Just wondering what people are using to meet the 2FA requirement GitHub has been rolling out. I don’t love the idea of having an authenticator app installed on my phone just to log into GitHub. And really don’t want to give them my phone number just to log in.
Last year, we announced our commitment to require all developers who contribute code on GitHub.com to enable two-factor authentication (2FA)…
- Tramort ( @Tramort@programming.dev ) 70•4 months ago
It’s fine. The added security is huge
The problem is when they want you to install their TOTP app in order to authenticate (I’m looking at you, steam… fuck off)
- n2burns ( @n2burns@lemmy.ca ) 21•4 months ago
I think I’d still prefer to use a 3rd-Party TOTP app but at least Steam’s app adds some value by pushing a notification when you login.
- Scrubbles ( @scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech ) English22•4 months ago
Steam is okay in my book because steam was the OG 2FA provider. They forced 2FA on everyone, all the way back in 2007, they took security seriously before anyone else really cared. So, they’re grandfathered in.
- meseek #2982 ( @ultratiem@lemmy.ca ) 3•4 months ago
I hate that. I think it’s lazy af.
- Andromxda 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇹🇼 ( @Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English2•4 months ago
You can use Steam with a regular third-party TOTP authenticator, here’s a guide on how to set it up: https://help.ente.io/auth/migration-guides/steam/
- Andromxda 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇹🇼 ( @Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English2•4 months ago
You can use Steam with a regular third-party TOTP authenticator, here’s a guide on how to set it up: https://help.ente.io/auth/migration-guides/steam/
- lemmyvore ( @lemmyvore@feddit.nl ) English9•4 months ago
If you’re rooted, Aegis can import the seed from the Steam app then you don’t need it anymore.
- Tramort ( @Tramort@programming.dev ) 2•4 months ago
Oh, that’s awesome!
But I don’t have root
- lemmyvore ( @lemmyvore@feddit.nl ) English6•4 months ago
You may be able to use an older version of the app that allowed ADB backups, and extract the seed from that.
Another approach is to extract it from the Steam desktop app.
No idea what companies think they’re accomplishing by using non-standard TOTP apps (that actually do TOTP under the hood). Microsoft do it so they can track your location and report it to managers when you login because it’s something that management asks for. Some companies do it so they can lock you into their services. No idea why Steam does it.
- Andromxda 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇹🇼 ( @Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English1•4 months ago
There’s an easier way: https://help.ente.io/auth/migration-guides/steam/
- lemmyvore ( @lemmyvore@feddit.nl ) English2•4 months ago
Thanks, I didn’t know about
steamguard-cli
. And I was able to import the code into Aegis too (just had to set the type to “Steam” so it would generate 5-letter codes instead of normal TOTP)…
- Andromxda 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇹🇼 ( @Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English1•4 months ago
You don’t need root. https://help.ente.io/auth/migration-guides/steam/
- Tramort ( @Tramort@programming.dev ) 2•3 months ago
Thank you!!
- Andromxda 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇹🇼 ( @Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English1•4 months ago
You don’t even need root. https://help.ente.io/auth/migration-guides/steam/
- youmaynotknow ( @jjlinux@lemmy.ml ) 3•4 months ago
How’s that? I’ve had TOTP in my github account for over a year, on Aegis, and I have not seen them asking me to do anything else.
- Tramort ( @Tramort@programming.dev ) 7•4 months ago
GitHub is not an offender right now, but I can easily imagine Microsoft forcing some MS OTP app in the future
- youmaynotknow ( @jjlinux@lemmy.ml ) 3•4 months ago
Agreed. It would surprise nobody.
- Andromxda 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇹🇼 ( @Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English1•4 months ago
You can use it with a regular TOTP app, just like with Steam (but it requires some additional setup: https://help.ente.io/auth/migration-guides/steam/)
- Scrubbles ( @scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech ) English55•4 months ago
SMS is the least secure form of 2FA, and sim swaps are a very real thing. Whatever you’re issues with 2FA apps are, I can 100% say that you should be more concerned about actors getting access to your account.
