Setting restrictions on what 2FA/authenticators we can use. I imagine it’s only a matter of time before Google functionally makes it so you can only use theirs when using their services.
Edit: I assumed it was some of the messages I’ve seen elsewhere, my mistake. I don’t need everybody repeating the same comment. Please read the responses before telling me the exact same thing over and over again guys lol
At least for what I just posted this isn’t a restriction. Its a recommendation. You can still use any other app. I thought its nice that they recommend the privacy friendly ones.
I’ve gone tons of places that say use Google Authenticator (only) and I just summon the QR code and scan with Aegis anyway and it always works fine. I’ve never seen a place that required a certain one.
Q: I got a prompt asking me to grant permission for the app to access my location. Why am I seeing this?
A: You will see a prompt from the Authenticator app asking for access to your location if your IT admin has created a policy requiring you to share your GPS location before you are allowed to access specific resources. You’ll need to share your location once every hour to ensure you are still within a country where you are allowed to access the resource.
And? I don’t give a shit what the admins of my network want. It’s DFA – they don’t deserve to know that. Ergo, I don’t use the MS app. They can kiss my ass and fire me if they don’t trust where I am.
It’s a security / compliance policy. There is a very high chance your company has not even enabled it, have not seen anyone using it.
As I see it, you would and could use it only if you force MS Authenticator notification as the only MFA method and it is important in which country MFA prompt originates. Usually it is IP based block / whitelist which checks IP from which login originates which seems like a much more useful info, then you can also allow any MFA method.
Your question was why GPS permission is needed, you should now know why.
I am using MS Authenticator and Aegis. Using MS authenticator only for work accounts that have been setup for number matching feature, it is pretty nice to simply enter 2 digits in app than entering 6 digits in client itself any time you need to approve MFA.
Everything else that supports standard TOTP whether work related or personal is on Aegis - it is a much better TOTP app.
That depends. More of the popular ones don’t encrypt the secret keys, they can just be read out with root access or even with the use of ADB (the pull command), not even speaking about reading the memory contents while booted to a recovery.
Some even uploads the keys to a cloud service for convenience, and they consider it a feature.
Sounds more like a bad design than purposefully left backdoors. Very few devices are rooted and usually you cannot get root without fully wiping your device in process. As for cloud upload, that indeed is convenient for most regular users. I prefer encrypted offline backup like Aegis does, but you need to think about regular folk if they would loose or wipe their device.
It’s not bad design, it’s definitely intentional, however I agree that it’s probably not for having backdoors, but for convenience. Average people forget their passwords all the time, and with encryption that level of carelessness is fatal to your data if they have not saved it somewhere, which they probably didn’t do.
Very few devices are rooted and usually you cannot get root without fully wiping your device in process.
I’m pretty sure the system is not flawless. Probably it’s harder to find an exploit in the OS than it was years ago, but I would be surprised if it would be really rare. Also, I think a considerable amount of people use the cheapest phones of no name brands (even if not in your country), or even just tablets that haven’t received updates for years and are slow but “good for use at home”. I have one at home that I rarely use. Bootloader cannot be unlocked, but there’s a couple of exploits available for one off commands and such.
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 by the services that support it
Been using it for a while as the 2FA app used and recommended by Leo Laporte. I’ve had a good experience with it, but if it has any issues, I would love to know.
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.
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
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.
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.
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