Just wondering what people are using to meet the 2FA requirement GitHub has been rolling out. I don’t love the idea of having an authenticator app installed on my phone just to log into GitHub. And really don’t want to give them my phone number just to log in.
Last year, we announced our commitment to require all developers who contribute code on GitHub.com to enable two-factor authentication (2FA)…
That’s minimal to me. I chose 1password for this exact reason, read all of their technical docs.
1password uses encryption with a 2-part key, your password and your “Secret key” which is essentially a salt. Combining those two, they encrypt your entire storage blob and store it. They’re very clear that there is no backdoor, there it is encrypted using your keys, and they do not store those keys anywhere - and that if you lose your keys you’re out. There are zero recovery options. Which I love. (Which means I do not recommend it to non tech folks who will probably lose one of these keys)
So the secret key is similar to a guid, can have that written down somewhere, and your password should never be written down anywhere, and be completely unique. Doing those two things, I feel confident that keeping my 2FA in my most secure area is safe. There is minimal chance that someone is able to log in remotely to my 1password, even if they got my key, my password isn’t written down.
The convenience of this is x1000, while the risk to me is negligible. It’s why when I worked in fintech it was the manager of choice, and I recommend it for secrets in kubernetes. Until they prove me wrong, security is truly number one with them.
I love 1Password, they’re great (I personally use Bitwarden for my passwords, but would happily recommend either of them). But by putting both your authenticator codes and your passwords in the same place, you now have a single point of failure. What happens if someone finds an exploit in 1Password that gives them access to your account? The whole point of 2FA is to not have a single point of failure.
I’ll happily take that chance for the convenience. Even if 1password leaks, they don’t have the keys to my vault. They would need my key and password to unlock it. The only time that isn’t needed is if it’s unlocked, which only is on my linux computer, which means they need to find an exploit with their app. In the 7 years I’ve used them I’ve never even heard a wiff of something even small happening.