Big Boys Toys

Tuesday, September 7, 2021

Yubikey - Quick Review

This is just going to be a (sort of) quick, high level, review of a two Yubico products and some other hopefully helpful tips. I sort of laid things out as if someone was asking me questions.

What is a Yubikey?

For now I am going to avoid explaining terms like dual-factor authentication, or multi-factor authentication because if you are reading this post you are probably somewhat familiar and interested. The Yubikey is a hardware token you can use for authentication. Yubico itself has a "Why Yubico" page ( https://www.yubico.com/why-yubico/for-individuals/ ) with some good high level information about their products. There are other products out there, I personally decided to go with Yubikey devices but do your own research.

Do I really need one?

Simply put, a hardware token can help protect your online accounts against compromise. How bad would it be if your online accounts were taken over - not just that someone logged into your account, but they took control of it or erased everything? Don't forget your e-mail account is often used to gain access to other accounts, so one compromised e-mail account could lead to an even larger impact. Don't focus on the cost of the device, focus on the impacts you are avoiding.

Which one should I get?

With Yubico, I mainly looked at two options - Security Key NFC and Yubikey 5 series. This my quick summary of the two options:

1) The Security Key NFC just has one option, that includes NFC and USB-A. It supports common protocols like U2F and FIDO2, and works with many common providers like Google, Microsoft and Facebook. Chances are you use at least one of those services. The device is water and crush resistant, and does not require batteries.

2) The Yubikey 5 Series adds many other options above what the Security Key NFC provides. Here are a few examples:

In addition to FIDO2 and U2F, these also support additional protocols like Smart card, OTP and OpenPGP 3
Multiple interface options ( USB-A, USB-C, NFC and Lightning ) and device styles
IP68 rated: dust tight and water submersible

Yubico has a quiz ( https://www.yubico.com/quiz/ ) that walks you through the process of picking the best option, and you can also check the catalog of sites that work with YubiKey ( https://www.yubico.com/works-with-yubikey/catalog/ ) to see if your service is supported. I am not sure the quiz would actually even suggest the Security Key NFC - even when I picked simple options it didn't come up. This page ( https://www.yubico.com/store/compare/ ) has a good comparison of the various products.

Do I really need a spare?

The quiz does ask if you want to get a spare device. Imagine if you had a safe with 1 set of keys. If you lost the key there would be no way to get into the safe. A second hardware token isn't exactly a crazy idea, but in many cases you can also use other methods as a second authentication option so it isn't required. No matter what, make sure your plans account for the fact your hardware token could be lost or damaged. Some accounts let you print "one time use" codes, or provide other authentication options you can consider.

If cost is a factor, the Security Key NFC by Yubico is going to get you into this at a cheaper cost ( around $25 ). However the Yubikey 5 series has more connector options and supported protocols, and is probably the better option for a tech savvy user that might want to try out some of the additional features.

What did you get and why?

Personally I ended up getting the Security Key NFC as my first device to get my hands on a hardware token, at some point you have to stop reading about it and just go for it. For the simple use case of tying my accounts to a hardware token, the Security Key NFC did the job but the geek in me wanted to try out the 5 Series since it has extra features.

Yubico Authenticator is one of the features that works on the 5 series but doesn't work on the Security Key NFC. I tested it out with a few accounts, just to see how it works. If you already use apps like Microsoft or Google's Authenticator app on Android, then the Yubico app will be very familiar. I did notice that the Android app does not seem to work on a Chromebook via USB-C, at least when I tested it. The big difference between Yubico's app and other apps I have seen is that the information is stored on your Yubico token making it easy to move between devices, but I believe there is a limit on the number of accounts. This page ( https://support.yubico.com/hc/en-us/articles/4404456942738-FAQ#what-is-the-yubikey-s-account-limit- ) you can find information about various limits.

As I mentioned earlier, the Yubikey 5 series has multiple connectors and form factors. I went with Yubikey 5C with USB-C for future proofing since more devices use USB-C, but I also purchased USB-C to USB-A adapter from Syntech which so far has worked fine on a Windows laptop that only has USB-A ports. For now I plan to keep my Security Key NFC as the "backup" device, and the Yubikey 5C as one I use to test out some of the new features.

I got one, now what?

If you decide to get a Yubikey, check out these other posts of mine that might help with some tips on setting it up:

Yubikey - Adding security key to your account

https://bigboystoys13.blogspot.com/2021/09/yubikey-adding-security-key-to-your.html

Yubikey - Using Yubico Authenticator

https://bigboystoys13.blogspot.com/2021/09/yubikey-using-yubico-authenticator.html

Useful Yubico Links:

Authentication Standards - https://www.yubico.com/authentication-standards/

Security Key NFC - https://www.yubico.com/products/security-key/

Yubikey 5 Series - https://www.yubico.com/products/yubikey-5-overview/

Device comparison - https://www.yubico.com/store/compare/

Quiz to see which device is best for you - https://www.yubico.com/quiz/

Catalog of services that work with Yubikey - https://www.yubico.com/works-with-yubikey/catalog/?sort=popular

Yubico Authenticator - https://www.yubico.com/products/yubico-authenticator/

Tuesday, August 17, 2021

OpenWrt on RAVPower RP-WD03

WARNING: Once I put OpenWrt on my FileHub Plus, I couldn't restore back to the original firmware. I am not saying it is impossible, I just couldn't find any working directions.

