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T969389Multifactor Authentication
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T969389Sections: Tcf362fGeneral Recommendations Tcf362fMore Places to Set Up MFA
General Recommendations
We have these general recommendations:
Which Method Should I Use?
When configuring your MFA method, keep in mind that it is only as secure as your weakest authentication method you use. This means it is important that you only use the best MFA method available. For instance, if you are already using TOTP, you should disable email and SMS MFA. If you are already using FIDO2/WebAuthn, you should not be using Yubico OTP or TOTP on your account.
Backups
You should always have backups for your MFA method. Hardware security keys can get lost, stolen or simply stop working over time. It is recommended that you have a pair of hardware security keys with the same access to your accounts instead of just one.
When using TOTP with an authenticator app, be sure to back up your recovery keys or the app itself, or copy the "shared secrets" to another instance of the app on a different phone or to an encrypted container (e.g. Tcf362fVeraCrypt).
Initial Set Up
When buying a security key, it is important that you change the default credentials, set up password protection for the key, and enable touch confirmation if your key supports it. Products such as the YubiKey have multiple interfaces with separate credentials for each one of them, so you should go over each interface and set up protection as well.
Email and SMS
If you have to use email for MFA, make sure that the email account itself is secured with a proper MFA method.
If you use SMS MFA, use a carrier who will not switch your phone number to a new SIM card without account access, or use a dedicated VoIP number from a provider with similar security to avoid a SIM swap attack (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_swap_scam).
Tcf362fMFA tools we recommend
More Places to Set Up MFA
Beyond just securing your website logins, multifactor authentication can be used to secure your local logins, SSH keys or even password databases as well.
macOS
macOS has native support (https://support.apple.com/guide/deployment/intro-to-smart-card-integration-depd0b888248/web) for authentication with smart cards (PIV). If you have a smart card or a hardware security key that supports the PIV interface such as the YubiKey, we recommend that you follow your smart card or hardware security vendor's documentation and set up second factor authentication for your macOS computer.
Yubico have a guide Using Your YubiKey as a Smart Card in macOS (https://support.yubico.com/hc/articles/360016649059) which can help you set up your YubiKey on macOS.
After your smart card/security key is set up, we recommend running this command in the Terminal:
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow DisableFDEAutoLogin -bool YES
The command will prevent an adversary from bypassing MFA when the computer boots.
Linux
Warning
If the hostname of your system changes (such as due to DHCP), you would be unable to login. It is vital that you set up a proper hostname for your computer before following this guide.
The 'pam_u2f' module on Linux can provide two-factor authentication for logging in on most popular Linux distributions. If you have a hardware security key that supports U2F, you can set up MFA authentication for your login. Yubico has a guide Ubuntu Linux Login Guide - U2F (https://support.yubico.com/hc/articles/360016649099-Ubuntu-Linux-Login-Guide-U2F) which should work on any distribution. The package manager commands—such as 'apt-get'—and package names may however differ. This guide does not apply to Qubes OS.
Qubes OS
Qubes OS has support for Challenge-Response authentication with YubiKeys. If you have a YubiKey with Challenge-Response authentication support, take a look at the Qubes OS YubiKey documentation (https://qubes-os.org/doc/yubikey) if you want to set up MFA on Qubes OS.
SSH
Hardware Security Keys
SSH MFA could be set up using multiple different authentication methods that are popular with hardware security keys. We recommend that you check out Yubico's documentation (https://developers.yubico.com/SSH) on how to set this up.
TOTP
SSH MFA can also be set up using TOTP. DigitalOcean has provided a tutorial How To Set Up Multi-Factor Authentication for SSH on Ubuntu 20.04 (https://digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-multi-factor-authentication-for-ssh-on-ubuntu-20-04). Most things should be the same regardless of distribution, however the package manager commands—such as 'apt-get'—and package names may differ.
KeePass (and KeePassXC)
KeePass and KeePassXC databases can be secured using HOTP or Challenge-Response as a second-factor of authentication. Yubico has provided a document for KeePass Using Your YubiKey with KeePass (https://support.yubico.com/hc/articles/360013779759-Using-Your-YubiKey-with-KeePass) and there is also one on the KeePassXC (https://keepassxc.org/docs/#faq-yubikey-2fa) website.
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