README

== Yubico U2F Validation Server ==

NOTE: This project is no longer actively maintained.

The Yubico U2F Validation Server (u2fval) is a server that provides U2F
registration and authentication through a simple JSON based REST API.

=== Installation
u2flib-server is installable by one of three means

1. via `pip`
2. via `git`
3. via `python setup.py`

==== Installation via `pip` ====

Run

  pip install u2fval

Alternatively, you can run:

  pip install u2fval-<version>.tar.gz

Where the `.tar.gz` file is a source release of the project.

==== Installation via `git` ====

* Run these commands to check out the source code:

  git clone https://github.com/Yubico/u2fval.git
  cd u2fval
  git submodule init
  git submodule update

* Build a source release tar ball by running:

  python setup.py sdist

The resulting build will be created in the `dist/` subdirectory.

==== Installation via `python setup.py` ====

You can install directly from the git checkout by running the following
commands:

  python setup.py install

=== Configuration ===
Configuration is kept in `/etc/yubico/u2fval/u2fval.conf`, see the default
configuration file for more information (also available in the conf/ directory
of any source release of this project).

The Yubico U2F Validation Server needs an SQL database to work. Optionally a
memcached server can be used to store transient data which doesn't need to be
persisted to the database (if not available this data will be stored in the
main database). The default configuration uses an in-memory SQLite3 database
which you probably want to change to something like

    SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI = 'sqlite:////etc/yubico/u2fval/u2fval.db'

Once the configuration file has been configured with database
credentials, the database can be initialized by running the following command:

  u2fval db init

=== API Clients ===
To be able to use the server, a client needs to be created. This is done using
the `u2fval client create` command. For example:

  u2fval client create example \
    https://example.com/app-identity.json \
    https://example.com

See `u2fval client create --help` for more information.

==== Authenticating Clients ====
Each client request needs to be authenticated. This authentication is outside
of the scope of the Yubico U2F Validation Server and can be handled by the
webserver or some WSGI middleware. Once authenticated, the client name should
be set in the REMOTE_USER server environment variable.

=== Deployment ===
The server can either be run standalone (intended for testing purposes) using
the `u2fval run` command, or be hosted by any WSGI capable web server, such as
Apache with mod_wsgi enabled.

=== Accessing the Server ===
Once the server is set up and at least one client has been created, the client
can access the server via the REST API. Find the API documentation in the doc/
directory.