Recommended YubiKey

HinghamHarborMan

Hello,

What are the recommend YubiKeys for 1Password use with a MacBook Pro, iPhone, iPad, and Windows Desktop?

The MacBook Pro only has USB C, but I have an adapter. The Windows desktop has USB C and USB 3.0 ports. iPad is USB C and iPhone is still lightening.

Cheers
Josh

Lars

@jcsully217 - any U2F key should work with your 1Password account...but I'd recommend consulting Yubico for specifics, since I know there are some caveats to some of these products. The recently-released 5Ci, for example, will work with Lightning-based iOS devices...but the USB-C end of that particular one will NOT work with USB-C-based iPads. I'm fairly certain there is no one key you can purchase at this time that will cover all your bases, meaning you'll need at least two...and possibly more, given your specific configuration, and I wouldn't want to steer you in the wrong direction.

rudy

@Jscully5651,

From your list of devices and available ports the YubiKey 5Ci will work with everything other than the iPad. Unfortunately the USB-C side of that device won't work with iOS.

HinghamHarborMan

Thank you, @Lars and @rudy

If the 5Ci doesn't work with the iPad, how would I setup 1Password for the first time on the iPad with an YubiKey or is there no option for the iPad currently?

Cheers,
Josh

Lars

@jcsully217 - at the present moment, there is no Yubikey option for USB-C based iPads that I'm aware of. I'm not entirely clear on the specifics but I think it's a firmware issue that will be solved in upcoming releases. But it may be the case that older 5Ci keys from before the solution is made available won't be upgradeable. I just don't know for certain on that score.

rudy

@jcsully217,

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way to do that currently and Yubikeys do not have end-user upgradable firmware, so any compatibility would come via a new YubiKey device.

mr_foto

Any update on this since iPadOS 13.3 did add some extra support for security keys? I have 5Ci and it works flawlessly with iPhone, but not on my iPad Pro I just found out.

Lars

@mr_foto - please see rudy's comment above - compatibility would come via a new YubiKey device.

mr_foto

So weird it wouldn't be iPadOS issue because it does work flawlessly with macOS via USB-C

rudy

@mr_foto,

Not weird at all, on the Mac a USB-C yubikey is treated as a USB HID type of device. It treats it as a keyboard, so if you tap the little metal toggle on the yubikey while simply in any app with a text field in it, you'll get a spew of characters into the text field.

On iOS that device is not treated as a HID type device and requires the presence of a Made for iPhone(iPad/iPod Touch) chip in it. The OS and the YubiKey code will not recognize it without one of those chips, and as such we can't recognize it either.

mr_foto

But it does spew out a lot of characters on the iPad Pro as well when I touch the contacts 😅 I can see that in Notes for example

rudy

@mr_foto,

That doesn't negate my statement about how the key needs to present itself on iOS.

mr_foto

Right, got it. Thank you!

Also found this that somewhat clears it up as well:
https://www.reddit.com/r/yubikey/comments/efiec6/yubikey_ios_questions/fcl0omq/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

rudy

@mr_foto,

That all looks consistent to me.

YubiKey 5C+NFC is coming in Q1/2020

my understanding is that this won't change the situation on iPadOS as the USB-C port won't have the necessary Made for iOS chip, and the iPads don't have NFC readers.

mr_foto

😔

Ben

That is one of the drawbacks of using a hardware security key... I haven't found one yet that works with all of my devices, necessitating two or even three of them in order to have compatibility. They aren't inexpensive, and so that may be cost prohibitive for some. 1Password will fall back to TOTP when you can't use a hardware key.

Ben