And this isn’t just GitHub. You should be using a 2FA app for allllll of your services. Breaches are a daily thing, your passwords are online and are available. 2FA may be the only thing defending you right now, and SMS 2fa or email 2fa I wouldn’t trust.
- lemmyvore ( @lemmyvore@feddit.nl ) English5•4 months ago
SMS 2FA is still better than no 2FA.
- delirious_owl ( @delirious_owl@discuss.online ) 3•4 months ago
Not if the org uses SMS auth as a recover method for your “lost” password
Also putting a phone number into a DB means the attackers who dump the DB now have a very effective way to phish or exploit you with a large attack surface.
I generally don’t let my team enter phone numbers into their account data.
- Scrubbles ( @scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech ) English3•4 months ago
But it should be the last resort. It makes sense why it’s being phased out
- lemmyvore ( @lemmyvore@feddit.nl ) English2•4 months ago
Well we could be using passkeys right now if Big Tech weren’t trying to tie them to their own platforms! 🤷
- refalo ( @refalo@programming.dev ) 2•4 months ago
Unfortunately many banks still require it and have no other methods available. I tried to reason with my bank about it but they just do not care.
- delirious_owl ( @delirious_owl@discuss.online ) 2•4 months ago
This, but my random, account-specific 20 char passwords are not online and available.
- delirious_owl ( @delirious_owl@discuss.online ) 17•4 months ago
What’s wrong with using a Foss TOTP app?
- kevincox ( @kevincox@lemmy.ml ) 3•4 months ago
Yeah, this is important to realize. Most good 2FA implementations offer TOTP which doesn’t need a proprietary app. You can store all of your 2FA secrets in whatever app or password manager you like.
- tortiscu ( @tortiscu@feddit.de ) 17•4 months ago
Aegis
- Dr. Wesker ( @wesker@lemmy.sdf.org ) English16•4 months ago
I just use Bitwarden’s 2FA functionality.
- unknowing8343 ( @unknowing8343@discuss.tchncs.de ) 7•4 months ago
This is premium functionality, for those who don’t know.
- Tibi ( @Tibi@discuss.tchncs.de ) 3•4 months ago
And I heard that if you self host you can use the premium features for free
- EddyBot ( @EddyBot@discuss.tchncs.de ) 3•4 months ago
I believe thats only true for the unofficial version (Vaultwarden - API compatible to any Bitwarden app)
- starman ( @starman@programming.dev ) English3•4 months ago
They have a free application too:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bitwarden.authenticator
- Captain Beyond ( @beyond@linkage.ds8.zone ) 3•4 months ago
This app is actually free (as in freedom) and not merely gratis.
- lemmyvore ( @lemmyvore@feddit.nl ) English3•4 months ago
Can it export the seeds?
- Midnitte ( @Midnitte@beehaw.org ) English2•4 months ago
Worth the price for Bitwarden’s good practices imo, now if I could export all of my authy keys…
I know it’s possible, but Authy has made it a PITA… fuck authy.
- pr06lefs ( @pr06lefs@lemmy.ml ) 12•4 months ago
I use keepassxc to generate the code.
- Tibi ( @Tibi@discuss.tchncs.de ) 4•4 months ago
Agreed, me to! And I use syncthing to sync my database between my devices Edit: mine is called KeePassDX but its the same database file
- Dymonika ( @Dymonika@beehaw.org ) 10•4 months ago
I don’t love the idea of having an authenticator app installed on my phone
For anything? Why not? Surely you don’t believe SMS-based TOTP is safer, right?
- delirious_owl ( @delirious_owl@discuss.online ) 2•4 months ago
Wut. TOTP doesn’t involve sending an OTP. That’s the point.
“SMS-based TOTP” is a nonsensical phrase
- Dymonika ( @Dymonika@beehaw.org ) 3•4 months ago
“Time-based One-Time Password” literally says nothing about the delivery method. Who said it can’t involve remote sending?
And what would you call it, then, SOTP?
Anyway, regardless of the terminology-nitpicking, my point still stands.
