YubiKey/OpenPGP card connection issues for non-root user

[Felix E. Klee]

On Thu, Aug 3, 2023 at 9:28 PM Michael Richardson
<mcr+ietf at sandelman.ca> wrote:
> I think you need to make sure that it's not VMware that's failing to
> plug the device through in a timely manner.

I have configured the VMware guest to automatically take over these
devices from the Windows 10 host:

    usb.autoConnect.device0 = "0x04e6:0xe003"
    […]
    usb.autoConnect.device7 = "0x1050:0x0404"

> dmesg -w

I just played around. After unplugging the YubiKey, I connected the
SPR332:

    [felix at felix-arch ~]$ sudo dmesg -w
    […]
    [ 5135.728320] usb 2-1: new full-speed USB device number 6 using
    uhci_hcd
    [ 5136.137546] usb 2-1: New USB device found, idVendor=04e6,
    idProduct=e003, bcdDevice= 7.01
    [ 5136.137551] usb 2-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2,
    SerialNumber=5
    [ 5136.137553] usb 2-1: Product: SPRx32 USB Smart Card Reader
    [ 5136.137554] usb 2-1: Manufacturer: SCM Microsystems Inc.
    [ 5136.137555] usb 2-1: SerialNumber: 51271741200012
    ^C
    [felix at felix-arch ~]$ gpg --card-status
    gpg: selecting card failed: No such device
    gpg: OpenPGP card not available: No such device
    [felix at felix-arch ~]$ sudo gpg --card-status
    Reader ...........: SCM Microsystems Inc. SPR 532 [CCID Interface]
    (51271741200012) 00 00
    Application ID ...: D2760001240103030005000064D50000
    Application type .: OpenPGP
    Version ..........: 3.3
    Manufacturer .....: ZeitControl
    Serial number ....: 000064D5
    Name of cardholder: Felix Klee
    Language prefs ...: en
    Salutation .......: Mr.
    URL of public key :
    https://sks-keyservers.net/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x5EF8B6017F668171259945D6BEF6EFD38FE8DCA0
    Login data .......: [not set]
    Signature PIN ....: forced
    Key attributes ...: rsa4096 rsa4096 rsa2048
    Max. PIN lengths .: 64 64 64
    PIN retry counter : 3 3 3
    Signature counter : 10
    KDF setting ......: off
    Signature key ....: 5EF8 B601 7F66 8171 2599 45D6 BEF6 EFD3 8FE8
    DCA0
          created ....: 2016-12-17 10:49:18
    Encryption key....: 27BF BB40 70FC 6351 189E 79FE 04FD F78D 1679
    DD94
          created ....: 2016-12-17 10:49:18
    Authentication key: [none]
    General key info..: pub rsa4096/BEF6EFD38FE8DCA0 2016-12-17 Felix E.
    Klee <felix.klee at inka.de>
    sec> rsa4096/BEF6EFD38FE8DCA0 created: 2016-12-17 expires:
                                    2020-11-10 card-no: 0005 000064D5
    ssb> rsa4096/04FDF78D1679DD94 created: 2016-12-17 expires:
                                    2020-11-10 card-no: 0005 000064D5
    [felix at felix-arch ~]$ gpg --card-status
    gpg: selecting card failed: No such device
    gpg: OpenPGP card not available: No such device

As you can see, I can connect to it as root but not as regular user.
Sometimes connection as regular user works, sometimes not. Sometimes I
just have to wait for a while, can be minutes, and then it works.

I also tried killing root’s gpg-agent, to avoid conflicts with that of
the user, but that didn’t help either.

Furthermore, even if udev doesn’t trigger, I should have rw access to
the device file (it’s an SPR332, not sure why it says SPR532):

    [felix at felix-arch ~]$ lsusb | grep SPR532
    Bus 002 Device 006: ID 04e6:e003 SCM Microsystems, Inc. SPR532
    PinPad SmartCard Reader
    [felix at felix-arch ~]$ ls -l /dev/bus/usb/002/006
    crw-rw---- 1 root scard 189, 133 Aug  5 12:02 /dev/bus/usb/002/006
    [felix at felix-arch ~]$ groups
    scanner saned uucp optical lp audio wheel felix scard plugdev
    [felix at felix-arch ~]$ gpg --card-status
    gpg: selecting card failed: No such device
    gpg: OpenPGP card not available: No such device

Why does it work as root but not as regular user?

Any suggestion for a fix, even if crude, is welcome!