this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2024
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I realized long time ago that I don't want my 2FA be tied to my phone number. And then i found you can't export your data from Authy because they know they are scummy fucks and don't want to anyone to leave
You can, though. But not through their app. Someone reverse engineered their protocol and wrote a program that connects like a new client, which you then approve, and it dumps all your random seeds into a text file. I then put them all into Keepass.
Edit: Unfortunately, the author has deprecated the project as Authy has added some attestations to their API, seemingly for this exact issue. https://github.com/alexzorin/authy?tab=readme-ov-file
People keep acting like Authy is betraying them by not having an export feature, but why exactly are you leaving Authy to begin with? Because they are a security risk?
You're gonna leave Authy a copy of your seeds? That defeats the purpose.
Re-key your MFA codes on the way out. Security isn't necessarily convenient.
Remind me to start a batch rekeying service.
I can't even begin to stress what a terrible idea that is. You absolutely don't want to make bulk-rekeying possible unless you like getting all of your accounts compromised at once.
If there's a benefit to such a tool would bad actors have already developed one?
They got rid of the desktop app.
Also, with shouldn't have your seeds. They're encrypted before they are transmitted to their servers and only decrypted on the device.
Do you know what it's called? I'd like to do this if possible.
They added a link, but the project has been deprecated
So what did you do?
On Android, I replaced Authy with the open-source Aegis app. It's just as functional, allows exporting, and doesn't tie your data to your phone number (nor store it on a central system--not sure if Authy does this or not).
Use TOTP wherever possible. It's standardized, and typically can be found somewhere if you keep digging hard enough.
Plenty of services push their own proprietary systems hard though. Looking at you M$
I also find this infuriating. I had a service offer TOTP for authentication. Installed an open source TOTP Aap, scanned the QR and voila.
The service meanwhile can control whether they want to generate a new token or give out the old one again, for instance when a device was lost.
It is the most easy, most convenient solution both for the service provider and the client. There is no excuse for any other 2FA system to be used.
Exporting data from a 2FA app sounds like the opposite of secure. Not to mention you don't want your 2FA codes on Authy (or any other 2FA app) to remain valid if you're not using it.
When I switched from Google Authenticator to Authy years ago, I went through each 2FA-enabled account one by one to disable 2FA and then re-enable it using Authy. It's a long process depending on how many accounts you have 2FA enabled on, but it's worth it.
Reading the OP, looks like it's time to generate new keys for all my 2FA accounts.
If you can't export / save / transfer codes then you need to regenerate all your 2fa codes every time you switch to a new device.
2FA doesn't need to be infallible, it just needs to be a second factor.
~~I used this method to export my twitch 2FA to Aegis. although I did this a few years ago, I think it still works~~
Edit: reading though comments made me realise Authy's desktop app doesnt seem to be a thing anymore, so sadly I dont think it works anymore
Wow, that was one of the things that drew it to me in the first place. I break phones too frequently to feel comfortable leaving everything to them.