- delirious_owl ( @delirious_owl@discuss.online ) 2•4 months ago
The point of being time based is to not send it. That’s the whole point. To avoid that vecotor of attack.
- Dymonika ( @Dymonika@beehaw.org ) 2•4 months ago
Do you think the SMS codes are not time-based on the companies’ ends? How are they deriving the digits, then?
- delirious_owl ( @delirious_owl@discuss.online ) 2•4 months ago
They are not time based, correct.
- Dymonika ( @Dymonika@beehaw.org ) 2•4 months ago
Interesting, I didn’t know that. So how do they derive the digits?
- delirious_owl ( @delirious_owl@discuss.online ) 2•4 months ago
Best practice for a cryptographic nonce is to generate them randomly every time
- toastal ( @toastal@lemmy.ml ) 8•4 months ago
Ideally you don’t want to build your open source software on a proprietary forge service so hopefully nothing of value is on the Microsoft-owned platform so it doesn’t really matter how secure it is.
But you should have a free software TOTP option on you anyhow. I use password-store’s OTP plugin so it is easier to back up & sync.
- fuzzzerd ( @fuzzzerd@programming.dev ) 5•4 months ago
Did you forget the ./s or something? Lemmy itself is developed on GitHub, as are plenty of other “valuable” open source projects. To pretend nothing of value is built there is putting your head in the sand.
If you’re developing software on GitHub you have a chance at getting some useful feedback, bug reports and maybe even PRs. Like it or not, the network effect is real.
- refalo ( @refalo@programming.dev ) 5•4 months ago
SFC recommends to not use them, so that’s what I will keep (not) doing.
- toastal ( @toastal@lemmy.ml ) 3•4 months ago
Not /s
It is long past the time to move on. We don’t like the ads, gamified/corporate-friendly social media aspects, & enshitification of the web (which is why we are an Lemmy not Reddit), so why would we want that same platform for our code?
Also Lemmy has every interest in moving as soon as ForgeFed is finalized & merged into a forge the can host since they want the same decentralized values for their forge as their forum/link aggregator platform and have publicly acknowledged it is a problem.
Your projects should follow that example, if not your current projects at least future ones. These megacorporation are not our friends.
- Jayjader ( @Jayjader@jlai.lu ) 7•4 months ago
I already use
pass
(“the unix password manager”) and there’s a pretty decent extension that lets it handle 2fa: https://github.com/tadfisher/pass-otpWorth noting that this somewhat defeats the purpose of 2fa if you put your GitHub password in the same store as the one used for otp. Nevertheless, this let’s me sign on to 2fa services from the command line without purchasing a USB dongle or needing a smartphone on-hand.
- vvv ( @vvv@programming.dev ) 5•4 months ago
Your two factors shift to possession of your password vault + knowledge of the password to it. You’re okay IMO.
You also still get the anti-replay benefits of the OTPs, though that might be a bit moot with TLS everywhere.
- Jayjader ( @Jayjader@jlai.lu ) 3•4 months ago
You’re right, I should have been more specific.
If you’re already storing your password using
pass
, you aren’t getting 3 factors withpass-otp
unless you store the otp generation into a separate store.For services like GitHub that mandate using an otp, it’s convenient without being an effective loss of 2fa to store everything together.
- CrypticCoffee ( @CrypticCoffee@lemmy.ml ) 7•4 months ago
Codeberg, or failing that, GitLab, or BitBucket. Allowing MS to control all FLOSS software, means they might probably secretly get consent to use your code for copilot training without respecting licences. I have no idea if this happens, or might in the future, as I ain’t reading the terms of service for something I do not use, however, I have little trust for them enough for air on the side of caution.
I forgot about Codeberg - I’ll look into that and Gitlab as alternatives. Thanks for the suggestions.
- cmnybo ( @cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de ) English6•4 months ago
I just use my password manager to generate the TOTP. There’s no way I’m going to install an app just to use a website.
