this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2024
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Privacy
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The firmware is indeed closed-source, so it's hard to audit. But they're popular, and a security flaw wouldn't go unnoticed for long.
There are other vendors such as NitroKey offers an alternative that offers both open source and audited hardware and software.
They're not entirely un-auditable, either. A security flaw was discovered in the Yubikey 5 in one of the IC modules from a supplier, and they patched all of their keys from that point forward.
Unfortunately, all the 5's from before May 2024 are unpatchable (by design to prevent thieves from having an easy way into the key), but any key purchased now should be fine.
Well shoot, I guess it’s time to get a new security key. Am I better off switching to a NitroKey?
That depends on your threat model. For most people, the attack is probably unlikely to affect them, but I would recommend reading about the flaw yourself. It's not hard to understand.
Also, this was not the fault of Yubico but a supplier, and instead of waiting for the supplier, Yubico patched the flaw themselves by providing a custom library.
Whether you should replace your current Yubikey 5 is up to you.
The issue isn't a big deal for the average user. The vulnerability required them to first get your username and password, physically steal your Yubikey, spend half a day using $10-15k worth of electronics equipment to repeatedly authenticate over and over, they then could potentially make a clone of the key.
Haha well I feel less concerned now