YubiKey Manager CLI
Python 3.8 (or later) library and command line tool for configuring a YubiKey. If you’re looking for a graphical application, check out Yubico Authenticator.
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.
Pre-built 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.
Uninstallation of the MacOS .pkg
To uninstall yubikey-manager when installed via the pgk installer, run:
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/ykman /usr/local/ykman
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
Although 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