A tale of two sides of 2FA

Two-factor/Multi-factor authentication (2FA/MFA/whatever your choice of acronym) is an important security pillar in any application, but sometimes it fails us as users and developers. How you use and implement 2FA can have huge impacts on how secure it will be, and the protection it ultimately provides. Finding best practices about implementing 2FA can be difficult. Learn from a real world implementation, and come out knowing how to protect yourself and how to not let down your users.

Transcript

1. @tech_christine A tale of two sides of 2FA It can be the best of security, or the worst of security
2. @tech_christine What you will learn ✓ What is 2FA/MFA ✓ How to secure your accounts ✓ What are the 2FA types ✓ How to protect users and secure an application ✓ Potential testing steps ✓ 2FA development best practices "...it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness..."
3. @tech_christine Taking notes or pictures Asking stupid questions https://christine-seeman.com/talks Things you don't need to worry about "...it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity..."
4. @tech_christine London and Paris
5. @tech_christine User and Developer
6. @tech_christine
9. @tech_christine Back to the beginning To when you signed up for
10. @tech_christine
11. @tech_christine
12. @tech_christine What was the hacker up to? Calling your mobile provider
13. @tech_christine On the phone with your mobile provider... Using social engineering
14. @tech_christine Now they have all the access... Sim swap/sim hijacking
15. @tech_christine
16. “ @tech_christine We learned that SMS-based authentication is not nearly as secure as we would hope, and the main attack was via SMS intercept Christopher Slowe Reddit chief technology officer and founding engineer August 2018
17. @tech_christine What is authentication? The process of verifying that someone or something is the actual entity that they claim to be. - OWASP.org (these people know what they are talking about when it comes to security)
18. @tech_christine ... but what are the different factors of auth? 1. factor is knowledge (i.e. your password) 2. is the other method choice - Possession (token/soft token) - Identity (biometrics)
19. @tech_christine 2FA == 2SV == MFA 2FA = Two factor authentication 2SV = Two Step verification MFA = Multi-factor authentication What about all those other acronyms...
20. @tech_christine Why didn't 2FA help? •SMS was used •2FA wasn't even enabled
21. @tech_christine • Most common • Most compromised • Not recommended by NIST since 2016 SMS
22. @tech_christine If SMS wasn't bad enough •SS7 (network shared by every telecom) has it's own vulnerabilities •Text messages that are sent can be intercepted
23. @tech_christine Let's figure out all the ways to hack it... 1. Sim-swap (aka what just happened to us) 2. Port-out scam 3. Brute force on the application itself 4. Exploit SS7 weakness
24. @tech_christine Time-based One Time Password aka app based aka soft token • Authy • Google Authenticator • 1Password TOTP
25. @tech_christine • Associated with certain authorized devices • Not visible on a locked phone screen Push Based
26. @tech_christine Token based Physical keys that can auth • USB drive • near-field communication • Many use U2F (Universal 2nd Factor)
27. @tech_christine OTP vs U2F
28. @tech_christine OTP U2F • User has physical device • Strong security from public key cryptography • No personal information associated with a key • Users type in codes • Set up and provision required • Secrets stored, providing a single point of attack
29. What would you change now?
30. @tech_christine Secure Your Account 1. Use long password/passphrase 2. Secure with alternate authentication method 3. Use a VOIP number 4. Don't reuse passwords 5. Pin/password protect phone provider Keep on being @awesome
31. @tech_christine But wait... Now you are the developer at jiffygram (an insta rival) How do you secure your users from all the bad stuff out there?
32. @tech_christine • Developers • Designers • Infrastructure • Managers • Not just info sec! Security is everyone's job
33. @tech_christine Back to your security basics 1. Strong passwords/passphrase # 2. Don't make them be rotated 3. Store the hash securely 4. Only store sensitive data that you need ⛔
34. https://xkcd.com/936/ @tech_christine
35. @tech_christine Why this helps •Greater entropy = harder to brute force the password •Passwords should be hard to guess, but easy to remember •Extra length + randomness allows for more entropy (strength)
38. Do this @tech_christine
39. @tech_christine
40. Not this ☹ @tech_christine
41. ⬆ that is 6 a's @tech_christine
42. Not this either @tech_christine
43. @tech_christine Let's talk about password hash encryption • Just an algorithm that takes data and produces fixed-size output • Some hashes are stronger then others • MD5/SHA-1 = + • SHA-256/512-bit SHA-2= , • If possible with performance, use an adaptive one- way function
44. @tech_christine Strong recommended adaptive functions Argon2 PBKDF2 Scrypta Bcrypt Head on over to OWASP.org for more details
45. @tech_christine ...a user lost their phone/app access/token • Recovery codes to the rescue! - • Allows access to application • Shown once, used once
46. @tech_christine lessons learned 2FA Implementation @tech_christine
47. @tech_christine Rate limiting prevents brute force attacks @tech_christine
48. @tech_christine Rate limiting prevents brute force attacks @tech_christine
49. @tech_christine Use a truncated exponential back-off algorithm @tech_christine
50. @tech_christine What is an exponential back-off algorithm?
51. @tech_christine Code example in Ruby login_request if retries <= max_retries retries += 1 sleep (retries + rand(100)/1000) retry else raise "You've hit your max retries!" end
52. @tech_christine Get user buy-in
53. @tech_christine
54. @tech_christine ✓ Make it easy opt in ✓ Make it easy to add ✓ Make it visible
55. @tech_christine Do this
56. @tech_christine Not this American Express OpenShift Netflix Pandora Pinterest Spotify Target Best Buy Freshbooks State Farm AT&T 2FA
57. @tech_christine Enforce authentication on all pages
58. @tech_christine • For editing/removing of 2FA require credentials • If authentication does fail, be generic in error response Moar authentication
59. Do this "Login failed - invalid user ID or password"
60. Not this "Login for User foo: invalid password" "Login failed, invalid user ID" "Login failed; account disabled" "Login failed; this user is not active"
61. @tech_christine Users with the most amount of privilege, 2FA is a requirement not optional
62. @tech_christine 2FA can help but... • Can only improve security if you are following secure password practices • Some 2FA methods are more secure then others
64. @tech_christine Thanks for having me! All the organizers and volunteers deserve 2 2 2 Tyson Reeder for the final graphic @tysondreeder For references and further reading checkout https://christine-seeman.com/talks
65. @tech_christine getflywheel.com/about/careers
66. @tech_christine What questions can I answer?
67. code!!
68. @tech_christine Twilio API Example
69. @tech_christine The Ruby One Time Password Library Example
70. @tech_christine
71. @tech_christine But you need to get this code to your user...
72. @tech_christine Authy One Touch API Example
73. @tech_christine QR Code Rendering https://github.com/whomwah/rqrcode ROTP: TOTP https://github.com/mdp/rotp Twilio Ruby API https://www.twilio.com/docs/libraries/ruby Auth Ruby API https://github.com/twilio/authy-ruby