Installation

Important

Yubico strongly recommends that those who want to use a GUI for configuring individual YubiKeys choose Yubico Authenticator instead of the YubiKey Manager GUI. The Authenticator is newer and has much more functionality.

Both YubiKey Manager (the GUI) and ykman (the CLI) can be installed on Windows, macOS, and Linux systems. The GUI is bundled with an old version of the CLI. Each has its own installer for each OS platform. Unfortunately, on developers.yubico.com both the GUI and the CLI are frequently referred to as “YubiKey Manager”. In this guide we try to make the distinction by calling the GUI “YubiKey Manager” and the CLI “ykman”.

Download YubiKey Manager and ykman Installers

  • Download the YubiKey Manager GUI installers from: yubikey-manager-qt Releases. Note that the URL and filenames include qt - this identifies it as the YubiKey Manager GUI installer.

    The YubiKey Manager GUI installer includes both the full graphical (GUI) application and an older version of the command line (CLI) tool. If you are going to use the CLI, install the latest version of the CLI separately.

  • Download YubiKey Manager (ykman) CLI installer from: yubikey-manager Releases.

Note

Additional installation packages may be available from third parties.

YubiKey Manager Versions and Installer files

The table lists the latest installers released. See the download pages for previous versions.

For GUI releases see, yubikey-manager-qt Releases. Notice there is a -qt in all the GUI version installer filenames.

For CLI releases see, yubikey-manager Releases.

YubiKey Manager (GUI) Installers
Version Installer OS Release Date
1.2.6 yubikey-manager-qt-1.2.6-win32.exe Windows 32 bit 2024-04-04
1.2.6 yubikey-manager-qt-1.2.6-win64.exe Windows 64 bit 2024-04-04
1.2.5 yubikey-manager-qt-1.2.5.tar.gz Linux - Ubuntu 2023-02-03
1.2.5 yubikey-manager-qt-1.2.5-linux.AppImage Linus_AppImage 2023-02-03
1.2.5 yubikey-manager-qt-1.2.5-mac.pkg macOS 2023-02-03
ykman (CLI) Installers
Version Installer OS Release Date
5.5.0 yubikey_manager-5.4.0.tar.gz Ubuntu 2024-06-26
5.5.0 yubikey-manager-5.4.0-mac.pkg macOS 2024-06-26
5.5.0 yubikey-manager-5.4.0-win64.msi Windows 64 bit 2024-06-26

OS-independent Installation

ykman (CLI version) can be installed independently of platform by using pip (or equivalent). This installation method uses the Python package manager, which might be useful for people who are using the libraries that come with ykman for writing Python software. See the YubiKey Manager CLI for Python.

Note

PIP (or equivalent) must first be installed on the target system.

For the latest ykman version:

pip install --user yubikey-manager

For the YubiKey Manager GUI version (which has an outdated ykman CLI):

pip install --user yubikey-manager-qt-<version>

Command Prompt

To install YubiKey Manager (the GUI and the (old) CLI) on Windows from Command Prompt (CMD):

  1. Press the Windows key and type: cmd

  2. Select Run as administrator

  3. Select Yes when prompted to run the app in elevated mode

  4. Change directory (cd) to where ykman was downloaded

  5. Type (paste) the following: yubikey-manager-qt-1.2.3.win64.exe and press Enter.

    Replace the filename, with the actual the filename that includes the version information. For example: yubikey-manager-1.2.3.win64.exe. Then press Enter.

    ``pip install --user yubikey-manager-<version>``

Note

The YubiKey Manager installers with the -qt in the filename are for the GUI version. The installers without the -qt in the filename are for ykman, the CLI.

Windows Installation

Install the YubiKey Manager GUI and the YubiKey Manager CLI separately.

Install YubiKey Manager GUI

When installing from the .exe package (see below), installation can be made to run silently (i.e., without user interaction) by adding /S to the install command.

  1. Download the installer. See Download YubiKey Manager and ykman Installers.

  2. Open a command terminal and change to your downloads directory.

    C:\Users\<user_name> > cd Downloads
C:\Users\<user_name>\Downloads >

  3. Confirm the installer is downloaded. Enter directory command, dir. View the response for the installer. For example, yubikey-manager-qt-1.2.6-win32.exe.

  4. Enter the installation command. The example includes designating the installation path using the /D option.

    C:\Users\<user_name>\Downloads >.\yubikey-manager-qt-1.2.6-win32.exe /D "C:\Program Files\Yubico\YubiKey Manager

  5. Complete the YubiKey Manager Setup wizard.

    1. In the Welcome screen, click Next.
    2. In the Choose Install Location screen, click Next to select the default. Optionally, click Browse to select a different location, then click Next.
    3. In the Choose Start Menu Folder screen, click Install. Optionally, select a different folder and choose to create shortcuts, then click Install.
    4. If a pop-up asks, Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?, click Yes.
    5. Wait while the YubiKey Manager GUI is installed. In the Installing screen, a progress bar shows the status.
    6. In the Completing YubiKey Manager Setup screen, click Finish. Optionally, deselect the Run YubiKey Manager.

    The YubiKey Manager icon is added to the Start menu panel.

