![]() ![]() Server then shares that secret key with the user’s phone application.3. Backend server creates a secret key for that particular user.2. The following could be a way to implement this solution: When the user enables two factor authentication: 1. Our requirement here is to create a password on the user side, and that password should keep changing. Great! Now let’s understand the workings of the TOTP-method and try to implement the above solution ourselves. So it prevents the server from sending a text message every time user tries to login.Īlso, the generated password changes after a certain time interval, so it behaves like a one time password. This means that users always have access to their one time password. How the TOTP-based method worksīefore understanding this, let’s first discuss what problems this method will solve for us.īy using the TOTP method, we are creating a one time password on the user side (instead of server side) through a smartphone application. So let’s understand how the TOTP-based method works. The TOTP-based method is becoming popular because of it’s advantages over the SMS-based method. It’s easy, but it has its own problems, like waiting for the SMS on every login attempt, security issues, and so on. ![]() The SMS-based method does not need any explanation. That application then continuously generates the One Time Password for the user. ![]() TOTP-based: In this method, while enabling 2-factor authentication, the user is asked to scan a QR image using a specific smartphone application.SMS-based: In this method, every time the user logs in, they receive a text message to their registered phone number, which contains a One Time Password.This method is more secure, because a criminal cannot access the user’s account unless they have access to both the user’s regular password and one time password.Ĭurrently, there are two widely used methods to get that one time password: So this adds one more step to the login process. For example, the usual steps for logging in to an account are:īut after enabling 2-factor authentication, the steps look something like this: That means that, after enabling two factor authentication, the user has to go through one more step to log in successfully. Two-factor authentication (or multi factor authentication) is just an extra layer of security for a user’s account. But before understanding that, let’s first briefly take a look at what two-factor authentication means. This article explains what it is, and how and why to use it. There are various methods of implementing 2-factor authentication, and TOTP (the Time-based One-Time Password algorithm) authentication is one of them. They do it by enabling 2-factor authentication. Nowadays, a lot of online web applications are asking users to add an extra layer of security for their account. You need to make sure your users’ accounts are safe. With the increase in cyber security threats, it has become more and more necessary to upgrade the security standards of your web applications. The backend of choice to handle mixed token scenarios is privacyIDEA.By Prakash Sharma How Time-based One-Time Passwords work and why you should use them in your app. Often a mixed scenario with hardware token and smartphone apps is used. Many customers love the rapid enrollment, the easy handling and the low costs. Nevertheless we use different smartphone apps as authentication device for our customer projects. The most known might be the Google Authenticator, which was attractive for already some years, due to its smooth rollout using a QR code for initialization.īut we need to point out, that the secret seed in the app on the smartphone is hard to protect from being copied or stolen – harder that on a not connected single purpose hardware device. The same algorithms are used in smartphone apps, which are supposed to turn the smartphone into the second factor for authentication. Now it was easy for many vendors – also from far east – to build mathematically reliable and cryptographically secure authentication devices. These well documented standards also pushed the propagation of one time passwords. Thus, if every vendor would provide the RFC6030 compatible seed file, you could import each OATH certified token data into every OATH certified authentication backend. (There is a blog post on this that contrasts HOTP and TOTP.)Īlso important is RFC6030, that describes the transport and import format of the seed files for the tokens. RFC4226 describes the event based HOTP, RFC6238 the time based TOTP and RFC6287 the flexible challenge response algorithm OCRA. The effort of standardization lead to several RFCs, which describe algorithms for the calculation of one time passwords. They aim to standardize authentication, algorithms, protocols and input and data formats. The OATH initiative is a collaboration of several companies from the authentication market. ![]()
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