find_yubikey() fails with "Access denied (insufficient permissions)", even as root

[jacobian]

$ sudo python -c 'import yubico; yubico.find_yubikey()'
Password:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/Users/jacob/.virtualenvs/hkyubi/lib/python2.7/site-packages/yubico/yubikey.py", line 229, in find_key
    YK = YubiKeyUSBHID(debug=debug, skip=skip)
  File "/Users/jacob/.virtualenvs/hkyubi/lib/python2.7/site-packages/yubico/yubikey_usb_hid.py", line 141, in __init__
    if not self._open(skip):
  File "/Users/jacob/.virtualenvs/hkyubi/lib/python2.7/site-packages/yubico/yubikey_usb_hid.py", line 441, in _open
    self._usb_handle.claimInterface(self._usb_int)
  File "/Users/jacob/.virtualenvs/hkyubi/lib/python2.7/site-packages/usb/legacy.py", line 230, in claimInterface
    util.claim_interface(self.dev, if_num)
  File "/Users/jacob/.virtualenvs/hkyubi/lib/python2.7/site-packages/usb/util.py", line 191, in claim_interface
    device._ctx.managed_claim_interface(device, interface)
  File "/Users/jacob/.virtualenvs/hkyubi/lib/python2.7/site-packages/usb/core.py", line 112, in managed_claim_interface
    self.backend.claim_interface(self.handle, i)
  File "/Users/jacob/.virtualenvs/hkyubi/lib/python2.7/site-packages/usb/backend/libusb1.py", line 758, in claim_interface
    _check(self.lib.libusb_claim_interface(dev_handle.handle, intf))
  File "/Users/jacob/.virtualenvs/hkyubi/lib/python2.7/site-packages/usb/backend/libusb1.py", line 571, in _check
    raise USBError(_str_error[ret], ret, _libusb_errno[ret])
usb.core.USBError: [Errno 13] Access denied (insufficient permissions)

This is on OS X 10.9 ("Mavericks"), which I believe is important (I've found a few issues related to libusb on 10.9 that sound similar)

I'm running libusb-1.0.18 installed from Homebrew, PyUSB 1.0.0b1 installed from PyPI, and python-yubico 1.2. also installed from PyPI.

[dainnilsson]

This is a known issue with libusb on OSX: http://www.libusb.org/ticket/89 Until this is fixed I don't think there is anything we can do about it, unfortunately.

[josepvalls]

Any idea on how to implement a workaround using HIDAPI as suggested in the linked thread? Doesn't look like the devs will fix it.

[fhibler]

As the "Yubikey Personalization Tool" is working on OSX, there must be some kind of workaround. Any chance this python module gets adapted accordingly?

Or someone is able to have a look into HIDAPI, as suggested in the thread posted above?

Thanks!

[dainnilsson]

YubiKey Personalization Tool doesn't use libusb on OSX, and thus is not affected by this issue. Adding a HIDAPI backend using https://pypi.python.org/pypi/hidapi is probably doable, but would require some effort. Contributions in this area are welcome!

[zestysoft]

Updating this with a current link to why this still doesn't work (www.libusb.org doesn't respond for me): https://github.com/pyusb/pyusb/issues/208

Has there been an attempt to use this library instead? https://github.com/libusb/libusb Or does it need to have a BSD license?

Is there another programming language that has better MacOS support from Yubico?

[bsaund]

I also get the same usb.core.USBError: [Errno 13] Access denied (insufficient permissions) on Ubuntu 20.04 when calling find_yubikey