Technology

34437 readers

205 users here now

This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.

Ask in DM before posting product reviews or ads. All such posts otherwise are subject to removal.

Rules:

1: All Lemmy rules apply

2: Do not post low effort posts

3: NEVER post naziped*gore stuff

4: Always post article URLs or their archived version URLs as sources, NOT screenshots. Help the blind users.

5: personal rants of Big Tech CEOs like Elon Musk are unwelcome (does not include posts about their companies affecting wide range of people)

6: no advertisement posts unless verified as legitimate and non-exploitative/non-consumerist

7: crypto related posts, unless essential, are disallowed

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

171

Why Do Companies Not Use Existing 2FA Standards? (lemm.ee)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

78 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This is something I am seeing more and more of. As companies start to either offer or require 2FA for accounts, they don't follow the common standards or even offer any sort of options. One thing that drives me nuts is when they don't offer TOTP as an option. It seems like many companies either use text messages to send a code or use some built in method of authorizing a sign in from a mobile device app.

What are your thoughts on why they want to take the time to maintain this extra feature in an app when you could have just implemented a TOTP method that probably can be imported as an existing library with much less effort?

Are they assuming that people are too dumb to understand TOTP? Are they wanting phone numbers from people? Is it to force people to install their apps?

*edit: I also really want to know what not at least give people the option to choose something like TOTP. They can still offer mobile app verification, SMS, email, carrier pigeon, etc for other options but at least give the user a choice of something besides an insecure method like SMS.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I think it’s because TOTP requires some sort of initial token sync that is more complicated than entering a telephone number. There’s also no need to have people backup codes etc. To use Authy for example I need to photograph a QR code and have a smart phone.

Text message as a solution works on older non-smart phones so it’s possibly the “most widely accessible” solution.

From a backend perspective as well it’s just an API text $random to $phone.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

TOTP is much easier to implement on the backend. No API required, just generate a few codes yourself and check if the user gave you one of them (multiple codes to provide a time window).

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You have to configure the users device at the start to give you your own codes back…

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

That’s just a secret, like a password. If you can save their password, you can save their TOTP secret. For the user, they just scan a QR code with their app. They don’t even have to type the code in.