This is a text-only version of the following page on https://raymii.org: --- Title : Introducing the Yubikey Nano XL Rugged edition Author : Remy van Elst Date : 27-04-2018 URL : https://raymii.org/s/blog/Introducing_the_Yubikey_Nano_XL_Rugged_Edition.html Format : Markdown/HTML --- ![yubikey][1] > On the left, the small Yubikey nano, next to the regular larger Yubikey [Last month my Yubikey broke. I had a second one as a backup so there were no problems for me][2]. This second yubikey is a Nano model, that means it is about 1 cm by 1 cm, the normal yubikey is 2 cm by 5. It fits inside the USB port and is meant to be inserted in the computer all the time. Extracting it from the port is hard as well, since it is so small. I use my yubikey on different machines and don't like the idea of it being in a computer when I'm not there, so I wanted to fix this. I did not fix it by buying a regular sized yubikey, but I found a clever workaround, which I name the Yubikey nano XL Rugged. You'll understand when you see the pictures.

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### Yubikey Nano Rugged XL I carry my yubikey in my wallet, and the Yubikey nano had to be in the plastic thing it came in, otherwise it would damage. It is not more than a USB plug, the part that goes in the port, so small. The intended use is to keep it in your computer all the time but that is not my use case. Since I was given this key a long time ago I did not want to buy a new key, since this one functionally works the same. After a month of daily insertion I saw marks on the Yubikey and I suspect this device is not made for frequent insertion, and I also don't want it to break soon. The other one lasted almost 7 years so I expect that timeframe from this key as well. Via my local cable dealer webshop I bought [this USB 3 male to female adapter][4] (non-referral link). I cannot for the life of me think of a usecase for this specific plug, until now, but I'm happy they sell it. Check your local (china) shop, I expect this is sold everywhere. Here's my Yubikey Nano XL Rugged: ![yubikey][5] The two seperate parts: ![yubikey][6] Here is a comparison between the Nano XL Rugged and the regular Yubikey: ![yubikey][7] They are almost the same size wise, the XL Rugged is three times as thick (height). ### Disclaimer This of course is not an official Yubikey product. I cobbled together an adapter and a Yubikey Nano and thought of a nice name. You can buy a regular Yubikey, which will probably be a better (at least less thick) choice. [1]: https://raymii.org/s/inc/img/yubikey.png [2]: https://raymii.org/s/blog/My_Yubikey_Broke_-_Important_tip_for_two_factor_BACKUP.html [3]: https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=7435ae6b8212 [4]: https://web.archive.org/save/https://www.kabeltje.com/usb-3-0-verloopstuk-male-female?sqr=65174& [5]: https://raymii.org/s/inc/img/yubikey_rugged_1.jpg [6]: https://raymii.org/s/inc/img/yubikey_rugged_2.jpg [7]: https://raymii.org/s/inc/img/yubikey_rugged_3.jpg --- License: All the text on this website is free as in freedom unless stated otherwise. This means you can use it in any way you want, you can copy it, change it the way you like and republish it, as long as you release the (modified) content under the same license to give others the same freedoms you've got and place my name and a link to this site with the article as source. This site uses Google Analytics for statistics and Google Adwords for advertisements. You are tracked and Google knows everything about you. Use an adblocker like ublock-origin if you don't want it. All the code on this website is licensed under the GNU GPL v3 license unless already licensed under a license which does not allows this form of licensing or if another license is stated on that page / in that software: This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see . Just to be clear, the information on this website is for meant for educational purposes and you use it at your own risk. I do not take responsibility if you screw something up. Use common sense, do not 'rm -rf /' as root for example. If you have any questions then do not hesitate to contact me. See https://raymii.org/s/static/About.html for details.