Yubikey Neo Teardown and Durability Review

An anonymous reader writes: Folks at HexView (disclaimer: I contract for the company) took apart Yubikey Neo and found out that, while the key uses solid hardware to ensure secure identity management, its physical anti-tamper measures and durability could be improved. The tear-down analysis is short, but to the point, and offers some very nice close-ups of the internals. One example of the design shortcomings they've identified: Contrary to Yubico's claims, Yubikey appears to be quite destructable. Do not push on it when you touch the sensor while the key is plugged in to a USB port. The point where it bends the most happens to be the point where USB vias are located and through which NFC antenna loop goes. To make things worse, the injection molding hole right next to the connector makes this area even more susceptible to bending.

Comments

Re:Okay, what is it?

[OzPeter]

Try Google.

I have one on my keyring. I know exactly what it is, and what it is used for.

In other words you have prior information that makes sense out of the word salad that passes for summaries these days.

The rest of use just look at the summary and go WTF?!?!?!?

And yes, I have heard of that Google thing, but one of the prime tenets of good communication is to not make your audience go elsewhere for fundamental information. Because sooner or later they will be going to other sources for all of their information and will be by-passing you completely.