The end of an era.
Or actually, probably not until we redo whole cellular phone technology works and kick out all the bad actors using SS7 vulnerabilities for stuff like spoofing numbers and stealing messages. We really shouldn’t be using a 45 year old system for almost all communications.
I hate forced 2FA that you can’t disable anyway. I don’t want to waste time waiting for an insecure text, I don’t want to input an unencrypted code you sent to my email, I don’t want to click your damn notification that runs through Play Services, and no I’m not enrolling in passwordless auth. I don’t need to be babied into securing my accounts. Any account I do actively and willingly secure is already using TOTP. Let me put in my username and password, then kindly fuck off.
is already using TOTP.
A lot of things are moving to phishing-resistant technologies like FIDO2/WebAuthn or passkeys. All my important accounts, like my password manager, are secured using Yubikeys (one that I keep with me and one as a backup in a secure place).
Yeah. So you, myself, and some others are the exception to the rule. But, you can’t look at it that way because its a ‘lowest common denominator’ problem. The least secure of us means we are all only as secure. Others need to be hand held.
It’s definitely time to raise all boats and drop SMS 2fa like a hot rock.
Since when was sms ever secure? My understanding is that messages are sent in the clear, meaning your carrier and the recipient’s carrier both have the opportunity to intercept messages.
I mean that’s the message content, not the authentication, but still, sms is the opposite of secure, always has been.
Not true. SMS is encrypted in 3G, LTE, 5G. Block cyphers like Kasumi and A/9 are used. SMS is reasonably secure, because it’s hard to infiltrate telecom systems like S7
it’s hard to infiltrate telecom systems like S7
Telecom systems can be (and are) infiltrated though, which is what the FBI is warning about.
SS7 is very insecure. See this video, too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVyu7NB7W6Y
It’s hard, but not hard enough from what I’ve been able to gather. We should want something better IMO. I’m surprised that TOTP isn’t more common.
S7 will be retired or extended with access control. TOTP apps don’t work for edge cases like broken phone. Dedicated token devices get lost. SMS will continue being the main solution for 2FA.
'nuf said
id take email Authentication over sms Authentication if there was only them 2 let me use my 2facter app for the love of god plz i hate how banks use sms its like come on man
Always has been
NIST has been saying since 2016 not to use SMS for MFA. It’s always been horribly insecure.
The problem for me is that most Canadian Banks give you the choice of SMS or their shitty adware filled bank app that relies on Google Play Services and wont implement TOTP so I can use a true MFA app. And Im done with being forced to accept user policies I don’t agree with to do shit, and most of all done with Google Play Services on my device 😑
My bank prides itself being the first in the country to support yubikeys for 2fa. I was so happy until i learned it’s just for logging in, transactions are still confirmed by SMS or their app. And security experts all say it’s better this way, using a regular 2fa solution would be insecure because you wouldn’t know what you’re confirming.
There really is no hope.
It’s definitely possible to have a hardware token which allows confirming the transfer details - https://www.manua.ls/nationwide/card-reader-security-for-internet-banking/manual
I’m not defending that madness, but that device doesn’t show who is the recipient. The argument was that this is protection against phishing sites pretending to be a bank, proxying your connection but sending it to a different recipient.
Makes one wonder how much the user has to fuck up to end in such a scenario, and of it’s really worth transmitting everyone’s financial data in almost plain text over the air for this
This is the main reason I switched to Fidelity here in the US. It’s a brokerage, but it does basic bank things, like checks, debit card, etc, and they support SymantecVIP, which works w/o Google Play Services. TOTP support really isn’t that hard, I don’t understand why banks are so slow in adopting it…
In case you weren’t aware, Symantec VIP is just TOTP-OATH in a fancy coat. You can extract the secret and use it with any TOTP app. I use Authenticator Pro (now called Stratum) because it’s open-source and has a watch app.
Do you know how to extract it?
