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SCARD_W_CARD_NOT_AUTHENTICATED
The required card authentication state is absent
SCARD_W_CARD_NOT_AUTHENTICATED means that the operation requires cardholder verification but no qualifying PIN or other CHV has been presented for the active card session. It is different from SCARD_W_WRONG_CHV, which says a submitted value was rejected, and from SCARD_W_CHV_BLOCKED, which says the retry limit was exhausted.
A reset, reconnect, card removal, or application reselection can invalidate prior authentication state. Applications should not assume that a successful verification earlier in a workflow remains valid after those lifecycle events. The required factor and scope are defined by the card application and issuer policy, not by a generic Windows password prompt.
How to proceed
- Confirm that the intended card application is selected and that the session has not been reset.
- Request verification through the approved provider UI or secure PIN entry path; never place PIN material in logs or command-line arguments.
- After verification, retry only the original operation and handle a wrong-CHV result carefully to avoid blocking the card.
References
- Microsoft: Smart Card return values
- PCSC-lite: error codes
- GlobalPlatform: Cardholder Verification Method states
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