# Developer identity backups **URL:** \ **Category:** Command Line Tools\ **Created:** [August 13, 2022, 6:15am UTC](https://forum.dfinity.org/t/developer-identity-backups/14846 "2022-08-13T06:15:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Vivienne](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex023/user_avatar/forum.dfinity.org/vivienne/32/29170_2.png) [@Vivienne](https://forum.dfinity.org/u/Vivienne)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 9:13am UTC](https://forum.dfinity.org/t/developer-identity-backups/14846/21 "2023-02-21T09:13:13Z")
Documenting it properly is scheduled for this sprint and I’ll add to the ticket to update this thread. Please ping me again if there’s no activity for a week on this. ---
**Author:** ![muharem](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex023/user_avatar/forum.dfinity.org/muharem/32/6577_2.png) [@muharem](https://forum.dfinity.org/u/muharem)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 9:29am UTC](https://forum.dfinity.org/t/developer-identity-backups/14846/22 "2023-02-21T09:29:46Z")
Thank you! That’s great 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![muharem](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex023/user_avatar/forum.dfinity.org/muharem/32/6577_2.png) [@muharem](https://forum.dfinity.org/u/muharem)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2023, 10:58am UTC](https://forum.dfinity.org/t/developer-identity-backups/14846/23 "2023-04-19T10:58:08Z")
Hello! Any news on this? ---
**Author:** ![Vivienne](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex023/user_avatar/forum.dfinity.org/vivienne/32/29170_2.png) [@Vivienne](https://forum.dfinity.org/u/Vivienne)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2023, 12:29pm UTC](https://forum.dfinity.org/t/developer-identity-backups/14846/24 "2023-04-19T12:29:03Z")
Hey! I see there was some work done in that regard, but I can’t find the results. Let me ping some folks… ---
**Author:** ![AdamS](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex023/user_avatar/forum.dfinity.org/adams/32/5248_2.png) [@AdamS](https://forum.dfinity.org/u/AdamS)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2023, 6:22pm UTC](https://forum.dfinity.org/t/developer-identity-backups/14846/25 "2023-04-19T18:22:41Z")
There was a mixup with the ticket - what was documented was the HSM support in _quill_, rather than dfx. I will try to rectify that, but in the meantime, the short version is that dfx supports P-256 keys on PIV HSMs, for which you’d have to configure the key ahead of time through a different application (e.g. Yubikey Manager) and install a PKCS#11 module such as OpenSC or Yubikey’s YKCS11. The two HSM parameters to `dfx identity new` are the path to the module, and the ID of the key (Yubico documents their key IDs [here](https://developers.yubico.com/yubico-piv-tool/YKCS11/#_key_mapping)); then commands passed `--identity ` receive the HSM’s PIN via the `DFX_HSM_PIN` environment variable. So you might say ```sh yubico-piv-tool -a generate -a verify-pin -a selfsign -a import-certificate -s 9c -k -A ECCP256 -S /CN=muharem/ dfx identity new hsm --hsm-key-id 02 --hsm-pkcs11-lib-path /usr/local/lib/libykcs11.so DFX_HSM_PIN=123456 dfx identity get-principal --identity hsm ``` (the GUI is a lot simpler than the first command) ---
**Author:** ![muharem](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex023/user_avatar/forum.dfinity.org/muharem/32/6577_2.png) [@muharem](https://forum.dfinity.org/u/muharem)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 12:42pm UTC](https://forum.dfinity.org/t/developer-identity-backups/14846/26 "2023-06-19T12:42:51Z")
Thank you! Please let me know if there is more documentation that was added somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![let4be](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex023/user_avatar/forum.dfinity.org/let4be/32/25128_2.png) [@let4be](https://forum.dfinity.org/u/let4be)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2025, 10:09am UTC](https://forum.dfinity.org/t/developer-identity-backups/14846/27 "2025-09-19T10:09:07Z")
> [@AdamS](#): > > `/usr/local/lib/libykcs11.so` Hey, sorry for bothering I installed yubico-piv-tool but cannot find /usr/local/lib/libykcs11.so anywhere on my system How do I use yubikey with dfx? ---
**Author:** ![AdamS](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex023/user_avatar/forum.dfinity.org/adams/32/5248_2.png) [@AdamS](https://forum.dfinity.org/u/AdamS)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2025, 1:32pm UTC](https://forum.dfinity.org/t/developer-identity-backups/14846/28 "2025-10-06T13:32:53Z")
This was written for x64 macs. On my M4, it is now `/opt/homebrew/lib/libykcs11.dylib`, and it may be a third different thing on your particular OS / package manager combination. [Previous page](https://forum.dfinity.org/t/developer-identity-backups/14846.md?page=1)