this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2024
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Privacy
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It's also an extension with 1 review, by a no-name developer, with only 12 installs... definitely would trust that...
Well this is 600 lines of code, if you cannot audit that you can indeed ignore it for now. Once again this is the only auditable code out there and not asking for unrelated permissions.
It might be safe, it might work well and all, but it does defeat the point of 2FA, so I wouldn't want people to even know about it before they explored undeniably better and safer options, like Authenticator apps for their phones.
But to be fair, many people around the world only have one single device, so 2FA becomes a difficulty. But that's the point where I'm not knowledgable enough anymore to see what the best way of going about it is.
From my gut feeling, I'd rather put a dedicated TOTP App on a device than to use a browser extension.
Thank you for your constructive comment.
Indeed many people thinks 2FA as 2 devices. I am not sure where that came from and what specifically make people think that way. Despite all my research and experience using 2 devices solve no specific security problem. I think there is a whole topic to be argued on this (should I make a blog post on this?).
As for me I have Aegis on my smartphone (really perfect nothing to say). But I have many unwanted/unnecessary 2FA to go through every day (for the last 3 years). I am cleaning my cookie/connection every time I close my web browser and I am not keeping my computer on all the time. Therefore those 2FA needs to be done a lot (I mean at least 3 time a day). I do not interact much with my smartphone, also this is the least secure device I own so web browser extension is an OK way. I used to have a python script I could have run from one of my IoT through ssh. So far I don't see any vector of attack this would prevent compared to browser extension.
I see hundreds of thousands of users using other extensions that I wouldn't run on my system and I am sharing a better solution, nothing perfect, nothing that requires mass adoption.
2FA being on a separate device is simply the most secure way of doing it. An attacker who gets access to some passwords for my accounts can't do a whole lot without also physically stealing my phone.
It's simply an extra hurdle for malicious actors to go through.
Though I guess in most cases, having any 2FA at all will probably already turn off a majority of attackers.
??? Theres a while bunch of loopholes they can exploit without having access to your phone, here's must one.
https://www.netspi.com/blog/technical/web-application-penetration-testing/why-totp-wont-cut-it/
I do it the way you do it as well but am under no illusion it's bomb proof.
I could've worded it better, that's for sure.
An attacker needs some form of access to your separate device. That describes it more accurately.
Thanks a lot! I selectively keep cookies for login sites, which is not a good solution.
The threat is websites escaping the browser sandbox and reading stuff. I dont know if this is really that realistic though.
Websites have no way to creep into your browser, extensions included. Usually it is the other way around. Such a leak would be catastrophic for the browser (thinks of all the password manager). At least here it is not even a password manager but only the TOTP so you still have your password as security (still this will never happen realistically).