Recently, I decided that I wanted to play around with OpenWrt I was aware of it, but never really took the time to try it out. I had a RAVPower RP-WD03 travel router that I really wasn't using, and it seemed like a good starting point. I didn't take detailed notes unfortunately, so this post will just be a high level summary. Also this information was current as of 8/17/2021, but as time goes on of course some of it might change.

Using the directions in the OpenWrt Wiki ( https://openwrt.org/toh/ravpower/rp-wd03 ) I was able to get OpenWrt installed. I ended up using a snapshot build, which didn't have LuCI installed so I had to figure that part out. As a note, the directions under the "Installation section" shows two files being renamed to kernel and rootfs, but when you look lower in the "OEM installation using the TFTP method" section you will see the file two method is used for snapshot builds and recent releases. As of right now the latest stable build is 19.07.8, you can grab the correct file using the firmware selector ( https://firmware-selector.openwrt.org/ ). You end up renaming that one file to "kernel" when you share it via TFTP, instead of the two file method for snapshot builds.

While getting familiar with OpenWrt, I started to play around with adding software and quickly ran into space issues since the WD03 only has 8MB of storage. At that point, I set the WD03 aside and shifted my attention to getting OpenWrt working on my Raspberry Pi 4. I might pull together another post later on that.

Once I was a bit more comfortable with OpenWrt, I decided that I needed to do something with the WD03. I tried my best to restore the original factory image, but despite following the directions I could find online nothing worked. For some reason I had it in my mind that the low RAM was the issue, but then I remembered it was the storage space not the RAM. Next thing I did was start to read up on what I could safely remove from OpenWrt. It turns out that, due to the way OpenWrt uses SqashFS you don't really save space just by deleting files. The best option to save space on OpenWrt is to do a custom image.

So making a custom image was my next focus, as always first step was to read up on it a bit. The OpenWrt Wiki ( https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/additional-software/imagebuilder ) again was very helpful. I used those directions, and the information on saving space ( https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/additional-software/saving_space ) to setup a custom build for my WD03. It worked great, and best part is while I am messing around with the WD03 if I decide to reset things my custom build already has LuCI installed so I am ready to go right from the start. I even set it so the OpenWrt wi-fi access point was on by default so I could easily connect and change settings. I would probably avoid putting anything too specific in your custom build, for example don't save your home wi-fi password since one day you might get rid of your device and you don't want certain information saved on the device even after a reset.

Overall, if you are looking to play around with OpenWrt then go for it - just make sure you read directions carefully, and understand you could mess up your device if you are not careful. I don't think I can get my WD03 back to stock firmware, but I am ok with that. Of course, having an understanding of things like networking and linux commands is very helpful, but I am guessing the type of person who is interested in OpenWrt is probably familiar enough with those concepts or willing to learn.

Useful links from this article:

Friday, February 12, 2021

OnePlus 8T hotspot and tether

I recently upgraded my phone from a Samsung S9+ to a OnePlus 8T thanks to a pretty good T-Mobile trade-in deal. So far I have been happy with my OnePlus 8T, but based on my research I knew that I would lose the ability to share a wi-fi connection.

For anyone that has not used wi-fi sharing on Samsung (or other devices that support it) basically you use your phone to connect to wi-fi, then you turn on your phone hotspot feature to share your connection to other devices. Why would you do this? Here are a few possible scenarios that it could help:

1) On travel, you might have devices that do not work well with wi-fi connections that direct to a login page (hotels for example).

2) On travel, out of just being lazy, you rather not configure multiple devices (laptops, tablets for kids, game systems).

Really the why is not important. In my case, the important thing is that the OnePlus 8T does not support this feature. When you are connected to wi-fi and try to enable your mobile hotspot, your wi-fi connection is turned off. However, when I was looking at my OnePlus 8T options I noticed an interesting option labeled "Ethernet tethering" which got me interested in exactly what I could do. Luckily I happened to have a HooToo USB-C hub ( HT-UC011 ) with an Ethernet connector. So, to get right into it here are a few connectivity options I tested.

Laptop > USB-C hub (Ethernet) > OnePlus 8T (Wi-Fi)

So this was a simple setup. I used an ethernet cable to connect a laptop to the HooToo USB-C hub, which was connected to my OnePlus 8T. The OnePlus 8T was connected to my home internet using wifi, and the "Ethernet tethering" option was turned on. Using this setup, I was able to get online. I used the Fast app (and fast.com website) and the download speeds were exactly the same and upload was about 0.3 Mbps faster on the phone. The unloaded latency went from 13ms on the phone to 25ms on the laptop. One quick note, my laptop was setup to DHCP and I didn't have to do any manual configuration for things like IP address or DNS.

