If you have bitwarden with 2fa then you might be fucked up if your phone stops working. I decided to print them out + have them stored on 2gb micro sd card. None of my backups code is stored on cloud or device with internet acces, its just safer.
this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
43 points (100.0% liked)
Privacy Guides
16270 readers
26 users here now
In the digital age, protecting your personal information might seem like an impossible task. We’re here to help.
This is a community for sharing news about privacy, posting information about cool privacy tools and services, and getting advice about your privacy journey.
You can subscribe to this community from any Kbin or Lemmy instance:
Check out our website at privacyguides.org before asking your questions here. We've tried answering the common questions and recommendations there!
Want to get involved? The website is open-source on GitHub, and your help would be appreciated!
This community is the "official" Privacy Guides community on Lemmy, which can be verified here. Other "Privacy Guides" communities on other Lemmy servers are not moderated by this team or associated with the website.
Moderation Rules:
- We prefer posting about open-source software whenever possible.
- This is not the place for self-promotion if you are not listed on privacyguides.org. If you want to be listed, make a suggestion on our forum first.
- No soliciting engagement: Don't ask for upvotes, follows, etc.
- Surveys, Fundraising, and Petitions must be pre-approved by the mod team.
- Be civil, no violence, hate speech. Assume people here are posting in good faith.
- Don't repost topics which have already been covered here.
- News posts must be related to privacy and security, and your post title must match the article headline exactly. Do not editorialize titles, you can post your opinions in the post body or a comment.
- Memes/images/video posts that could be summarized as text explanations should not be posted. Infographics and conference talks from reputable sources are acceptable.
- No help vampires: This is not a tech support subreddit, don't abuse our community's willingness to help. Questions related to privacy, security or privacy/security related software and their configurations are acceptable.
- No misinformation: Extraordinary claims must be matched with evidence.
- Do not post about VPNs or cryptocurrencies which are not listed on privacyguides.org. See Rule 2 for info on adding new recommendations to the website.
- General guides or software lists are not permitted. Original sources and research about specific topics are allowed as long as they are high quality and factual. We are not providing a platform for poorly-vetted, out-of-date or conflicting recommendations.
Additional Resources:
- EFF: Surveillance Self-Defense
- Consumer Reports Security Planner
- Jonah Aragon (YouTube)
- r/Privacy
- Big Ass Data Broker Opt-Out List
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Just keep in mind that sd cards can also stop working. I would encourage you to keep at least two separate copies, ideally one on a different medium than an SD card, and check regularly that you can still access the codes. A backup is only as useful as it is easy to restore.
I know, thats why I have them printed out too
True. That's why I use Aegis on my tablet which only generates tokens for my Bitwarden vault. All other tokens are generated inside my Bitwarden vault.
You can simply store the secret of your 2fa on a piece of paper. Simpler, safer.
There are a few options, all with trade offs.
- keep them in Bitwarden. This isn’t a bad idea as long as you do regular backups of Bitwarden. If you lose it though then the codes are lost, too.
- print out and store screenshots of the 2FA codes. You can do this in a safe, you can even laminate them.
- store screenshots of the 2FA codes on digital storage. In the case of a USB drive you can put it in a safe or on a NAS. Naturally that means someone in your home network may have access but that may not be a big part of your attack surface. If using an external device this may not be a bad time to have plaintext dumps of Bitwarden as well just in case.
Some combination of these can work very well, just need to decide what your attack surface looks like.
I lost my home to a fire a couple of years back, would't recommend only paper copies of 2FA codes. Recovery was a lengthy process.
Depending on your threat model, consider printing them out. You’ll have a physical copy of your keys, not tied to any electrical good. Even if they get stolen, they’re not usable, due to them not knowing your password.
Alternatively keep a digital pdf, or txt document with them inisdie. Save that document on a a USB drive or SD card. You could save it on your phone, but it’s best to keep your backup codes away from your normal 2FA codes.
Write it down
I use an encrypted folder on my phone, PC and cloud drive. Within this is a zip file that's also aes256 encrypted by using 7-zip, in here is just a text file with my recovery codes listed out in groups.
If you have a lot I guess you could swap the txt file for a spreadsheet or even an sqllite DB
One option is to use end to end encrypted online synced note protected behind a pin code or password.
Standard notes and Apple Notes came to mind.
I use an encrypted file (properly backed up) and the password in my safe deposit box (in case of death)
My method: I create an ISO filesystem in a file. Mount it, and copy my files I want to archive into it. I then unmount it and use gpg to encrypt the file with a passcode. Store one copy on a flash drive, another in another location, and a copy on S3.
I keep saved MFA tokens, password databases, copies of all my important documents, etc in the filesystem.
I don't really care about the potential for someone to brute force it. With a decent pass code it's impossible.
on paper
Store them offline. A simple USB stick with screenshots of your QR codes & backup codes would cover this.
Some people also print them out to keep offline but you'd need a printer handy to do that.
TBH I've never understood why someone would store backup/recovery codes in the same application they store their passwords in. If your password storage is compromised then you'd indeed be completely and utterly compromised when the attacker also has your backup/recovery codes.