Unable to setup AppleID and Yubikey

[theyonz]

Hi folks,

I have purchased two Yubikeys 5C NFC and tried to link them to my Apple ID on my iPad Pro through USB-C.

Followed all the instructions (Settings/AppleID/Security/2FA/Add security keys) but I keep getting an error when it tries to "register" the Yubikey as a security key, saying that I need to insert a compatible security key.

Apple itself is not too clear about this. When clicking on "more info" about the error, it displays an article with the compatible keys and the different Apple devices: they mention iPads but the must be referring to the Lightning ones, and they mention the USB-C connectors, but they must be referring to the Mac ones. There is no mention to the iPad Pro + USB-C.

I have googled this issue and all the info I got is a bit confusing: there is an official article of Yubico that says that there are some caveats between the Yubikeys and the USB-C iPad Pros, but they should work fine for WebAuthn through Safari. Apple ID with security keys uses WebAuthn, right? That's why I don't know why iPadOS through Settings doesn't allow me to setup the security keys.

I guess that the problem lies in the iPad Pro + USB-C combo and not in the keys itself, that seem to work just fine when I configured them on a Windows PC previously (just to create a PIN for the FIDO functionality).

If someone has this same devices and got them working I would be super glad to know how she/he managed to do it.

BTW, circumstances are that this iPad Pro is the only Apple device I own right now, so I don't have any other way to setup the Apple ID with my Yubikeys. If I only had an iPhone for an NFC connection, or a Mac for a USB-C I would probably not have this issue (unless, as said, the problem lies within my Yubikeys, which I don't think so, they're brand new and both of them present the same issue).

 

[theyonz]

Hi folks,

I have purchased two Yubikeys 5C NFC and tried to link them to my Apple ID on my iPad Pro through USB-C.

Followed all the instructions (Settings/AppleID/Security/2FA/Add security keys) but I keep getting an error when it tries to "register" the Yubikey as a security key, saying that I need to insert a compatible security key.

Apple itself is not too clear about this. When clicking on "more info" about the error, it displays an article with the compatible keys and the different Apple devices: they mention iPads but the must be referring to the Lightning ones, and they mention the USB-C connectors, but they must be referring to the Mac ones. There is no mention to the iPad Pro + USB-C.

I have googled this issue and all the info I got is a bit confusing: there is an official article of Yubico that says that there are some caveats between the Yubikeys and the USB-C iPad Pros, but they should work fine for WebAuthn through Safari. Apple ID with security keys uses WebAuthn, right? That's why I don't know why iPadOS through Settings doesn't allow me to setup the security keys.

I guess that the problem lies in the iPad Pro + USB-C combo and not in the keys itself, that seem to work just fine when I configured them on a Windows PC previously (just to create a PIN for the FIDO functionality).

If someone has this same devices and got them working I would be super glad to know how she/he managed to do it.

BTW, circumstances are that this iPad Pro is the only Apple device I own right now, so I don't have any other way to setup the Apple ID with my Yubikeys. If I only had an iPhone for an NFC connection, or a Mac for a USB-C I would probably not have this issue (unless, as said, the problem lies within my Yubikeys, which I don't think so, they're brand new and both of them present the same issue).

Just tried to add these Yubikeys to my Google account with Safari (on the same iPad Pro with USB-C) and same result: error while adding security key. It must be definitely something related to the USB-C port protocol permissions.

I wonder anyways if the same thing happens with the new iPhones 15 now that all of them now have USB-C. Would be interesting to know (although iPhones have NFC).

Which rises the following question: how in the world does someone setup a brand new iPad (I believe all new gen iPads already have USB-C, and none of them have NFC) if there is no human way to connect a Yubikey that contains the Apple ID keys (that were previously added in another device)??