Laptop > USB-C hub (Ethernet) > OnePlus 8T (Cellular)

Since I basically had everything setup from the prior test, I disabled wi-fi on my phone so it would go to cellular signal. On my T-Mobile plan I have unlimited 3G tether so I knew the speed would take a huge hit. The laptop Fast.com test got 540 Kbps.

OnePlus 8T > USB-C hub (Ethernet) > Home network

Just to continue testing, I connected USB-C hub to my home wi-fi router using Ethernet. I also disabled cellular data and w-fi on my phone, and it seems that my phone was using the Ethernet for internet connectivity.

Laptop (Wi-Fi) > OnePlus 8T (Hotspot mode) > USB-C hub (Ethernet) > Home network

Once I was able to get my phone using ethernet for Internet access, I decided to turn on the hotspot mode to see what would happen. My laptop was able to connect to the wi-fi hotspot, and based on some quick tests it seems that I was using my home network connect to get to the Internet. Basically my phone was acting like a portable wi-fi router, similar to my RAVPower FileHub.

So that is the testing I have done so far.

Monday, August 31, 2020

RAVPower PD Pioneer 65W 4-port Desktop Charger ( model RP-PC136 ) Review

I recently purchased a RAVPower PD Pioneer 65W 4-port Desktop Charger ( model RP-PC136 ). It just came with the charger itself and the power cable (detachable) but most people will have the cables they need so the fact it doesn’t come with cables is fine.

For a size comparison, it was about the same size as two portable wall chargers that I have: a 1-port USB-C 60W charger and a 2-port USB-A/USB-C 65W charger. The fact I am able to get 4-ports for something that is still small enough to travel with was nice.

Charger and power cable

2x USB-C and 2x USB-A

Size comparison: 2-port charger on left, this product in the middle, and 1-port charger on right

Size comparison: 1-port charger on left, this product in the middle, and 2-port charger on right

To test the charger, I used various devices and a USB-C volt/amp meter to help track what was going on. The numbers I use are just an estimate for watts, I wasn’t focused on accuracy I just wanted a rough idea of how the charger acted with various devices.

Test scenarios and outcomes:

- Lenovo Chromebook C330 connected alone on USB-C was charging around 14.5V / 2.07A, basically 30W.

- Lenovo Chromebook Duet connected alone on USB-C was charging around 8.52V / 2.39A, basically 20W.

- Samsung S9+ connected alone on USB-A was charging around 8.9V / 1.5A, basically 14W (fast charge mode).

- RAVPower 26800 mAh battery pack connected alone on USB-A was charging around 4.86V / 1.81A, basically 9W.

- Putting both Chromebooks on the charger dropped the Duet to 16W, and the C330 stayed at 30W which was expected based on the product info.

- Putting both Chromebooks and the S9+ all at the same time dropped both Chromebooks to 16W each (as expected based on the product info), and the S9+ was charging at around 13W.

- Putting all 4 devices (2 Chromebooks, S9+ and the battery pack) left the Chromebooks with 16W each, S9+ around 8.6W and the battery pack at 10W.

I didn’t have any devices that pulled over 30W, so I wasn’t able to really max it out but the fact it was able to charge multiple devices without issue was nice. I did notice that the USB-A ports could charge above 5V (supporting QC) but only if you were using one of the USB-A ports. If you used both USB-A ports, they were limited to 5V. After the fact I looked at the product info on the RAVPower site and saw this was reflected in the information.

Here are the main points I noticed about this product:

Compact: This wasn’t much bigger than two different wall chargers that I have, and those were just one and two port chargers (both supported USB-C PD). This charger had 2 USB-C and 2 USB-A ports.

Compatibility: It was nice that the charger supported PD on the USB-C ports and QC on the USB-A ports.

Bottom line: Great 4-port desk charger that is also compact enough for travel.

Saturday, August 22, 2020

MakerHawk (Keweisi) USB-C meter Review

I recently purchased a MakerHawk USB-C test meter ( back of the device says Keweisi model KWS-1802C ) for a product review. The device comes alone, no cables or anything which is fine.

I don’t know if the average user would have a need for such a device, but since I like to play around with technology and post on my blog I figured it would be a nice addition to my toolkit. I already have a USB-A to USB-C cable with a built-in V/A display, and a USB-A to microUSB cable with built-in V/A display but I didn’t have anything for USB-C to USB-C.

The charger shows voltage, amps, time charging, watts, mAh and temperature.

To test the charger out, I tried various things:

- Tested a Choetech and Inateck USB-C PD charger against various devices ( two Chromebooks and a Samsung S9+ ). I saw a range of voltages from 5V on the S9+ all the way to 15V from my Lenovo Chromebook C330.

- I tested a RAVPower powerbank with my Lenovo Duet. It was interesting because I was able to have the Duet charge the powerbank, and also have the powerbank charge the Duet. In both cases, the meter property showed the direction of flow.

- The highest voltage was when I was charging the RAVPower powerbank, it was almost 20V (about 30W) which seems to be the max charging input.

Here are some product pictures: