magledev / yubikey-manager

Python library and command line tool for configuring any YubiKey over all USB interfaces.

YubiKey Manager CLI

Python 3.7 (or later) library and command line tool for configuring a YubiKey. If you’re looking for the graphical application, it’s here.

Usage

For more usage information and examples, see the YubiKey Manager CLI User Manual.

Usage: ykman [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

  Configure your YubiKey via the command line.

  Examples:

    List connected YubiKeys, only output serial number:
    $ ykman list --serials

    Show information about YubiKey with serial number 0123456:
    $ ykman --device 0123456 info

Options:
  -d, --device SERIAL             specify which YubiKey to interact with by serial number
  -r, --reader NAME               specify a YubiKey by smart card reader name (can't be used with --device or list)
  -l, --log-level [ERROR|WARNING|INFO|DEBUG|TRAFFIC]
                                  enable logging at given verbosity level
  --log-file FILE                 write log to FILE instead of printing to stderr (requires --log-level)
  --diagnose                      show diagnostics information useful for troubleshooting
  -v, --version                   show version information about the app
  --full-help                     show --help output, including hidden commands
  -h, --help                      show this message and exit

Commands:
  info     show general information
  list     list connected YubiKeys
  config   enable or disable applications
  fido     manage the FIDO applications
  oath     manage the OATH application
  openpgp  manage the OpenPGP application
  otp      manage the YubiOTP application
  piv      manage the PIV application

The --help argument can also be used to get detailed information about specific subcommands:

ykman oath --help

Versioning/Compatibility

This project follows Semantic Versioning. Any project depending on yubikey-manager should take care when specifying version ranges to not include any untested major version, as it is likely to have backwards incompatible changes. For example, you should NOT depend on ">=5", as it has no upper bound. Instead, depend on ">=5, <6", as any release before 6 will be compatible.

Note that any private variables (names starting with '_') are not part of the public API, and may be changed between versions at any time.

Installation

YubiKey Manager can be installed independently of platform by using pip (or equivalent):

pip install --user yubikey-manager

On Linux platforms you will need pcscd installed and running to be able to communicate with a YubiKey over the SmartCard interface. Additionally, you may need to set permissions for your user to access YubiKeys via the HID interfaces. More information available here.

Some of the libraries used by yubikey-manager have C-extensions, and may require additional dependencies to build, such as swig and potentially PCSC lite.

Pre-build packages

Pre-built packages specific to your platform may be available from Yubico or third parties. Please refer to your platforms native package manager for detailed instructions on how to install, if available.

Windows

A Windows installer is available to download from the Releases page.

MacOS

A MacOS installer is available to download from the Releases page.

Additionally, packages are available from Homebrew and MacPorts.

Input Monitoring access on MacOS

When running one of the ykman otp commands you may run into an error such as: Failed to open device for communication: -536870174. This indicates a problem with the permission to access the OTP (keyboard) USB interface.

To access a YubiKey over this interface the application needs the Input Monitoring permission. If you are not automatically prompted to grant this permission, you may have to do so manually. Note that it is the terminal you are using that needs the permission, not the ykman executable.

To add your terminal application to the Input Monitoring permission list, go to System Preferences → Security & Privacy → Privacy → Input Monitoring to resolve this.

Linux

Packages are available for several Linux distributions by third party package maintainers. Yubico also provides packages for Ubuntu in the yubico/stable PPA:

$ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:yubico/stable
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install yubikey-manager

FreeBSD

Althought not being officially supported on this platform, YubiKey Manager can be installed on FreeBSD. It’s available via its ports tree or as pre-built package. Should you opt to install and use YubiKey Manager on this platform, please be aware that it’s NOT maintained by Yubico.

To install the binary package, use pkg install pyXY-yubikey-manager, with pyXY specifying the version of Python the package was built for, so in order to install YubiKey Manager for Python 3.8, use:

# pkg install py38-yubikey-manager

For more information about how to install packages or ports on FreeBSD, please refer to its official documentation: FreeBSD Handbook.

In order to use ykman otp commands, you need to make sure the uhid(4) driver attaches to the USB device:

# usbconfig ugenX.Y add_quirk UQ_KBD_IGNORE
# usbconfig ugenX.Y reset

The correct device to operate on (ugenX.Y) can be determined using usbconfig list.

When using FreeBSD 13 or higher, you can switch to the more modern hidraw(4) driver. This allows YubiKey Manager to access OTP HID in a non-exclusive way, so that the key will still function as a USB keyboard:

# sysrc kld_list+="hidraw hkbd"
# cat >>/boot/loader.conf<<EOF
hw.usb.usbhid.enable="1"
hw.usb.quirk.0="0x1050 0x0010 0 0xffff UQ_KBD_IGNORE"  # YKS_OTP
hw.usb.quirk.1="0x1050 0x0110 0 0xffff UQ_KBD_IGNORE"  # NEO_OTP
hw.usb.quirk.2="0x1050 0x0111 0 0xffff UQ_KBD_IGNORE"  # NEO_OTP_CCID
hw.usb.quirk.3="0x1050 0x0114 0 0xffff UQ_KBD_IGNORE"  # NEO_OTP_FIDO
hw.usb.quirk.4="0x1050 0x0116 0 0xffff UQ_KBD_IGNORE"  # NEO_OTP_FIDO_CCID
hw.usb.quirk.5="0x1050 0x0401 0 0xffff UQ_KBD_IGNORE"  # YK4_OTP
hw.usb.quirk.6="0x1050 0x0403 0 0xffff UQ_KBD_IGNORE"  # YK4_OTP_FIDO
hw.usb.quirk.7="0x1050 0x0405 0 0xffff UQ_KBD_IGNORE"  # YK4_OTP_CCID
hw.usb.quirk.8="0x1050 0x0407 0 0xffff UQ_KBD_IGNORE"  # YK4_OTP_FIDO_CCID
hw.usb.quirk.9="0x1050 0x0410 0 0xffff UQ_KBD_IGNORE"  # YKP_OTP_FIDO
EOF
# reboot

From source (for development)

To install from source, see the development instructions.

Shell completion

Experimental shell completion for the command line tool is available, provided by the underlying CLI library (click) but it is not enabled by default. To enable it, run this command once (for Bash):

$ source <(_YKMAN_COMPLETE=bash_source ykman | sudo tee /etc/bash_completion.d/ykman)

More information on shell completion (including instructions for zch) is available here: https://click.palletsprojects.com/en/8.0.x/shell-completion