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Personal Identity Verification of Federal Employees and Contractors PIV

PIV Standards and Supporting Documentation

PIV Card Specifications:

  • SP 800-78-4 - Cryptographic Algorithms and Key Sizes for Personal Identity Verification 
    May 2015
  • SP 800-76-2 - Biometric Data Specification for Personal Identity Verification
    July 2013
  • SP 800-73-4 - Interfaces for Personal Identity Verification (3 Parts)
       Part 1- PIV Card Application Namespace, Data Model and Representation
       Part 2- PIV Card Application Card Command Interface
       Part 3- PIV Client Application Programming Interface 
    May 2015
  • NISTIR 7676 - Maintaining and Using Key History on Personal Identity Verification (PIV) Cards
    June 2010
  • NISTIR 7284 - Personal Identity Verification Card Management Report
    January 2006
  • SP 800-104 - A Scheme for PIV Visual Card Topography (this document is now incorporated in FIPS 201-2 - go to top of this page to FIPS 201-2)

PIV Applications:

  • White Paper - Best Practices for Privileged User PIV Authentication
    April 2016
  • SP 800-156 Representation of PIV Chain-of-Trust for Import and Export
    May 2016
  • SP 800-116 Revision 1A Recommendation for the Use of PIV Credentials in Physical Access Control Systems
    June 2018
  • NISTIR 7863 - Cardholder Authentication for the PIV Digital Signature Key
    June 2015

PIV Card And Middleware Conformance Testing:

  • SP 800-85A-4 - PIV Card Application and Middleware Interface Test Guidelines (SP 800-73-4 Compliance) 
    April 2016
  • SP 800-85B - PIV Data Model Conformance Test Guidelines
    July 2006
  • DRAFT SP 800-85B-4 - PIV Data Model Conformance Test Guidelines
    August 2014

* Note: SP 800-85B adheres to the PIV cryptographic specifications in SP 800-78 and the PIV Interfaces specification in SP 800-73-1. Updates to SP 800-85B are planned once the final SP 800-73-2 is published.


PIV Reader Specifications:

  • SP 800-96 - PIV Card / Reader Interoperability Guidelines
    September 2006

PIV Accreditation:

  • SP 800-87 Revision 2 Codes for the Identification of Federal and Federally-Assisted Organizations
    April 2018
    Please email Agency Code update requests to piv_comments@nist.gov
  • SP 800-79-2 - Guidelines for the Accreditation of Personal Identity Verification (PIV) Card Issuers (PCI’s)
    July 2015
  • NISTIR 7452 - Secure Biometric Match-on-Card Feasibility Report
    November 2007
  • NISTIR 7337 - Personal Identity Verification Demonstration Summary
    August 2006

Derived PIV Credential For Mobile Devices

  • SP 800-166 - Derived PIV Application and Data Model Test Guidelines
    June 2016
  • SP 800-157 - Guidelines for Derived Personal Identity Verification (PIV) Credentials
    December 2014
  • NISTIR 8055 - Derived Personal Identity Verification (PIV) Credentials (DPC) Proof of Concept Research 
    January 2016
  • DRAFT NISTIR 7981 - Mobile, PIV, and Authentication
    March 2014

Created May 24, 2016, Updated April 02, 2021