this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2024
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Privacy
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I struggle to think of a situation where I would willingly undermine TOTP security by storing the secrets in my web browser.
Before using this for anything you can't afford to lose, I suggest thinking twice. And then twice again.
Edit to elaborate:
Web browsers are probably the single most targeted component in a desktop computer, have an enormous attack surface, and suffer from an unending stream of vulnerabilities and exploits discovered practically every month. Storing your 2FA secrets there is akin to putting a second lock on your door and hiding the key under the doormat.
And no, encrypting the secrets in the browser for storage-at-rest does not solve this problem, because it also delegates decryption to the browser. That means an exploited browser can access all of your secrets as soon as you request a TOTP from any of them. Closing it won't help, because an exploited browser can trivially save or give away a copy of the password you entered, or the decryption key that was generated from it, or the secrets themselves, so your secrets are then compromised forever.
2FA generators are generally built as stand-alone programs for good reason. Even the ones that offer a browser extension don't let it access the secret storage.
Really, think twice before depending on this design for anything important.
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.
With all due respect, it doesnt matter what the code is right now. This is an extension that you can update at any point in the future to replace with something malicious.
Trust is near impossible to build in todays internet.
https://www.kaspersky.com.au/blog/dangerous-chrome-extensions-87-million/32170/
This is were the manifest/permission is important. I cannot emphasize enough that I had to code this myself because, at the time, nothing else would be OK with me. This was because of 1- way too big of a code base, 2- way too many permissions.
It is indeed a problem that extensions are not as well maintained as Linux distribution packages but in this specific instance the extension has no right to read any information nor send requests to any server.
I appreciate you have put effort into this, and you have gone out of your way to make it safer, but if the extension were to become malicious at a later date, expanding permissions (and relying on users brainlessly-clicking accept) or using an exploit or sidechannel would undo any of that.
The downside of browser extensions is that they are operating within a massive codebase, and thus have a huge attack surface if they decide to become malicious.
For what its worth, I commend your efforts here, its just near impossible to trust any peice of software not backed by the reputation of an established company/developer.
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.
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).
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.