5Group’s Apps

More than a year ago we had announced Yubiii and said it’s really close to a public preview release. So we thought a brief explanation is necessary. For those who are not familiar, Yubiii is aimed to allow Windows Log On, Computer Unlock, and other features to be enhanced with YubiKey OTP strong authentication abilities. Later on, after a discussion with YubiKey CEO, Stina Ehrensvard, we renamed the product to ybWin.

Closed Beta 1 was send to Yubico support and test team for review, which they did providing us with a good overview plus detailed observations and recommendations. Thank you for that!

The product reached Public Beta 2, which however was not actually released to the public.

The reason for that was the issues with password-protected Windows Screensaver implementation. Then a completely different approach was started to target this, which didn’t succeed either. So we had two choices – to release the Beta 2 with disabled support for password-protected Windows Screensavers, or to continue looking to a solution. Obviously, we choose the latter. However, the “public” Beta 2 release brought some nice features as support for multiple Yubikey per user (with some limitations):

The original idea was that the product (ybWin) is going to be aimed on the consumer market, i.e. individual users but enthusiasts, who can handle AES private keys properly, and what’s more – understand the importance of the information they are dealing with. Although the product offered some administrative features as the possibility to alter almost all of the settings remotely (via Administrative Template), then some key Enterprise application aspects were actually missing:

• Domain Administrator is not able to setup/revoke user Yubikeys remotely;
• Even the local administrator is not able to change local users’ settings;
• There is no fail-safe way to access user profile in case of lost/stolen Yubikey;
• There is not (yet) available centralized management application/console;
• The management of AES private keys should be done by administrators;
• The same Yubikey can be registered to several users simultaneously;
• Users can have only one active Yubikey at a time, so no fail-safe Yubikey;
• There is no support for modern OS-es as Windows 7 and Server 2008.

Thus a decision was made to postpone the public release until some of the issues were resolved, or rejected. As of today, we can not name the exact date of when such release will be available. It is quite possible that a stripped in version pops up, aimed at the single-user environment, providing two-factor authentication functionality for older OS-es as Windows 2000 and Windows XP. It is also possible that we split ybWin into two separate products.

Stay with us for more news on the subject.

New maintenance and security update OpenID-LDAP is available for downloading right away. It addresses the security issue with empty password authentication. But it also features enhanced logging requested by the community. Once again, thank you for your feedback. The new version is available after the jump.

Download Package

The latest version of our free software product FFT-z (Processor Stress Test tool) was reviewed and awarded with 5 Stars certificate by FiberDownload. Here is the stamp and the link to the Editor’s review:

FFT-z Editor’s Review

The recently updated OpenID-LDAP package features several improvements mainly contributed by the community. Thank you for your input. It has been a while since the previous update, so go and grab it right now.

Download Package

As we are progressing quite well with Yubiii, today we decided to give you a visual sneak-peak preview – five videos showing key aspects of the product, so far:

Direct downloads: Video 1 | Video 2 | Video 3 | Video 4 | Video 5 (large files, ~100Mb each)

A small update about Yubikey Tools. Now they are supporting Offline authentication. First you run GinaConsole tool to enable Offline mode. You will have to provide Private ID and AES Key in order to activate the feature:

Then, there is a new CheckBox available in Logon dialog which controls the Offline authentication behavior:

As of today we are using Yubikey to access our Web Site management console, in addition to standard username/password logon process. Enabling 2-factor authentication on our Web Site was a simple task; it turned out to be an easy 3-steps process:

1. Install YubiKey WordPress plug-in and activate it from WP Plugins;
2. Go to WP Settings, then Yubikey, and enter the yubico API info;
3. Edit WP User, and enter Yubikey OTP under Account settings,

and that’s it! Enjoying hardened security already… (:

A new addition to the collection is under way. AutoLock will remember your Yubikey and lock out the computer once the device is removed. You will have to Logon to Windows in order to unlock the computer. AutoLock will continue to work in background, waiting for your Yubikey arrival, and will start monitoring it again. Coming soon…