- thingsiplay ( @thingsiplay@beehaw.org ) 5•4 months ago
I have a dedicated phone with a dedicated number which stays at home all the time. Call it (see what I did there) the Authenticator phone, which only job is to authenticate me when needed. Not only for Github, but other services too. Minimizing the risk to lose or break the device. And companies don’t get all my private stuff.
- makeasnek ( @makeasnek@lemmy.ml ) English8•4 months ago
Works great till somebody does a sim swap on you.
- thingsiplay ( @thingsiplay@beehaw.org ) 2•4 months ago
How? It’s physically at home.
- rcbrk ( @rcbrk@lemmy.ml ) English3•4 months ago
Swapping the sim associated with your phone number – from your sim to their sim.
- thingsiplay ( @thingsiplay@beehaw.org ) 2•4 months ago
But how? It’s at my home and without physical access to it, its impossible to swap sim card. It’s always at my home. Nobody can can transmit my phone number to their sim card without my knowledge and permission.
- rcbrk ( @rcbrk@lemmy.ml ) English4•4 months ago
As in “Hi PhoneCompany, I’d like a mobile plan with you. Yes, I’d like to bring my old phone number over to the new account.”
Or “Hi PhoneCompanySupport, I’m @thingsiplay and i lost my sim, plz send me a new one. BTW my new address is …”
Ideally it shouldn’t happen, but phone company security is pretty slack sometimes,
- thingsiplay ( @thingsiplay@beehaw.org ) 3•4 months ago
That’s a big far fetched from reality, just to build an anti argument. I don’t know where you live, but in Germany this cannot happen. You can’t just order a sim to any address and use the phone number of you wish. You have to provide with 100% certainty that you are the owner of the sim card, as every new registered card/number has to provide your goverment id and your personal signature. Also taking old phone number to new account can only happen, if you provide proof you owned it in the first place.
If you know any case (here in Germany) someone could steal the phone number like you just described, please provide a link. This would be a huge security issue that should not be possible to happen. Nobody in the world can do that to my phone number and I think you just fabricate something that is not possible in Germany.
- rcbrk ( @rcbrk@lemmy.ml ) English3•4 months ago
Ah, that’s good then.
In Australia you really only need a name and date of birth and ID such as a passport or driving license number of the owner. No physical or even photographic proof. Some phone companies send the original sim a notification before moving it, but no response is required and moving the number often only takes 10~30mins.
Banks in Australia commonly use sms codes as 2fa.
A large percentage (20~30%?) of adult Australians have had their ID details leaked in recent years because there are no adequately enforced security requirements or data-retention limits. One of the largest breaches was the second largest mobile phone provider…
- chevy9294 ( @chevy9294@monero.town ) English3•4 months ago
That’s exactly what I’m planning to do, a phone that forwards all sms messages through ntfy (or other service like signal) to me.
- chebra ( @chebra@mstdn.io ) 4•4 months ago
On android you can use https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.projectmaxs.module.smsnotify/ - forwards incoming sms to XMPP
- chevy9294 ( @chevy9294@monero.town ) English3•4 months ago
Thanks but I’ll be running postmarketOS and make sms forwarder myself.
- thingsiplay ( @thingsiplay@beehaw.org ) 3•4 months ago
Interesting software. Never heard about this. This is not really for me as I don’t do SMS authentification or SMS in general or use that phone at all, other then authenticate myself from time to time. I wonder how this differs from software like KDEConnect in its practically (not in the technical implementation differences).
- meseek #2982 ( @ultratiem@lemmy.ca ) 4•4 months ago
iCloud Keychain. Has the ability to store 2FA codes and pull them up automatically. GitHub also supports passkeys so most times I just log in with my biometrics or user pass and don’t have to worry about the added layer.
I’m fine with regular 2FA. What I can’t abide is having to use proprietary apps, like Blizzard’s battle net. Steam too.
Passkeys are the future but still a ways off.
Wild tho that you don’t have any other accounts needing 2FA? That’s scary to me as that added security goes a long ass way in regards to hardening your secuity.
- nothacking ( @nothacking@discuss.tchncs.de ) 3•4 months ago
pass otp. Works, more secure then SMS, open source.