USB Two-Factor Authentication Fails with Symantec Drive Encryption (previously PGP Whole Disk Encryption)

Products

• Drive Encryption

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to use Two-Factor authentication with a USB flash device with PGP Whole Disk Encryption, authentication fails after adding the USB device.

 Unable to add generic Flash device to drive encryption. 

Cause

USB Two-Factor Authentication using a flash device is a legacy feature and the functionality has been removed. 

Resolution

Symantec Corporation has acknowledged that the above mentioned issue is present in all current 10.x versions of PGP Desktop and PGP Whole Disk Encryption.  This feature was discontinued beginning with PGP Desktop version 10.  The issue is the feature is still present in the PGP Desktop user interface, but does not work as expected.  Since the feature was discontinued there will be no fix available in the future.  Symantec recommends using other authentication methods, such as eToken/smartcards, Single Sign-On (SSO) or Passphrase authentication.  The USB two factor authentication method option will be removed from the Symantec Encryption Desktop user interface in an upcoming release.

 

Applies To

 PGP Desktop v 10.x

Symantec Encryption Desktop 10.3.x