so this is the kinda of support yubikey provides

Pre: i've bought Yubikey NEO to evaluate using it for contactless smartcard logon in our company. We use Dell laptops, which are known to have been locked to proprietary CV mode in the past. A DOS utility ushdiag.exe existed to switch them to PC/SC mode and make compatible with normal smartcards. Never Dell's are no longer locked to this mode, and support NFC aswell. Trying to switch them to normal mode gives this message: "CV only radio mode is a legacy mode which does not apply to this NFC enabled system."

This is further confirmed by me being able to enroll any random contactless smartcard including, but not limited to personal identity card, Revolut, other contactless payment cards.

Yubikey NEO, however, does not work. Touching it to NFC area results in Windows 10 popup asking "do you want to receive data from remote device", and when clicking the popup it opens url to yubikey website. Seems it defaults to NFC mode for receiving NDEF tag, and not to smartcard mode.

That's when I contacted support. Communication follows.

On Wed, Oct 25 at 10:51 AM , xxx wrote: Hello,

I'm trying to setup my Yubikey NEO with Dell Latitude E7250. It has contactless smartcard + NFC reader. I have all the required drivers installed. When I touch NEO to reader, I get Windows 10 popup saying do you want to receive data from other device. Once I click on it, browser opens. Dell Data Protection, however, says that Contactless Smartcard is not detected.

How can I force NEO to work in smartcard mode for contactless, and not NFC?

Thanks.

On Wed, Oct 25, 2017 at 9:40 PM, Yubico Support support@yubico.com wrote: Hi xxx,

Thank you for contacting Yubico Support. We are not able to support this use case a s Dell has locked down the NFC reader on their devices to work only with their Smart Cards and/or devices. Although we are not able to help you with this directly, there are a couple of good articles that will help if you do a google search for the term "change dell NFC reader mode".

Best Regards, Aaron Yubico Support

On Thu, Oct 26 at 11:44 AM , xxx wrote: Hello,

I know what you are referring to, as it was the case with older Dell models. However, this is no longer the case. Our models have open rfid/nfc reader. I can confirm that I was able to setup login with my bank card, personal ID card. So it works.

However, when touching Yubikey, it opens windows popup and just opens browser. How can I make it work in smartcard mode instead of NFC?

On Thu, Oct 26, 2017 at 9:54 PM, Yubico Support support@yubico.com wrote: Hi xxx,

This is not a YubiKey limitation. As previously stated, we are not able to support this use case a s Dell has locked down the NFC reader on their devices to work only with their Smart Cards and/or devices. For more information on how to get around that lockdown you will need to do some research and make those changes on your own. There are a couple of good articles that will help if you do a google search for the term "change dell NFC reader mode".

Best Regards, Aaron Yubico Support

On Fri, Oct 27 at 4:37 AM , xxx wrote: Hello, Aaron,

did you just repeat exactly the same thing you wrote in the first response? Have you read what I have written in my second mail? The newer Dells no longer work in proprietary CV mode, they work in compatible PCSC/NFC modes, and I have confirmed that with multiple different smartcards all of which HAVE worked, except for Yubikey.

On Fri, Oct 27, 2017 at 6:06 PM, Yubico Support support@yubico.com wrote: Hi xxx,

I restated because that is the current official stance of Yubico on functioning with Dell.

Best Regards, Aaron Yubico Support

On Fri, Oct 27 at 10:17 AM , xxx wrote: But that statement is outdated, because current Dell models no longer use that mode you are talking about and are compatible with normal smartcards. I was able to login with, for example, Revolut card to windows. That's not a dell smartcard, is it?

On Fri, Oct 27, 2017 at 8:28 PM, Yubico Support support@yubico.com wrote: Hi xxx,

I am only able to talk about Yubico's stance and the YubiKey. If Dell is working with other devices, that is great, it means they have opened up the protocol to work with them. However as far as I have been told by our tech who works on this type of stuff, the YubiKey does not work with Dell unless you make changes to the way that Dell has locked down their smartcard/nfc reader. This leads to our current official statement.

Best Regards, Aaron Yubico Support

On Fri, Oct 27 at 10:43 AM , xxx wrote: Ok, so is there any possible chance, for your tech to look into current situation, as I'm willing to provide data/logs/access/whatever needed to figure out what it currently is?

On Fri, Oct 27, 2017 at 9:30 PM, Yubico Support support@yubico.com wrote:

Hi xxx,

Unfortunately we are unable to assist you in this matter, The Broadcom USH NFC reader built onboard is locked down to "CV Mode" and will only work with a limited set of NFC capable Smart Cards. This will require that the mode be changed to "Normal"; However since Dell does not have any official public facing documentation into changing the radio mode onboard, You will need to find the documentation yourself. Aaron has already provided certain Google search terms which will guide you into finding the information you need to make this happen. You have two options going forward Google search for the information you need or contact Dell support and request they walk you through changing the radio mode.

Best Regards, Matthew Yubico Support

On Fri, Oct 27 at 11:52 AM , xxx wrote: Wow, really.. So now you repeated 3rd time the same thing over, despite me saying that no, new Dell models are no longer locked to cv only mode?

I mean do you even read what I write? Yes ive downloaded ushdiag.exe, yes ive booted into does, yes ive run ushdiag.exd -u -dd 8, and no, the response was NOT cv mode disabled, the response was that this nfc enabled model does not even support cv mode. Which is further proven by making it work with multitude of different smartcards including any random nfc enabled bank card.

And yet, having this information, you keep repeating that Dell is locked to something?

Can you pretty PLEASE read and pay attention to what ive just written?

On Fri, Oct 27, 2017 at 10:49 PM, Yubico Support support@yubico.com wrote:

As I stated before you will need to contact Dell support for further assistance, We are unable to assist you in this matter. It's not that we are unwilling, we are unable to assist. Once again Dell routinely locks their devices to hardware they approve this could be either be done in software or firmware. I recommend purchasing a ACR122U (easily found on Amazon) it has wide support for many devices and works very well. any further communication into this matter will not be responded to.

Best Regards, Matthew Yubico Support

So basicly, yeah, they just went on to repeat 4 times the outdated information and ignore everything i've presented them, and then just cut the communication. Might be good product, but absolutely crappy approach to customer.