3/7/2024 0 Comments Authenticator totp vs hotp![]() In Microsoft, navigate to your account settings page. If you want to use Bitwarden Authenticator to generate TOTPs for your Microsoft Azure or Office 365 accounts, you'll need to complete the following steps: A weaker security is only acceptable if you are aware of its side effects and consequence and you can accept the remaining risk.By default, Microsoft Azure and Office 365 accounts expect the use of Microsoft Authenticator for TOTPs. So you see you need to plan and think things through when implementing a two factor solution in your network. The smartphone needs to be online, the registration link has to have a certificate trusted by the smartphone.Įspecially the ease of the rollout of the Google Authentication probably lead to its success. But this rollout process requires a slightly more complicated running infrastructure. The scanned QRCode just contains a registration link, to which the secret key is sent by the smartphone. In this case the smartphone creates the secret key. A better rollout concept like the one of the TiQR-Token can help. The problem is in the rollout process where the secret key is provided in clear text. And again you – as a company – can not reliably identify which employee logged in, when you see a certain user account. The same QRCode can be scanned by all colleagues and thus each colleague can login as his pal without any hassle – since he has a copy of his second factor. You must not rely blindly on the two factor authentication. If – as a company – you want to avoid that users give their passwords to their colleagues you are in a mess. The problem in your companyĭue to the nature of the TOTP algorithm and the rollout procedure of the Google Authenticator you can create identical copies of those tokens. Smartphone B will show the same QRCode as smartphone A immediately. Put it into the drawer for about a week.Īfter this week open the drawer, take the sheet of paper an scan the printed QRCode with the smartphone B. Print out this blog article or at least the QRCode. The same one time password two times? This is wired. Start the Google Authenticator and watch that both smartphons will show the same one time password. Scan the QRCode with smartphone A and scan the QRCode with smartphone B. The only prerequisite is that the smartphones have the exact time. A Self-experimentĭo you have two smartphones at hand? Install the Google Authenticator on both smartphones or HDE OTP or FreeOTP. The value will change, but it will be the same value. But the computer takes this as clear text for real.Īs this is a timebased OTP token (TOTP), each device that scans this code will create the same OTP value. The value O6LVCAVTS2IJ25NKXKOOGCNTJIOFNUXA is the secret key in the so called “base32” notation. This might look complicated to an untrained, human being eye. The above code has the contents: otpauth://totp/TOTP00017410?secret=O6LVCAVTS2IJ25NKXKOOGCNTJIOFNUXA&counter=1&digits=6&issuer=privacyIDEA The QRCode contains the seed in clear text. With the Google Authenticator this happens with a QRCode. The initialization of the smartphone app. The Seed (2)īut the even much simpler misuse is during the enrollment process. The smartphone is a powerful computer with old, not up-to-date software and usually a bad virus protection. We doubt that you can protect the seed in the smartphone on a high security level. ![]() This means that the seed needs to be protected. Using the algorithm, the seed and a moving factor the OTP value is calculated. The OTP algorithms HOTP and TOTP are based on a symmetric secret key which is also called seed. An important aspect of the factor “possession” is, that the user takes care of this factor and does not leave it on the desk or plugged into the computer when going for lunch or leaving the room otherwise. Using your smartphone as an authentication device can indeed make sense. Possible other apps are FreeOTP (TOTP) or HDE OTP (TOTP). The Google Authenitcator supports HOTP and TOTP algorithms. The Google Authenticator was one of the first apps, that provided the OTP functionality with a piece of software on your smartphone. In certain cases the so called two factor authentication again boils down to one factor. I very much like that everybody is thinking about increasing their security, but when talking of smartphone apps, email or SMS, we also have to be aware of the limits, that come with these convenient solutions. But now two factor authentication is handy and cost efficient.Īnd finally we all learned that we should do something about our data security. A few years ago two factor authentication was a topic for large companies and those with a high need for security. A good mobile network coverage, cheap smartphones and the trend “bring your own device” led to a paradigm shift in two factor authentication.
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