Why don't phones support 2FA?

guyrocket@kbin.social to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – -8 points –

Phones could allow much higher security if they supported 2 factor authentication. This could be face/fingerprint along with a typed or swiped password. This seems like a simple solution that leverages software that is already implemented. Just make it an added option in addition to the existing one

ETA: Sorry for the duplicate posts, I was getting error messages. Pls use this one.

I am surprised there is confusion about what 2fa is. Here is a simple definition: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/business/security-101/what-is-two-factor-authentication-2fa

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Phones do. MFA via biometric is a thing and has been for quite some time.

Even apple face Id is a method of mfa

?

I must be missing something. Facial recognition is 1 method. What is the second?

For convenience phones don't always ask for the pin code. That is the other method.

I don't think you understand 2FA.

2FA is using your password and your phone (for example) to get into an account.

If someone has your phone and your biometrics/password you're basically screwed.

It seems like a really unlikely sequence of events that would lead to this.

Do you have any sources talking about this happening?

OP is correct 2FA refers to authentication via 2 factors, e.g. digital and pin. Phones use only one, you can unblock them with either a digital or a password, that's LESS secure than 1FA and much less secure than 2FA.

The phone itself is not a factor, because every scenario starts with the attacker having access to the phone. If phones had 2FA someone would need to get your digital AND your password to access it, so a lot less likely to happen than having either of them.

The answer as to why that's not an option is this would be impractical and people wouldn't use it. But it would be definitely more secure than current system.

I think the confusion here is that I mean to use 2FA to access my phone, not websites or other hardware.

I think you're getting downvoted because many people don't understand exactly what you mean by 2FA, and especially, for what purpose.

You could try to clarify that, but let me see if I get this right: You'd like to use 2FA as a more secure way to access your phone, having the phone require 2 factors to unlock it; not as a way to use your phone as one of the "two factors" for some other 3rd party account, right?

Basically, you'd like a phone to support an authentication method requiring 2 factor to unlock the phone itself, for example both a PIN and fingerpring, or passphrase and face recognition, is that right? As in, one needs both factors, not one or the others. If so, yeah, I guess that could be pretty useful for the very security conscious among us.

You are correct. I was thinking about how to set a passphrase on my phone.

In a scenario where one is unconscious, fingerprint or facial recognition are poor protection. Add a passphrase or swipe to a physical identity methods and you are protected.

Not certain, but I think this also could help protect from virtual attacks because even if they get your passphrase they also need a physical identity method.

Now that I think about it, there is a problem: fingerprint & face ID are not 100% correct all the time, so they'd rather have false negatives than false positives, i.e. they'd rather deny access to someone who is authorized, rather than grant access to someone who is not. This is normally not a problem, cause if for whatever reason the biometric method doesn't work (e.g. wet fingers, wearing gloves, wearing full face mask, etc) then you always have the PIN/passphrase ... but with your 2FA idea this wouldn't work anymore.

That's interesting. I have never really used the biometric keys so I'm not familiar with that.

So set up another backup password for situations where biometric keys fail. Then the 2 passes that you type unlock the phone.

Sorry for the downvotes dude, it‘s a very fair question i don‘t really have an answer for

  1. Have device

  2. Have passcode/fingerprint/face

Two factors