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Ask HN: Is GNU pass and Yubikey (via NFC) supported on iPhone?

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Re: Ask HN: Is GNU pass and Yubikey (via NFC) supported on iPhone?

#11
post #10
post #6

Short answer: no. Longer answer: iCloud Keychain is end-to-end encrypted credential storage, and its workflow is: Need password -> Secure system hook to Keychain -> Keychain requests unlock via (face/finger/passphrase as appropriate) -> Password decrypted and auto filled. There are also third-party options, which can nominally use NFC keys[0] as auth factors, but I’m not currently aware of any that actually do . Pers…

As a side note, I believe iCloud Keychain is supported on Windows now.

I believe you're right.. it has Chrome support on Windows but not macOS :P

Re: Ask HN: Is GNU pass and Yubikey (via NFC) supported on iPhone?

#12
post #10
post #6

Short answer: no. Longer answer: iCloud Keychain is end-to-end encrypted credential storage, and its workflow is: Need password -> Secure system hook to Keychain -> Keychain requests unlock via (face/finger/passphrase as appropriate) -> Password decrypted and auto filled. There are also third-party options, which can nominally use NFC keys[0] as auth factors, but I’m not currently aware of any that actually do . Pers…

As a side note, I believe iCloud Keychain is supported on Windows now.

what about Ubuntu (or Linux in general)?

Re: Ask HN: Is GNU pass and Yubikey (via NFC) supported on iPhone?

#13
AFAIK you can’t use anything except FaceID (or other system level security options) to secure the default password manager on iOS. But Yubikey does work with iOS, either the NFC one or the one with the lightning connector. Third party password managers are well integrated, so if one of them supported Yubikey I think you could achieve the same UX, but I’m not sure if any do. I’m not familiar with GNU pass sorry!

Re: Ask HN: Is GNU pass and Yubikey (via NFC) supported on iPhone?

#14
Yes you can, you can use the https://github.com/mssun/passforios app which as of over a year ago supports Yubikeys.

The UX of having to grab your Yubikey every time is a bit clunky though (although that is limitation of the security key medium itself rather than the app).

Re: Ask HN: Is GNU pass and Yubikey (via NFC) supported on iPhone?

#15
post #6

Short answer: no. Longer answer: iCloud Keychain is end-to-end encrypted credential storage, and its workflow is: Need password -> Secure system hook to Keychain -> Keychain requests unlock via (face/finger/passphrase as appropriate) -> Password decrypted and auto filled. There are also third-party options, which can nominally use NFC keys[0] as auth factors, but I’m not currently aware of any that actually do . Pers…

The OPs workflow is entirely possible with https://github.com/mssun/passforios since over a year ago.

Re: Ask HN: Is GNU pass and Yubikey (via NFC) supported on iPhone?

#18
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the explanation, but I actually do use the software that I linked to, however, it’s not a GNU project, so I’m just confused to if it’s a widely used misnomer or it’s a completely different software package then the one I linked to.

It seems to be a misnomer on OP's part, they's also said about switching to 'gnu pass' in previous comments, but needing to get their head around GPG... I suspect rather than suggesting it's a GNU project, OP is creating a sort of portmanteau from GnuPG and pass.

actually Bruce Byfield explains it in Linux Magazine:

Pass is available in the repositories of most major distributions. As usual, you can also compile from scratch, but, if you do, take note of the dependencies, especially GnuPG (GPG) [6], which creates encryption keys, and Password Generator (pwgen) [7], which generates random passwords that contain random combinations of upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. Without GnuPG and pwgen, you will be unable to set up Pass, much less actually use it.

https://www.linux-magazine.com/Issues/2014/158/Command-Line-...

Re: Ask HN: Is GNU pass and Yubikey (via NFC) supported on iPhone?

#19

What is GNU pass? It looks like people use it to refer to https://www.passwordstore.org/ which isn’t a GNU project?

I have always assumed 'GNU' pass is more of a colloquial term - possibly because 'pass' rarely results in meaningful results when searching the web, as does 'passwordstore' (although at least it does point to the actual repository. I seem to recall a few years ago googling 'password store' would not even return that on the first page).

As far as I am aware there is zero relation to GNU projects, aside from pass requiring GPG. I believe the author of pass is the same fellow who wrote wireguard.

Re: Ask HN: Is GNU pass and Yubikey (via NFC) supported on iPhone?

#20

Yes you can, you can use the https://github.com/mssun/passforios app which as of over a year ago supports Yubikeys. The UX of having to grab your Yubikey every time is a bit clunky though (although that is limitation of the security key medium itself rather than the app).

My concern here is there appears to be a few open issues around Yubikey support - it sounds like it 'might' work as I described but it might not, and I don't have an iPhone to test with. I don't want to have to use the physical connector, for example. I will reach out to the developer and see if he can clarify directly.
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