Yubico Forum

Well I'm new to Yubikey. I just got mine earlier this week. I realized that when using them on public computers you pretty much need a flash drive to store a password manager or other software. The problem with just plugging in a flash drive is it's sometimes hard to find another USB port or just inconvenient. So I started thinking about ways to fix this problem and I came up with this.




Basically it would be a flash drive with a USB port on the top for the Yubikey to plug into. There would also be a round notch that goes through the key chain hole in the Yubikey to keep it in place. I know it's possible because I've seen these which have a usb hub built in as well as flash storage. The orientation of the USB ports are kind of inconvenient though.
Just throwing the idea out there and wondering if any of you have had the same problems.

Thanks for your post - we love ideas like this one.

To be honest, quite a few people have asked for a combo like this and we've somewhat struggled in turning this into a product. The problem is obvliously that a noname China made 4GB USB memory can be bought at Alibaba or similar for a few dollars, whereas we would have to pay at least that in the added bill of material if you're someone like us. We don't use a standard USB mass storage device controller and cannot piggy-back on huge volumes of flash ICs that these guys enjoy.

Furthermore, the Yubikey is a USB low-speed device, that gives very low bandwidth for a mass-storage device. A full-speed device requires a crystal that adds additional costs to the bill of material.

Just explaining how we've been thinking. We have a proof-of-concept product on the shelf here since some time which comprises 128kB (yes kilo-bytes! = 1 Mbit), good enough to store a few certificates. We however did not turn this into a product.

However - we have quite a few wild things in the making and we may go this route sooner or later. No promises however =)

Best regards,

JakobE
Hardware- and firmware guy @ Yubico

Having a micro-SD slot on a yubikey would probably make my day! In fact, I would prefer that to any amount of integrated memory. Though I suppose cost/design/BOM-wise having a slot+controller is not much different than adding a few gigs of flash to a yubikey...

I'm thinking of using a small embedded board with OTG/HID functionality. Obviously, it's even more awkward to carry a custom soapbox plus a cable than taking a usb-cable, hub, memory AND a yubikey for a trip, but also much more powerful - it could even be actually keeping the passwords, not just storing them.

The boards that could make this work are the Beaglebone, the Raspberry PI or even a Kwikstik - the embedded future is interesting again