Comment on This is why we have two-factor authentication.

• ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  A big feature of sms is that it’s not encrypted. Every tower that recieves the message is trusted to forward it unaltered. This is one attack avenue.

  www.helpnetsecurity.com/2020/11/…/sms-voice-mfa/

  Things like the following are generally recommended though Microsoft recommends using their app. www.yubico.com

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  • Hawke@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Okay that makes sense. Yes sms is insecure, not 2fa.

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• axx@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Briefly: look into sim swapping, which is the most obvious, day to day risk.

  Then there’s SS7 and how inherently trusting the whole system is.

  Then depending on where you are, some mobile networks still have terrible link encryption (were talking so bad a normal laptop is enough these days to break it on the fly). Granted, this is rare these days, in part thanks to the efforts of Karsten Knohl, SRLabs and other security researchers who did a lot to shine a light on this and SS7

  Not sure how up to date it still is, but https://gsmmap.srlabs.de/ shows how unequal networks are.

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  • Hawke@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    That’s all sms though, not 2fa in general.

    All valid points and good information within that scope.

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    • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      and sms is an insecure system to begin with.

      citation needed on the second half

      That’s all sms though, not 2fa in general.

      Are you an LLM?

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      • Hawke@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        It’s been edited, bud.

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  • Prathas@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    This is becoming less of an issue as US Mobile has anti-SIM-hijacking protection; hopefully other carriers will follow suit. Of course, the carriers themselves can still read your msgs, but so can WhatsApp, probably (despite their claims to the contrary).

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