You may have noticed that Github are moving to 2FA (the first of the
TLA and ETLAs)
So I need to join whatever this is.

I installed freeOTP on my mobile phone and on my tablet, hoping that
would help. but it just sits quietly lurking but no interaction.

So far I have tried to follow the instructions but have failed almost
immediately.  The Github page offers a QR code and I did manage to
scan it.  The response was to say the encryption was too weak and I
should not use it.

So what next?  Noting seems to work.

Clearly I am getting too old to use a modern computer....  Please
help, someone

==John ffitch

Hi,

So gitlab (Microsoft) recently made it slightly harder to share code freely.
They make it look like you need some special app to generate OTP codes, but it's just a sort-of-standard algo.

Here's a python script to generate your 6-digit 2FA/OTP code, just run it whenever you need to log in.

SETTING UP
On your gitlab user page there's a button to get started using 2FA on your account.

There will be a popup window that shows a secret seed code (I think capital case letters only).
Paste this in the below script where it says
      '16-char secret here'

Then run the script and answer with the 6-digit output.
You might need to get next code a couple times if it fails, the output changes every 30 secs.

PS: After successful joinup, you get a bunch of recovery codes, you might want to paste them somewhere safe.


The script is not my work, just adapted from 2-3 sources (there are many).

Regards,
     /rasmus


##### Begin OTP-generator.py #####
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import hashlib
import hmac
import time
from base64 import b32decode
from math import floor

corporations = {
     'github username hint': '16-char secret here',  # Don't publish this...
     # you can add more "accounthint": "secret" pairs here
}

# Config params - the most common choices
DIGEST_METHOD = hashlib.sha1
UPDATE_PERIOD = 30  # secs
OUTPUT_DIGITS = 6


def decode_secret(secret):
     missing_padding = len(secret) % 8
     if missing_padding != 0:
         secret += "=" * (8 - missing_padding)
     return b32decode(secret, casefold=True)

def int_to_bytestring(i: int, padding: int = 8) -> bytes:
     """
     Turns an integer to the OATH specified bytestring,
     which is fed to the HMAC along with the secret
     """
     result = bytearray()
     while i != 0:
         result.append(i & 0xFF)
         i >>= 8
     # It's necessary to convert the final result from bytearray to bytes
     # because the hmac functions in python 2.6 and 3.3 don't work with bytearray
     return bytes(bytearray(reversed(result)).rjust(padding, b"\0"))


def get_timestamp(timestep=UPDATE_PERIOD):
     now_in_seconds = floor(time.time())
     t = floor(now_in_seconds / timestep)
     return int(t)


def get_otp(secret, challenge=get_timestamp()):
     hasher = hmac.new(decode_secret(secret), int_to_bytestring(challenge), DIGEST_METHOD)
     hmac_hash = bytearray(hasher.digest())
     offset = hmac_hash[-1] & 0xF
     code = (
         (hmac_hash[offset] & 0x7F) << 24
         | (hmac_hash[offset + 1] & 0xFF) << 16
         | (hmac_hash[offset + 2] & 0xFF) << 8
         | (hmac_hash[offset + 3] & 0xFF)
     )
     str_code = str(10_000_000_000 + (code % 10**OUTPUT_DIGITS))
     return str_code[-OUTPUT_DIGITS :]


output = ''
for key, secret in corporations.items():
     output += f'{key}: {get_otp(secret)}\n'

print(output)


##### END 2FA CODE-GEN SCRIPT #####



Den 2023-11-27 kl. 16:22, skrev John ff:
> You may have noticed that Github are moving to 2FA (the first of the
> TLA and ETLAs)
> So I need to join whatever this is.
> 
> I installed freeOTP on my mobile phone and on my tablet, hoping that
> would help. but it just sits quietly lurking but no interaction.
> 
> So far I have tried to follow the instructions but have failed almost
> immediately.  The Github page offers a QR code and I did manage to
> scan it.  The response was to say the encryption was too weak and I
> should not use it.
> 
> So what next?  Noting seems to work.
> 
> Clearly I am getting too old to use a modern computer....  Please
> help, someone
> 
> ==John ffitch
>