tfa.one
Security and privacy
two-factor authentication sharing
SHOW HN2021
How HN took it
3 positive, 5 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 12 critical, out of 21 comments about the project. Thread score -0.40.
Idea: 3 for, 6 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 6 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Useful for shared test accounts and cheap team access.
From 2 comments
This is absolutely perfect for a use case that I've seen a lot: shared test accounts. Eg our app connects to external service X, so we have a staging account set up such that the…
fishtoaster on HNYep! I use that with my personal 1password. And honestly, that's probably the way we'll go eventually, but right now we're a super tiny startup - setting up a team 1password and…
fishtoaster on HN
Slash command avoids posting codes in a public channel.
From 1 comment
One conscious decision made when building this was not to blast 2FA codes inside some channel where potentially anyone can see them, which would indeed be pretty bad when users…
hansy on HN
Objections
Gives a third party the TOTP secrets, a risky trust placement.
From 3 comments
Totally get the use case for this, lots of shared accounts in IT, been a problem for years that gets solved in a number of ways. Sometimes clever, sometimes barely duct tape.…
ShakataGaNai on HNLike most of the services popping up around 2FA, now that 2FA is popular: this essentially removes one of the factors. Whether you're making one of the factors available to…
remram on HNMost people have their phone as a 2FA device, but they will login to websites/services on their phone anyway. Would you suggest preventing logins from phones? The REAL benefit of…
tedk-42 on HN
Slack as a delivery channel adds another attack surface.
From 3 comments
Not just that... you're also sending those 2FA codes through yet another third party service (Slack), so you have two places where your security can be compromised.
tgsovlerkhgsel on HNI get the use case, but I just can’t get behind using software like this for security reasons. It’s too easy to add users to slack, leading to accidentally exposing secrets.
joshdev on HNUsing a separate device (yubikey, mobile phone, etc) is always recommended, but this is a bit more secure than meets the eye. Someone would have to get access to your Slack…
hansy on HN
Shared codes defeat the purpose of 2FA and weaken accountability.
From 2 comments
The use case seems to be to bypass any value provided in using 2FA in the first place...
tossaway9000 on HNWhere does non-repudiation fit in if multiple people get the same 2FA code? You're trusting teamFA, Slack, and each team member's Slack accounts. This seems like a security…
whoknew1122 on HN
Lacks an audit log.
From 1 comment
I can see the use case in this (even though it entirely defeats the purpose of 2FA) but one glaring omission I see on the homepage screenshots is the lack of an audit log. I…
jeroenhd on HN
Shared TOTP codes collide when several users log in at once.
From 2 comments
It doesn't say, but I presume these are TOTP codes, and there is just a single generator that you're sharing and thus one shared secret. This has some surprising consequences,…
tialaramex on HNYup this is indeed a limitation in that once a code is used, the next person essentially has to wait at least one minute before they can get another working code. My target is…
hansy on HN
Requests
Add an audit log of who requested codes.
From 2 comments
I can see the use case in this (even though it entirely defeats the purpose of 2FA) but one glaring omission I see on the homepage screenshots is the lack of an audit log. I…
jeroenhd on HNAt the moment I don't log/track anything (I don't even store user emails), but I can see an audit trail being extremely useful. Thanks for the suggestion!
hansy on HN
Questions
Can the TOTP seed be reconstructed from codes?
From 1 comment
Is it possible to reconstruct the seed (or some equivalent that would allow you to generate future codes)? If yes, how many codes would you need to do so?
cmeacham98 on HN
Alternatives named
1Password shared vaults with TOTP fields.
From 3 comments
Do you know 1password handles storing mfa codes?
auslegung on HNCan't the login with 2FA be shared with the team in 1Password, because 2FA alone is not enough to share a login. Not that sharing logins is a smart thing to do, but people still…
nikolay on HNFor that one vital service which doesn’t support multiple users on a single account (or locks it away behind an eye-wateringly expensive enterprise plan). Every org has one, for…
jon-wood on HN
Bitwarden and Vaultwarden with shared TOTP.
From 2 comments
Bitwarden does this too
weird-eye-issue on HNBitwarden, and the fantastic rust-built equivalent Vaultwarden can be self-hosted, include granular, multi-user sharing of credentials which may contain TOTP secrets. The web…
jeffalyanak on HN
LastPass TOTP support.
From 1 comment
Totally get the use case for this, lots of shared accounts in IT, been a problem for years that gets solved in a number of ways. Sometimes clever, sometimes barely duct tape.…
ShakataGaNai on HN
HashiCorp Vault TOTP secrets engine.
From 1 comment
Would recommend hashi vault in place of this which can work for human/non-human workflows and a pretty robust security model with better auditing and authorization than slack.…
weirdo28 on HN