Common Access Card - Common Problems

Common Problems

The ICC is fragile and regular wear can make the card unusable. Older cards tended to de-laminate with repeated insertion/removal from readers, but this problem appears to be less significant with the newer (PIV-compliant) cards. Also, the gold contacts on the ICC can become dirty and require cleaning with either solvents or a rubber pencil eraser.

Fixing or replacing a CAC typically requires access to a RAPIDS facility, causing some practical problems. In remote locations around the world without direct Internet access or physical access to a RAPIDS facility, a CAC is rendered useless if the card expires, or if the maximum number of re-tries of the PIN is reached. Based on the regulations for CAC use, a user on TDY must visit a RAPIDS facility to replace or unlock a CAC, usually requiring him to travel to another geographical location or even returning to his home location. The CAC PMO has also created a CAC PIN Reset workstation capable of resetting a locked CAC PIN.

For some DoD networks, Active Directory (AD) is used to authenticate users. Access to the computer's parent Active Directory is required when attempting to authenticate with a CAC for a given computer, for the first time. Use of, for example a field replaced laptop computer that was not prepared with the user's CAC before shipment would be impossible to use without some form of direct access to Active Directory beforehand. Other remedies include establishing contact with the intranet by using public broadband Internet and then VPN to the intranet, or even satellite Internet access via a VSAT system when in locations where telecommunications is not available, such as in a natural disaster location. In some cases, the user or technical support is forced to break DoD and other regulations, such as mailing the CAC back to technical support along with the user's PIN, or giving the user the computer's local administrator username and password.