Various embodiments relate to a method and apparatus for embedding an operating system in a smart card product, which is certified and which derives multiple variants from the operating system, the method including the steps of certifying, a target of evaluation, the target of evaluation including an OS core mask and a plurality of components which includes OS components and plugin placeholders, building, by an image builder tool, romized content and runtime content including at least one of the plurality of components and customizing which of the plurality of components to include on the smart card product.