  6. Optionally, right-click the YubiKey Manager icon in the Start menu panel and select, Pin to Start or Pin to taskbar.

Install YubiKey Manager (ykman) CLI

  1. Download the installer. See Download YubiKey Manager and ykman Installers.

  2. Open a File Explorer and browse to the Downloads folder.

  3. Double-click the installer for the latest version. For example, yubikey-manager-5.4.0-win64.msi.

    Note

    The filename includes yubikey-manager, because ykman is the CLI version of the YubiKey Manager.

  4. Complete the YubiKey Manager (ykman) CLI Setup wizard.

    1. In the Welcome screen, click Next.
    2. In the Destination Folder screen, click Next to select the default. Optionally, click Change to select a different location, then click Next.
    3. In the Ready to install YubiKey Manager (ykman) CLI screen, click Install.
    4. If a pop-up asks, Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?, click Yes.
    5. Wait while the ykman CLI is installed. In the Installing screen, a progress bar shows the status.
    6. In the Completed the YubiKey Manager (ykman) CLI Setup Wizard screen, click Finish.

  5. Optionally, from the command prompt, change to the installation directory and confirm the ykman CLI is listed. If running from a mapped drive, you might need to add /D <install path>. This ensures YubiKey Manager (ykman) is installed in the correct drive.

    C:\Program Files> dir
Volume in drive C
Volume Serial Number is


Directory of C:\Program Files

05/31/2024  03:22 PM    <DIR>          .
02/27/2024  09:29 PM    <DIR>          Common Files
05/24/2024  01:30 PM    <DIR>          Google
05/31/2024  03:41 PM    <DIR>          Internet Explorer
05/07/2022  01:00 AM    <DIR>          WindowsPowerShell
05/31/2024  03:22 PM    <DIR>          Yubico
         0 File(s)              0 bytes
        14 Dir(s)  238,592,212,992 bytes free

MacOS

Uninstaller

Once installed, the application uninstaller, ykman-uninstall.exe, is located in the ykman install directory.

Running the uninstaller starts the uninstall process. The /S silent install option described above works with the uninstaller.

MacOS Installation

Install the YubiKey Manager GUI and the YubiKey Manager CLI separately.

The installers for both the GUI and CLI versions are macOS packages.

Install YubiKey Manager GUI

  1. Download the installer. See Download YubiKey Manager and ykman Installers.

  2. Open a Finder and browse to the Downloads folder.

  3. Double-click the installer. For example, yubikey-manager-qt-1.2.5-mac.pkg.

    Note the -qt indicates it is the YubiKey Manager GUI installer.

  4. Complete the YubiKey Manager installer wizard.

    1. In the Introduction screen, click Continue.

      The Destination Select screen is skipped and defaults are applied.

    2. In the Installation Type screen, click Install.

    3. If a pop-up ask to allow the installation, enter your password or use Touch ID and click Install Software.

    4. Wait while the YubiKey Manager is installed. In the Installation screen, a progress bar shows the status.

    5. In the Summary screen, click Close.

    6. Optionally, open Launchpad and locate the YubiKey Manager icon.

Install ykman CLI Using Homebrew

From the Mac’s terminal run the brew command below. For Homebrew documentation and installation, see https://brew.sh.

This is the preferred install method for the CLI as it also enables native ykman command functionality without the need to change directories.

Use this method to upgrade the version of ykman CLI. The command identifies older versions of components including ykman and automatically upgrades them.

brew install ykman

Install ykman CLI Using Package Installer

  1. Download the installer. See Download YubiKey Manager and ykman Installers.

  2. Open a Finder and browse to the Downloads folder.

  3. Double-click the installer for the newest version. For example, yubikey-manager-5.4.0-mac.pkg.

    Note there is no -qt in the filename. This indicates it is the YubiKey Manager CLI installer.

  4. Complete the yubiKey-manager installer wizard.

    1. In the Introduction screen, click Continue. The Destination Select screen is skipped and defaults are applied.

    2. In the Installation Type screen, click Install.

    3. If a pop-up ask to allow the installation, enter your password or use Touch ID and click Install Software.

    4. Wait while the YubiKey Manager (ykman) CLI is installed. In the Installation screen, a progress bar shows the status.

    5. In the Summary screen, click Close.

    6. Optionally, open a terminal and run the ykman help command.

      ~ % ykman -h
Usage: ykman [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Configure your YubiKey via the command line.

Examples:

List connected YubiKeys, only output serial number:
$ ykman list --serials

Show information about YubiKey with serial number 123456:
$ ykman --device 123456 info
. . .

Linux Installation

On Linux platforms you need to have pcscd installed and running to communicate with a YubiKey over the Smart Card interface. Additionally, you might need to set permissions for your user to access YubiKeys via the HID interfaces.

Some of the libraries used by ykman have C-extensions, and might require additional dependencies to build, such as swig and potentially PCSC lite.

Third Party Linux Distributions

Yubico provides packages for Ubuntu in the yubico/stable PPA.

Note

For Linux amd64 ONLY and other architectures such as ARM, use the general pip instructions above.

If you are using packages from one of the several Linux distributions’ third party repositories, follow the installation steps from the Linux distribution.

For example:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:yubico/stable
sudo apt update
sudo apt install yubikey-manager

See also the Yubico Support Knowledge Base article Installing Yubico Software on Linux.

Developers

For more information, see the ykman CLI page on developers.yubico.com. For APDUs, see the APDU page in the .NET YubiKey SDK User’s Manual.

Click for Yubico Support.