The German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) started a project for an open source eID simulator. The simulator allows a wide range of personalisation, is more flexible than a real card and is free to use.

There is a rising need of test cards for developers of eID clients and companies which want to offer services by using the eID functions of the German ID card (nPA, elektronischer Personalausweis). Today it is difficult to get test cards for developers who want to evaluate the eID functions in their systems. Also for improvements and development of new protocols – but also for tests of established protocols – an open implementation of eID functions would be helpful. Therefore the German BSI started a project with HJP Consulting for an implementation of an open source eID simulator which provides all logical functions of the German ID card.

The website of the project is www.persosim.de (site is in German only) and the first version of the simulator is ready for download there. There is also a virtual driver available, that simulates a card reader. On this way you can simulate card and reader for testing purposes.

Update 1: We have released an article in The VAULT (magazine of Silicon Trust) concerning PersoSim in English Language. You can find the article here for free in The VAULT #14.

Update 2: We have released the source code of the simulator and using github as repository. You can find all relevant information on the PersoSim project website. Please feel free to fork the code and extend the project with new features.