
This security model helps limit what an attacker can do if they compromise one of the devices running the Yubico Authenticator and make the YubiKey resistant to a physical attacker. Once a seed (shared secret) is given to the Yubico Authenticator, it will only give out the six-digit codes, but never the seed. These secrets are stored encrypted on the key and never expose them to the devices they are plugged into. All of Yubico's clients are open-source.įor models which support HOTP and TOTP, there are 2 slots in the OTP interface which could be used for HOTP and 32 slots to store TOTP secrets. For managing TOTP codes, you can use the Yubico Authenticator. YubiKeys can be programmed using the YubiKey Manager or YubiKey Personalization Tools. We highly recommend that you select keys from the YubiKey 5 Series.

The comparison table shows the features and how the YubiKeys compare. We do encourage you to take the quiz before purchasing in order to make sure you make the right choice. One of the benefits of the YubiKey is that one key can do almost everything (YubiKey 5), you could expect from a hardware security key. Some YubiKey models have a wide range of features such as: Universal 2nd Factor ( U2F), FIDO2 and WebAuthn, Yubico OTP, Personal Identity Verification (PIV), OpenPGP, TOTP and HOTP authentication. The YubiKeys are among the most popular security keys.