The issue is, banks are only going to do what they’re required to do by law. The government is run by dinosaurs who don’t know what computers are, let alone what TOTP is.
No, they’re only going to do what they’re required to do by their insurance. The law is an option, but if insurance costs go way up if they don’t have proper MFA, they’ll get MFA.
Thanks for this…I might be opening a Fidelity account…
I’ve got one. It’s nice. The cash is automatically invested in a money market account, which is a bit like a high yield savings account.
They’re fantastic. :)
The only negative stories I’ve heard are from people who really push the boundaries, like people day trading and whatnot. If you’re a regular user looking for a bank alternative, you should be good.
Just know their branches don’t really have any banking services, so you can’t go there to withdraw or deposit cash, get a cashier’s check, etc. I keep an account w/ a local institution and transfer money as needed for banking services.
I had a negative experience when initially setting up my account, because of TikTok. This group of kids who called themselves “Fidelity Boyz” discovered that you could deposit a fake check and immediately withdraw the money.
So many people did this that they had to severely lock things down. For most customers, money transferred in either via check or via ACH pull (telling Fidelity to take the money from an account at another bank), was subject to a 16 business day (three weeks and one day) hold. Direct deposits (e.g. paychecks) were not affected, and ACH pushes (when you tell another bank to send the money to Fidelity) were eventually fine too.
It was a big pain. The money I transferred was in limbo for a long time, after I had already switched all my auto-pays over to Fidelity, so I had to switch them all back until the money cleared.
Now that that’s over, it’s great. I love that they reimburse ATM fees worldwide, and I’m a big fan of their basket portfolios product since it makes it so easy to rebalance a portfolio. Saves me from having to manually do a bunch of calculations, and I love that it has a fixed monthly price instead of being percentage based like roboadvisors.
Now you’ve got me wondering about this for Canada. Would be a pita to move mortgage and investments, but there must be a better way than the big banks.
Here’s a website that tracks this kind of thing. No guarantees about being up-to-date, but from a surface-level check, it looks like you have options.
Thanks!
Adding to this that my Canadian bank just updated their app and it doesn’t work with my older phone. So my only option is to use online services with SMS/call verification.
It’s such a joy to know that my bank, who made $40.670 billion last year, takes care of every customer equally.
Even Bank of America doesn’t support MFA apps.
They support USB hardware tokens… but only for the website. Everything else is SMS which kinda defeats the point.
Annoyingly, other than Vanguard, they are the only financial institution to support USB FIDO tokens
Hollywood hacking has nothing on real hacking it seems.
Oh it turns out we needed NSA to do its actual fucking job after all rather than holding onto exploits for the surveillance state.
Now — for the second time — we have an adversarial administration eager to weaponize government departments while Americans are vulnerable. Why? Because America is the good guys and would never abuse its extrajudicial powers (say, by detaining, rendering and torturing Americans with names similar to those of POIs.)
We could have had twenty-four years of robust communications security developments if NSA didnt sell the public out like Judas.
rendering
Wait, are they melting people down to make soap now? Fight Club wasn’t just a meme then…
Extraordinary Rendition is the euphemism from the aughts from which the movie Rendition was titled. It means taking your detainee somewhere else, often across national borders, to a black site, usually to do things there for plausible deniability (e.g. we don’t torture in the United States )
Looks like I missed that movie, I’ll have to check it out.
And I don’t think I’ve ever heard the term “rendering” used in that context, I guess we just used other terminology. Thanks!
I’m new to technology, is this good?
They will now push proprietary apps which steal your data, so you decide.
In a sane world we would move to yubikeys or codes like Google authenticator, but we live in a post sane technological world
TOTP or GTFO
of course it is. forced 2fa BY SMS OF ALL THINGS is one of the stupidest ideas
Even stupider is supporting hardware keys for MFA, but having SMS fallback which can’t be disabled (looking at you, Vanguard). I’d much rather have email as my second factor than SMS, and I literally abandoned a bank (Ally) for removing email as an alternative to SMS.
