I tested Twilio Authy, Duo Mobile, LastPass Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, and Google Authenticator and found that all except for Google Authenticator offered a viable means for backing up TOTP seeds and recovering them in the event the phone or other device was lost.
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By storing them on someone else’s server, sometimes with only a password and SMS-verification required to restore them, they are vulnerable to theft, at least in the more rigorous threat model scenarios. Even worse, it was cumbersome and insecure to store them, particularly when traveling.įurther Reading Man sues AT&T after fraudulent SIM swap led to $1.8M cryptocurrency theftUnfortunately, there’s a double-edged TOTP sword that’s equally vexing.
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The lack of a backup and recovery mechanism meant the only viable way to hedge against a device loss or malfunction was to print, scan, or photograph each QR code or the underlying Web link (for instance, otpauth://totp/VIP%20Access:SYMC61582664?secret=LIPCXZTRT2U3ASLX4ZR2UCWNB7TUWJUU&digits=6&algorithm=SHA1&issuer=Token1&period=30) it represented. The result? When your device was stolen, lost, or stopped working, you had to go through the same painful and time-consuming account recoveries Caltagirone did.
Websites-including Google, Github, Facebook, and hundreds of others that implement the Time-Based One-Time Password Algorithm standard-require the temporary password to log in users who opt in to 2FA. Only a few of them made it possible to back up the unique cryptographic seeds that each phone uses to generate a time-based one-time password, or TOTP. When Caltagirone relayed his experience last September, a quick survey of the available consumer and small-business authenticators left much to be desired. But in the event that second factor (in this case, the “something you have,” that is, the phone) isn’t available, that same protection can block legitimate users from logging in for unacceptably long periods of time. Requiring users to enter a password that’s pseudorandomly generated every 30 seconds makes account takeovers significantly harder, even when an attacker has phished or otherwise obtained the password. The experience shows the double-edged sword of multi-factor authentication. The number of those I went through was just insane.” Thin blades I had different levels of requirements I had to go through for them to effectively disable 2FA on my account. “Every time, I had to contact customer service. “I had a whole bunch of sites I had to go through a massively long account restoration process because I lost my 2FA,” said Caltagirone, who is senior VP of threat intelligence at security firm Dragos.
With no access to his Google and Microsoft authenticator apps, he lost access to two-factor authentication when he needed it most-when he was logging in from IP addresses not recognized by the 30 to 40 sites he had enrolled. While traveling, his phone broke and stopped working completely. Last year, Sergio Caltagirone found himself in a tough spot. Aurich & Hannah Lawson reader comments 272 with
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