# pcsc-lite 2.5.3 fixes polkit session preservation and large UID authorization

> **Key takeaway:** pcsc-lite 2.5.3 fixes three bugs including preserving smart card sessions across polkit restarts and correcting authorization for UIDs above 65536.

**Published:** 2026-10-18T14:27:08+00:00 
**Source:** Planet Debian (Developer Blogs) 
**Category:** distro-planet 
**Canonical URL:** https://fosswire.org/news/pcsc-lite-253-fixes-polkit-session-preservation-and-large-ui.html 

## Summary
Ludovic Rousseau released pcsc-lite 2.5.3, a maintenance update to the free PC/SC implementation for Unix systems used with smart cards and readers. The release addresses a systemd service issue, ATR decoding, and authorization for large UIDs. It is a bugfix release with no new features.

## What pcsc-lite 2.5.3 fixes
- **pcscd.service**: card sessions now survive polkit restarts without interruption
- **ATR decoding**: corrected to properly handle all Answer-to-Reset sequences (fixing a previous AI-suggested patch that was incomplete)
- **Authorization**: resolved failure to authorize users with UID greater than 65536

## Why it matters
The UID > 65536 fix matters for systems using large user ID ranges, including some enterprise and container environments. Session preservation across polkit restarts improves reliability for smart card authentication in desktop Linux deployments.