I read that I need to download cackey from forge.mil but the download isn't there any more. How can I get my CAC reader working now? Is there a sudo apt-get command for it? Does someone have a copy of the file? Is it located else where because I can't find it.
4 Answers
If you cannot access DISA's Forge.mil website, (Because it requires CAC access)
You can Download the 32bit Deb file here.
MD5: 37398d413221b7d6c6ee539978feec47
SHA1: 3ccfc97610b1b3503084caa7f1924c52d2f1a1b4
Or, the 64 bit Deb here.
MD5: 3935d1376ae7175f9814505c59a917f7
SHA1: 153b30d025869679238444e2ef0545ed7185f4f8
This is what I have done and I successfully accessed AKO, enterprise email, and even the disa site for cackey.
- sudo apt-get update
- sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
- Open a terminal and type the following: sudo apt-get install libpcsclite-dev pcscd pcsc-tools libccid build-essential autoconf
- Restart your computer
- Open a terminal and type: pcsc_scan [check to make sure you have an output and it does not get stuck on Scanning present readers....]
- Go to Ubuntu Software Center and search for coolkey and install
- Download the DoD Configuration Extension for Firefox @ (Let it install the plugin and restart; don't worry about all of the errors just click through them and restart your browser).
- Go to Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Encryption > Security (You should see your CAC id visible)
- Go to AKO ect...
For what I read, what you need is some authorization to be able to download. See How can I get access to Forge.mil (CAC users)?
1If you don't want to trust the download links in @Argsvision's answer, or just need to use a CAC only briefly. You can use the USAF's Lightweight Portable Security (LPS) ISO to access forge.mil and other CAC-only sites. Get it from After using LPS to download the CAC files from forge.mil you can then follow the steps in @Argsvision's answer.
You can thus use the LPS ISO to "bootstrap" a computer without any other computer that can use a CAC or trusting anyone except the spi.dod.mil site.
