Tip: Password Managers and 2FA
I guess many of you use a password manager.
I do too. And several credentials stored in my password manager also have 2FA, typically based on an algorithm that has to be seeded with a secret key (like the one used by Google Authenticator).
Whenever I have to create a new account with 2FA, I will store the 2FA key in my password manager along with the password for that account. And if the key is presented as a QR code (it often is), I will save that QR image temporarily to disk and include that file in my password manager.
This way, if I lose my device for 2FA authentication (e.g. smartphone), I can get a new device and start again with a fresh 2FA app install.
If you don't like the idea of storing your password together with your 2FA key: use 2 different password managers, one for your passwords and one for your 2FA keys. And use 2 different master passwords :-)
Didier Stevens
Senior handler
Microsoft MVP
blog.DidierStevens.com DidierStevensLabs.com
Comments
Anonymous
Nov 12th 2019
4 years ago