- Jan 8, 2011
- 22,361
As far as I'm aware, both Bitwarden and 1Password allow TOTP (time-based one-time passwords) to be stored in the same place as your passwords. LastPass offers a standalone LastPass Authenticator app for both Free / Premium users - it sync's to your LP account for backup purposes - as does Microsoft Authenticator with your MS account.
They (1Password) continue on to say this:
True Two Factor - "the device that holds your TOTP secret should never hold your password if your aim is genuine two factor security."
LastPass Free users can technically achieve this with the upcoming changes, if they make their Computer their default, and use their Mobile for TOTP authentication.
What do you think? Is it realistic for real-world users? Or do you want convenience over security?
Quoted from this article written in 2015.
One time passwords are often part of second factor security systems, but using one time passwords doesn’t automatically give you second factor security. Indeed, when you store your TOTP secret in the same place that you keep your password for a site, you do not have second factor security.
They (1Password) continue on to say this:
If you would like to turn a site’s offering of TOTP into true two-factor security, you should not store your TOTP secret in 1Password (or in anything that will synchronize across systems). Furthermore, you should not use the regular password for the site on the same device that holds your TOTP secret.
Put simply: the device that holds your TOTP secret should never hold your password if your aim is genuine two factor security.
Personally, I don’t think that following that practice would be worthwhile for anything but a very small number of special circumstances, in which case, you should probably be using a specialized second factor device instead of something like a phone. But not everyone shares my opinion on this, and if you have a need for true second-factor security for some particular site or service, you should take that into account before adding a TOTP secret to 1Password.
True Two Factor - "the device that holds your TOTP secret should never hold your password if your aim is genuine two factor security."
LastPass Free users can technically achieve this with the upcoming changes, if they make their Computer their default, and use their Mobile for TOTP authentication.
What do you think? Is it realistic for real-world users? Or do you want convenience over security?