BioCTS for ISO/IEC

BioCTS for ISO/IEC Biometric Data Interchange Format Standards and Selected PIV Profiles

March 2026

BioCTS for ISO/IEC includes Conformance Test Suites (CTSs) designed to test implementations of:

• Biometric Data Interchange Formats
• Full CBEFF Biometric Information Records (BIRs)
• Individual Components of the CBEFF BIR

The following is a list of the available test tools and the relevant standards used in their development:

Binary CTSs

• ISO/IEC 19794-2:2005 - Finger minutiae data
• ISO/IEC 19794-2:2011 - Finger minutiae data
• ISO/IEC 19794-4:2005 - Finger image data
• ISO/IEC 19794-4:2011 - Finger image data
• ISO/IEC 19794-5:2005 - Face image data
• ISO/IEC 19794-5:2011 - Face image data
• ISO/IEC 19794-6:2011 - Iris image data

XML CTSs

• ISO/IEC 19794-4:2011 - Finger image data Amendment 2
• ISO/IEC 19794-14:2022 ed.2 DNA Data
• ISO/IEC 19794-14:2026 ed.3 DNA Data (based on initial draft - subject to change)

XML Biometric Data Format File Converter Suites

• CMF_3.3_R11 XML Encoding to ISO/IEC 19794-14:2022 ed2 XML Encoding
• CMF_3.3_R11 XML Encoding to ISO/IEC 19794-14:2026 ed3 XML Encoding
• ISO/IEC 19794-14:2022 ed2 to ISO/IEC 19794-14:2026 ed3 XML Encoding

PIV Profiles CTSs*

• PIV Profile of ISO/IEC 19794-6:2011 - On Card
• PIV Profile of ISO/IEC 19794-6:2011 - Off Card
• PIV Profile of ANSI/INCITS 378:2004 - Finger Minutiae Format for Data Interchange
• PIV Profile of ANSI/INCITS 381:2004 - Finger Image-Based Data Interchange Format
• PIV Profile of ANSI/INCITS 385:2004 - Face Recognition Format for Data Interchange

^*As specified in NIST SP 800-76-2 Biometric Specifications for Personal Identity Verification, Patrick Grother, Wayne Salamon, Ramaswamy Chandramouli, July 2013.

Software Downloads

BioCTS for ISO/IEC contains everything required to test implementations for the supported international biometric standards and selected PIV profiles. The installer allows for custom installation so that only the testing software for the desired biometric standards will be installed. Read the instructions contained in the associated documentation.

Current Versions:

The single Zip Archive file found below contains all components of BioCTS for ISO/IEC.

To see what has changed since the initial release, please review the Changelog. 

• BioCTS for ISO/IEC Zip File - (4.0.20537.20822) March 2026 (Hash Summary File)

Archived Versions:

Archived versions are now located at the BioCTS Download Archive page.

Documentation

• BioCTS 2014 for ISO/IEC User Guide, Dylan Yaga, Fernando L. Podio, Christofer J. McGinnis, September 2014
• BioCTS for ISO/IEC Binary and XML Encoded Records User Guide (Alpha Release), Dylan Yaga, Fernando L. Podio, Christofer J. McGinnis, March 2014
• BioCTS 2013 for ISO/IEC User Guide, Fernando L. Podio, Dylan Yaga, Christofer J. McGinnis, August 2013
• BioCTS 2012 for ISO/IEC User Guide, Fernando L. Podio, Dylan Yaga, Christofer J. McGinnis, December 2012
• NISTIR 7877 BioCTS 2012: Advanced Conformance Test Architectures and Test Suites for Biometric Data Interchange Formats and Biometric Information Records, Fernando L. Podio, Dylan Yaga and Christofer J. McGinnis, September 2012

Sponsor

The BioCTS work was sponsored in part by the Department of Homeland Security/Office of Biometric Identity Management (OBIM)

Contact

Send comments/errors on the tool, sample data and documentation to BioCTS [at] nist.gov (BioCTS[at]nist[dot]gov)