I assume businesses only jumped at the chance to enable SMS 2FA to get their greedy little fingers on our phone numbers.
It was the simplest/cheapest form of 2FA to implement. Grandma will never understand how to setup TOTP.
Capitalism requires regulations, otherwise it will ALWAYS do what is cheapest or most profitable, regardless of how dangerous or destructive.
Oh man it sure would be nice if the feds had the power to regulate something like this /s
They did. That’s the reason for this hack, they wanted Lawful Interception, they got their backdoor. It’s what professionals and privacy advocates said all along, if it exists it will be abused.
This isn’t a hack in the way you’re thinking of, nor is it a product of government mandated interception, or a back door. The salt typhoon event you’re referring to is nothing more than the tip of the iceberg of a much bigger problem, which is abuse of the dated SS7 system we’ve known about for decades.
Do you have a source for this claim? I’d like to repeat it elsewhere…
I.e. this article from October: https://www.techradar.com/pro/chinese-hackers-allegedly-hit-us-wiretap-systems-to-hit-broadband-networks
In an all too predictable turn of events, Salt Typhoon, an infamous Chinese state actor, has reportedly hijacked government systems to breach several American broadband providers and gain access to the interception portals required by US law.
Thanks for bringing receipts. In stark contrast to my experience on Reddit, Lemmings usually seem allergic to showing their work for some reason.
Yeah, I don’t get it. I go out of my way to provide sources even before being asked.
What’s really frustrating is when others users criticize me for providing evidence that could be used to counter my claim. I’m not trying to win arguments, I’m trying to show my work so others can correct me if I missed something. I’m here to learn and educate, in that order, yet so many only seem interested in engaging in discussion that jives w/ their existing opinions. That was a problem on Reddit too, but at least someone would chime in w/ sources much of the time.
Its essentially what the apple vs FBI encryption legal battle was about years ago:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple–FBI_encryption_dispute
I’m not really a fan of apple, but I was very happy they stood their ground on that one. They were absolutely right to do so.
Why the hell is this in 4K HDR?
Only the best for the worst hack in history.
Been saying that for years. It’s about damn time.
SMS spoofing and SIM swapping have been around for ages. It was never secure and that’s always been known. The number of companies that rely on it despite sending me a zillion other fucking useless emails is too damn high! Email, or better yet, an authenticator app, are far more secure. Not perfect, but better.
Wait, how is email more secure than SMS?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_spoofing
So, it’s not that the message itself is insecure, but the inability to verify the sender makes phishing attacks possible or similar things. I get a text from a random number saying “click this link to pay your bill!” And I don’t have any way to trust its legit.
SIM swaps make it so people can take over your phone number temporarily and then generate 2fa requests to gain access to accounts. Doing the swap usually involves bribing someone or gaining access to a providers database by other means, but its been done a lot.
There are ways to prevent this, but the most straight forward is using a MFA app. Barring that 2FA via email is the next best thing.
One big reason I’m hesitant to keep my money in banks is because banks think the best form of two-factor authentication is text message based 2FA and I’m like that’s barely any 2FA at all.
My banks are like that too. Of course I can’t speak to anyone who might influence that decision. Steam has better security than almost any other account I have. I appreciate them for that but it also seems ludicrous to me that my video games are more secure than my bank accounts.
I keep my money in Monero. That way, it’s me who has to be targeted instead of an institution. And if I fuck up and lose it, it’s my own damn fault.
I have some crypto, some stocks, etc. For many things I still need standard banking though. Crypto just isn’t there yet. Maybe someday… But having money distributed is still smart either way, so I have many baskets for my eggs.
I keep a little bit in the bank, like enough to pay my bills and such, but any extra I put into Monero.
Thank god, give me my HMAC hash please.
Nothing more terrifying than losing your phone number these days because of all the accounts tied to it via 2FA.
