Yubiswitch

About

YubiSwitch is an OS X status bar application that enables or disables a Yubikey Nano or Neo from Yubico. A Yubikey emits a One Time Password when its exposed gold edge is touched, which can cause accidental OTP output, such as when the key is touched while carrying a laptop. YubiSwitch lets you avoid these unwanted passwords by turning the key on or off with a global keyboard hotkey.

The app runs a helper daemon with root privileges to grab the USB HID interface that drives the Yubikey, and the main application communicates with it through XPC calls. On first launch, YubiSwitch asks for your user password to install this helper. You can also control the key with the AppleScript commands KeyOn and KeyOff, for example through osascript in the terminal. Preferences include an option to enable the Yubikey when the system locks or sleeps, an option to switch the key off after a set number of seconds, and a Product ID field to restrict control to specific models.

YubiSwitch is available as a DMG download from its GitHub release page. The project notes that it relies on Notification Centre and requires recent versions of OS X. Locking the computer when the key is unplugged requires granting YubiSwitch Accessibility and Input Monitoring access in Security & Privacy settings on macOS Catalina and later.