Webauthn problem yubikey NFC external reader

[Marco]

Hi everyone,

I'm having a frustrating issue getting WebAuthn to work on my Chromebook using an external USB NFC reader and a YubiKey.

The Scenario:

• Direct USB: If I plug the YubiKey directly into the Chromebook's USB port, WebAuthn works perfectly.
• NFC via External Reader: If I connect an external USB NFC reader to the Chromebook and place the YubiKey on it, the physical reader successfully detects the YubiKey (the LED status changes/beeps), but the ChromeOS WebAuthn process does not recognize it or respond at all.

What I've tested so far:

1. Cross-platform isolation: This exact same hardware combination (same external USB NFC reader + same YubiKey) works flawlessly with the Google Chrome browser on other operating systems (Windows/Linux).
2. Extensions: I have tried installing various Smart Card / NFC-related extensions in ChromeOS to see if they bridge the gap, but without success.

It seems like ChromeOS is either blocking or not routing the CCID/NFC data from the external USB reader to the browser's WebAuthn layer, even though the hardware works fine on other platforms.

My questions:

• What could be causing ChromeOS to ignore the external NFC reader for WebAuthn authentication?
• Is there a specific chrome://flags setting, policy, or extension needed to make ChromeOS properly handle external USB CCID/NFC readers for security keys?
• Any known workarounds?

Thanks in advance for any help or insights!

[dragon788]

I have yet to see a Chromebook that actually supports NFC, so likely there are no drivers present. You could try a custom build of Chromium or ChromeOS Flex, but Chromium might not get the trust entitlements required if the security requires some kind of Google signing.

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