An artifact for client-side cryptographic operations

Nowadays one of the web browsers constraints is their limited capacity for interaction with end-user physical cryptographic devices, such as smart cards and cryptographic tokens. For this reason, in this article, we present an artifact that provides to web applications the ability to perform asymmetric cryptographic operations on the client-side using these devices. The artifact, designed as a service, presents two functions: (1) creation of electronic signatures of electronic documents and (2) electronic authentication of users into websites. It was designed with the purpose of allowing web developers to perform integrations in a simple and fast way. Through an empirical evaluation, in a controlled experiment, short-time integration was evidenced, confirming its potential usefulness for web developers.