--- title: Yubikeys for Static Secrets description: You can use your Yubikey to remember and type an arbitrary string, as well as using it as a OTP generator and a secure store for your SSH key. image: https://blog.container-solutions.com/hubfs/yubikey.png --- Check out our **[Cloud Native Services](https://www.container-solutions.com/services) **and** **book a call with one of our experts today!  [![Container Solutions](https://blog.container-solutions.com/hubfs/CS_blog/logo-main.svg "Container Solutions")](http://container-solutions.com) - share: - [**](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.container-solutions.com%2Fyubikeys-for-static-secrets) - [**](https://www.twitter.com/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.container-solutions.com%2Fyubikeys-for-static-secrets) - [**](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://blog.container-solutions.com/yubikeys-for-static-secrets) - [**](https://blog.container-solutions.com/yubikeys-for-static-secrets#) [![](https://blog.container-solutions.com/hubfs/yubikey.png) ](https://blog.container-solutions.com/yubikeys-for-static-secrets) [secrets management](https://blog.container-solutions.com/tag/secrets-management) # Yubikeys for Static Secrets [Daniel Jones](https://blog.container-solutions.com/author/daniel-jones) October 4, 2023 3 minutes Read You can use your Yubikey to remember and type an arbitrary string, as well as using it as a OTP generator and a secure store for your SSH key. We use this so that we don’t have to remember our 1Password secret keys. We use 1Password as our team secrets-management tool. It’s great, but every user needs to remember not only their username and password, but a 40-character secret key too. Normally this is saved on your machine, which is not ideal when you’re using shared computers. The following steps show you how to configure a Yubikey to store your 1Password secret key, so that you can type with a simple button-press. 1. Download and install the [Yubikey Personalization Tool](https://www.yubico.com/support/download/yubikey-personalization-tools/) 2. Open the Yubikey Personalization Tool, which looks like this: 3. Insert your Yubikey, checking that it shows up in the right-hand side of the window: 4. Click **Static Password**: 5. Click **Scan Code**: 6. **Select “Configuration Slot 2”**. If you accidentally use the first slot, you’ll overwrite the configuration that allows your Yubikey to work as an OTP generator. That would be *bad*. 7. Choose a **keyboard layout**: 8. Log in to 1Password: 9. Click on your name and then **select “My Profile”** from the dropdown menu: 10. **Copy your Secret Key** from under the “Sign-In Details” section: 11. Paste your Secret Key into the Password box of the Yubikey Personalization Tool. I’ve obfuscated mine for obvious reasons! 12. **Remove all the dashes**, as these are not needed and cause the key to be too long. You should end up with a string of 34 characters. 13. Double-check that you’ve selected **Configuration Slot 2**, otherwise you’ll b0rk your OTP functionality. 14. Click **Write Configuration**, which commits the changes to the Yubikey: 15. Save the configuration log somewhere secure - it contains your secret. 16. Open 1Password in a new incognito browser window. 17. Give focus to the **Secret Key** field. 18. **Press and hold the Yubikey button** for 3-4 seconds. If you get the wrong string, you probably didn’t hold it for long enough. 19. Observe your very long and hard-to-remember secret key being typed into the field! Et voila! You no longer need to remember that *very* long secret key, leaving you with just your username and password. Combined with [securely storing your SSH key](https://engineerbetter.com/blog/yubikey-ssh/), and [reducing the amount of 2FA faff](https://engineerbetter.com/blog/yubikey-2fa/), using a Yubikey makes it drastically easier to practice secure development. [### Increasing Concourse Worker Container Limits ](https://blog.container-solutions.com/increasing-concourse-worker-container-limits) [![prev-arrow](https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/3842749/Wow%202019/Images/left-arrow.png) Previous article](https://blog.container-solutions.com/increasing-concourse-worker-container-limits) [ Next article ![next-arrow](https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/3842749/Wow%202019/Images/right-arrow.png) ](https://blog.container-solutions.com/debugging-kubernetes-networking) [ ### Debugging Kubernetes Networking ](https://blog.container-solutions.com/debugging-kubernetes-networking) Comments Leave your Comment ![cs-logo-white](https://blog.container-solutions.com/hs-fs/hubfs/cs-logo-white.png?width=150&height=61&name=cs-logo-white.png "cs-logo-white") #### **Talk to sales** [info@container-solutions.com](mailto:info@container-Solutions.com) #### Stay In Touch - [**](https://www.linkedin.com/company/container-solutions/) - [**](https://twitter.com/containersoluti) © 2024 Container Solutions