That depends. More of the popular ones don’t encrypt the secret keys, they can just be read out with root access or even with the use of ADB (the pull command), not even speaking about reading the memory contents while booted to a recovery.
Some even uploads the keys to a cloud service for convenience, and they consider it a feature.
Sounds more like a bad design than purposefully left backdoors. Very few devices are rooted and usually you cannot get root without fully wiping your device in process. As for cloud upload, that indeed is convenient for most regular users. I prefer encrypted offline backup like Aegis does, but you need to think about regular folk if they would loose or wipe their device.
It’s not bad design, it’s definitely intentional, however I agree that it’s probably not for having backdoors, but for convenience. Average people forget their passwords all the time, and with encryption that level of carelessness is fatal to your data if they have not saved it somewhere, which they probably didn’t do.
Very few devices are rooted and usually you cannot get root without fully wiping your device in process.
I’m pretty sure the system is not flawless. Probably it’s harder to find an exploit in the OS than it was years ago, but I would be surprised if it would be really rare. Also, I think a considerable amount of people use the cheapest phones of no name brands (even if not in your country), or even just tablets that haven’t received updates for years and are slow but “good for use at home”. I have one at home that I rarely use. Bootloader cannot be unlocked, but there’s a couple of exploits available for one off commands and such.
Q: I got a prompt asking me to grant permission for the app to access my location. Why am I seeing this?
A: You will see a prompt from the Authenticator app asking for access to your location if your IT admin has created a policy requiring you to share your GPS location before you are allowed to access specific resources. You’ll need to share your location once every hour to ensure you are still within a country where you are allowed to access the resource.
And? I don’t give a shit what the admins of my network want. It’s DFA – they don’t deserve to know that. Ergo, I don’t use the MS app. They can kiss my ass and fire me if they don’t trust where I am.
It’s a security / compliance policy. There is a very high chance your company has not even enabled it, have not seen anyone using it.
As I see it, you would and could use it only if you force MS Authenticator notification as the only MFA method and it is important in which country MFA prompt originates. Usually it is IP based block / whitelist which checks IP from which login originates which seems like a much more useful info, then you can also allow any MFA method.
Your question was why GPS permission is needed, you should now know why.
I am using MS Authenticator and Aegis. Using MS authenticator only for work accounts that have been setup for number matching feature, it is pretty nice to simply enter 2 digits in app than entering 6 digits in client itself any time you need to approve MFA.
Everything else that supports standard TOTP whether work related or personal is on Aegis - it is a much better TOTP app.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !privacyguides@lemmy.one
In the digital age, protecting your personal information might seem like an impossible task. We’re here to help.
This is a community for sharing news about privacy, posting information about cool privacy tools and services, and getting advice about your privacy journey.
You can subscribe to this community from any Kbin or Lemmy instance:
Check out our website at privacyguides.org before asking your questions here. We’ve tried answering the common questions and recommendations there!
Want to get involved? The website is open-source on GitHub, and your help would be appreciated!
This community is the “official” Privacy Guides community on Lemmy, which can be verified here. Other “Privacy Guides” communities on other Lemmy servers are not moderated by this team or associated with the website.
Moderation Rules:
We prefer posting about open-source software whenever possible.
No soliciting engagement: Don’t ask for upvotes, follows, etc.
Surveys, Fundraising, and Petitions must be pre-approved by the mod team.
Be civil, no violence, hate speech. Assume people here are posting in good faith.
Don’t repost topics which have already been covered here.
News posts must be related to privacy and security, and your post title must match the article headline exactly. Do not editorialize titles, you can post your opinions in the post body or a comment.
Memes/images/video posts that could be summarized as text explanations should not be posted. Infographics and conference talks from reputable sources are acceptable.
No help vampires: This is not a tech support subreddit, don’t abuse our community’s willingness to help. Questions related to privacy, security or privacy/security related software and their configurations are acceptable.
No misinformation: Extraordinary claims must be matched with evidence.
Do not post about VPNs or cryptocurrencies which are not listed on privacyguides.org. See Rule 2 for info on adding new recommendations to the website.
General guides or software lists are not permitted. Original sources and research about specific topics are allowed as long as they are high quality and factual. We are not providing a platform for poorly-vetted, out-of-date or conflicting recommendations.
Are there well known TOTP apps with backdoors?
That depends. More of the popular ones don’t encrypt the secret keys, they can just be read out with root access or even with the use of ADB (the pull command), not even speaking about reading the memory contents while booted to a recovery.
Some even uploads the keys to a cloud service for convenience, and they consider it a feature.
Sounds more like a bad design than purposefully left backdoors. Very few devices are rooted and usually you cannot get root without fully wiping your device in process. As for cloud upload, that indeed is convenient for most regular users. I prefer encrypted offline backup like Aegis does, but you need to think about regular folk if they would loose or wipe their device.
It’s not bad design, it’s definitely intentional, however I agree that it’s probably not for having backdoors, but for convenience. Average people forget their passwords all the time, and with encryption that level of carelessness is fatal to your data if they have not saved it somewhere, which they probably didn’t do.
I’m pretty sure the system is not flawless. Probably it’s harder to find an exploit in the OS than it was years ago, but I would be surprised if it would be really rare. Also, I think a considerable amount of people use the cheapest phones of no name brands (even if not in your country), or even just tablets that haven’t received updates for years and are slow but “good for use at home”. I have one at home that I rarely use. Bootloader cannot be unlocked, but there’s a couple of exploits available for one off commands and such.
Anything closed source could have backdoors. Trust no one.
Why does MS Authenticator need GPS permissions?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/datasafety?id=com.azure.authenticator
As per their FAQ:
And? I don’t give a shit what the admins of my network want. It’s DFA – they don’t deserve to know that. Ergo, I don’t use the MS app. They can kiss my ass and fire me if they don’t trust where I am.
It’s a security / compliance policy. There is a very high chance your company has not even enabled it, have not seen anyone using it.
As I see it, you would and could use it only if you force MS Authenticator notification as the only MFA method and it is important in which country MFA prompt originates. Usually it is IP based block / whitelist which checks IP from which login originates which seems like a much more useful info, then you can also allow any MFA method.
You can always deny permissions to apps.
You’re not convincing me.
It’s rather sick to an app that’s open source
Your question was why GPS permission is needed, you should now know why.
I am using MS Authenticator and Aegis. Using MS authenticator only for work accounts that have been setup for number matching feature, it is pretty nice to simply enter 2 digits in app than entering 6 digits in client itself any time you need to approve MFA.
Everything else that supports standard TOTP whether work related or personal is on Aegis - it is a much better TOTP app.
i dont care