Nevertheless I chose my Yubikey instead.
that's a refreshing change from the regular Google Authenticator and Authy mentions.
this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2023
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What's wrong with Authy?
Nothing
Apparently it is hard to export out of authy
Microsoft authenticator has joined the chat
Good to know, thank you.
Since it's nice and easy to move to any device, I hadn't really noticed that yet. I dislike when people put sneaky walls up to keep me from my own data
Here is their justification:
In order to maintain security for our users, the Authy application does not allow importing or exporting 2FA account tokens.
Users who want to import or export their tokens can follow this process:
- Login to the desired online account with your existing 2FA token.
- Disable 2FA in the app's site.
- Re-enable 2FA again in the app's site.
- Scan the QR code, optionally write the Authentication Key, this time on the desired 2FA App.
https://support.authy.com/hc/en-us/articles/1260805179070-Export-or-Import-Tokens-in-the-Authy-app
EhrenBVG. Wie immer.
Incredibly based.
Come to think of it, it's sad how we've got so accustomed to be suggested Google Authenticator and the other big corp data funnel 2FA apps
In India, they force us to install proprietary apps, which are probably spying on us.
They don't, though? Who's forcing you to install a proprietary 2FA app in India. Unless you're saying in general.
My bank, for example, does not let us use any 2FA app we want. They have their own separate app, made for handling 2FA for that specific bank only.
And in general too, yes. Like Arogya Setu. The app we had to install to prove our vaccination status.
If you get Bitwarden pro (really cheap), you can save an OTP link together with the site credentials, it's really good for keeping everything in one place
I do this. I want to point out it is absolutely TERRIBLE for security. It's turning 2 factor back into 1 factor authentication.
I would argue its more like a 1.5 factor. Not secure when your bitwarden gets compromised. But more security for stolen, leaked, phised passwords.
I currently have 60 OTPs in Bitwarden, I probably would not have activated 2FA on so many sites without BW.
Consider your threat model. You could use a yubikey for Bitwarden log in.
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This isn't really a good idea because then you're putting all your eggs in one basket. The whole point of 2FA is that the second factor is in a separate location so if your first factor (password) gets compromised the second one (OTP code) still protects your account. If both factors are in one place you're back to a single point of failure instead of 2, losing a key benefit of 2FA.
If you're gonna do this, at the very least have 2FA with a security key on your bitwarden vault.
You lose security, sure. But you are gaining so much more ease of use. Bitwarden autofills your credentials and puts your token into your clipboard. Also it syncs your tokens to all devices. Effectifly this makes a site as easy to login as a site without 2fa.
The alternative is on desktop always get your smartphone, open some app type a token or on the phone to switch to multiple apps to get your credentials. Not fun imho.
I currently activated 2fa on over 60 sites, I doubt I would use it as much without BW.
For me, the key benefit of 2Fa is getting more security against leaked, stolen, phished passwords, and that still holds up.
The alternative is on desktop always get your smartphone, open some app type a token or on the phone to switch to multiple apps to get your credentials. Not fun imho.
There are desktop apps for OTP, you don't need a phone. And since you only need to setup an OTP secret once, doing it for your phone and pc isn't that big of a deal.
I have my OTP secrets in 3 places, 2 yubikeys and my phone's authenticator app, with the former meant for my PC.
For me, the key benefit of 2Fa is getting more security against leaked, stolen, phished passwords, and that still holds up.
If your vault doesn't have 2FA too this doesn't hold up though. Means you're trusting a single service that can get hacked with all your secrets. Sure, your other accounts are more protected against leaks and stuff, but if your password vault isn't, you didn't really change much, just pointed the hackers to one single place.
Yes I know hacking a password vault isn't some walk in the park and rarely happens, but the point is any leaks from it would be 10 times more catastrophic for you if all your OTP secrets are also stored in it. I'll spare myself from that nightmare with the small inconvenience that is a separate, offline OTP app.
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If you get Vaultwarden, absolutely free, you don't have to pay and have full control over your data. It's a win-win!
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BVG is acronym for Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe, Berlin's public transport agency.
andOTP is opensource, backs up locally, remotely, encrypted, or unencrypted. has no back doors, and will work with any DFA i can chuck at it.
its an archived project but still works fine in modern android
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Here is active fork.
https://github.com/helloworld1/FreeOTPPlus
Sick! I didn't think to look at the forks but that's amazing.
This is what I use. Also supports exporting/importing data to and from Gnome Authenticator so you have 2FA on your computer too 👍
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I self host Bitwarden (Vaultwarden) so I just use the built-in TOTP authenticator in the Bitwarden app. It's nice to have it all in one place + having auto copy and paste when I log in. And because I self host, it's all backed up securely and with (as far as I know) no real backdoors.
ETA: just realized what community this is in. people that replied to me I'm sorry lmao, I'm not a nut about this kinda stuff and I'm by no means recommending this just like using it this way for convenience factor and to keep the likes of google out of my password.
No, please do not do this. Two factor authentication should be just that: two separate factors of authenticating yourself. Having them combined in one is the same as one factor.
Said in the reply to the other comment here, but I don't really self host for security/privacy sake. And in addition to that comment I'd also like to say that I do use a YubiKey when possible for MFA. I'm not a security nut enough to care about TOTP (which kinda sucks anyway) all too much but for important things I do use physical MFA.
Yeah it compromises the idea of a second factor. Bitwarden is the worst choice. It's only one thing: comfortable
Fair, although I've said in a comment on this account somewhere else, I self host more for convenience sake than anything. I just like having my own password manager, sure it's not as secure to use it for MFA but it's better than giving my passwords to Google, LastPass, etc. and then using eg Google Authenticator. Self hosting is more a corporate distrust thing than a privacy thing for me
I do the same thing. And Bitwarden's 2FA is off my phone. In a complicated world, it's reasonable to keep 1 password + 2FA as secure as possible. I simply can't handle the hassle of pulling out my phone for every 2FA login, but still value the protection 2FA + randomly generated passwords provide.
I went for another foss one a while ago, works flawlessly https://authenticatorpro.jmh.me/
That's the one i use too, really a nice app
FreeOTP+ is the choice not Free OTP...
According to Wikipedia it's based on google authenticator. Is it known how much google code is still in there?
2fas
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