "Cryptoki" (from "cryptographic token interface" and pronounced as "crypto-key").
The API defines most commonly used cryptographic object types (RSA keys, X.509 certificates, DES/Triple DES keys, etc.) and all the functions needed to use, create/generate, modify and delete those objects.
- ^ Dieter Bong; Tony Cox, eds. (2023-07-23). "PKCS #11 Specification Version 3.1". OASIS. Retrieved 2024-08-29.
- ^ Paul Knight, ed. (2023-08-10). "Two PKCS #11 OASIS Standards published". OASIS. Retrieved 2025-01-05.