> didn’t have backup codes
ok. check. So.. the advice is maybe.. "always have your backup codes"
ok. check. So.. the advice is maybe.. "always have your backup codes"
You can have 40 different devices all generating valid current totp codes at the same time, and you can spin up a new one at any time if you kjust have any way to access your passwords.
IE, if you have any form of copy of say a keepass db anywhere, it can contain the seed values for each site right along with the passwords, and you can buy a brand new phone or laptop, of any platform or os, and install any keepss compatible app, and load that db file, you will need to know the password for that db file itself out of your head, and then keepass itself can display the totp codes or you can read the seed values and enter them into some other totp app to generate the totp codes.
Always have accessible copies of your password manager db that's all. The seed values are just more stuff you keep in the db just like the passwords.
The problem is just that no one tells you that the number in the original qr code is savable and reusable. They show you the qr code or a url and don't tell you that it's the keys to your own kingdom. They let you just throw it away without ever telling you what it actually was.
If you have a working totp for some site right now, go and use it one last time to disable 2fa on that site, and the re-enable it, and this time keep the seed value. Put it right into a keepass db and sync that to at least one other place. Safe for life after that.
The one-time-use emergency codes you can ignore. Fine keep them, but they don't give you anything you don't already have with the seed value. Maybe they could be used to give to like family members or employees or something for weird never-actually-use-this scenarios, the one-time-use nature might be useful, and the ability to revoke it by just using it yourself to burn it.
The one-time-use emergency codes are stupid. The seed value is all you need, and it's just another secret like the password. You can copy it in any form you want, and use it on a new device or on 13 differnet current devices, whatever.
The danger from losing the seed value is no different from the danger from losing your password. The difficulty of keeping and re-using the seed value is also no more than for any other secret or password.
The totp apps and sites that use them create a problem where there isn't any by simply not telling you to save the seed value. It's perverse, becauyse they do give you the seed value. They have to. They show it directly to you because it has to go through you to get from a web site into a totp app.
That might be automated by a qr code, but they had to display the qr code to you, and you can just as easily copy and read that qr code as the totp app can. It's effortless to save it along the way. But they just don't tell you what it is and don't tell you to keep it.
THAT is the only reason you end up screwed later.You were essentially not told what you were holding briefly, and told to discard it, but it's actually the keys to your kingdom and you can just, not throw it away.
Or do throw it away and then try to make silly arguments about how you're locked out.
Or at all?
What if you made a new Uber account with another email address? Would you be committing a venal sin?
Your actual sin, non-venal, was not naming the thread either "I love reductive argument ad absurdiam" or "Uber needs a real human on the helpdesk, this is why"
Uber accounts are tied to phone numbers. Should I get a new phone number just because Uber's support bot is incapable of helping me recover my account?
This itself is an actual problem.
They have access to the Internet at libraries and as more and more of the world goes on line, that access becomes more and more necessary. But they don't necessarily have a wallet (let alone a safe) to store passwords and 2FA tokens, and when they lose them it's a major issue.
This is a known problem but (as with so many issues in marginalized communities), the challenge to solving it is that it will make the system worse for everyone (including them) if we relax 2FA requirements; hackers can crack passwords on, and impersonate, the homeless just as easily as everyone else.
(The best idea I've actually heard in this space is for librarians to be willing to serve as data repositories for their local unhoused patrons. They are onsite enough and have enough face-to-face interaction to be able to spot-auth someone because they know them by name. But there's a massive liability concern about the library becoming a target for identity theft that keeps most places from considering it).
You don't need the annoying one-time-use backup codes either, you can save and copy and reuse the original seed value just like any other secret. Or generate a new one now and save that, if your current single copy is not in software that provides a means of export.
The seed value is just another password. You can have any number of copies of it in any number of forms from a text file to printed in a safe deposit box. You can have any number of working copies of it on any number of different devices, all at the same time.
If you are in another country with nothing but your head, you can buy a new device, use it to access a copy of your secrets by any means you want, install software fresh, load your seed values, and regain all your totp.
You will need a way to access your secrets without totp. This can be anything, a paper copy, a sd card, an online service that you can access with only a password or that can be recovered, a phone call to a family member who you can tell how to access something and read it to you, whatever, it's just some text you have to stick somewhere and get back to later.
And if you don't have either the one time codes or the original seed value (from the original qr code or url) but you have an app that works right now, you can go redo it and this time save the seed value.
There is really no danger from totp EXCEPT the fact that most common apps and web sites obfuscate what's actually going on, and don't tell you to save the seed value, and instead give you these one time use codes. That creates a danger where there wasn't any.
Ideally, for proper security one should not do the convenient thing and store both the normal logn and the totp seed value in the same place, but for instance keepass can store everything and not only store the seed value but also display the current totp code to use for logging in.
All your 12 different copies of your keepass db file are all fully functional totp generators, and all you have to do is just load that db on any new device.
Harsh but let this be a lesson to set up a more resilient structure for yourself moving forward. Anyone can make mistakes. You can set up failsafes for your own ones pre-emptively.
"2FA is garbage" is not the right lesson to learn here...
I forgot my backup code, so now I can just never use Uber again.
Lesson learned!
(you see how ridiculous this is, right?)