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Sanity check: Yubikeys and password shares (reddthat.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/cybersecurity

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I've been thinking about getting a couple of Yubikeys for a partner and myself, but we share certain accounts. While I would love to have the Yubikey 5 that can store TOTP, that seems like it could be problematic for shared accounts.

Would using the cheaper Yubico Security Keys to unlock Bitwarden Premium vaults, that use a Shared Organization, be a better/more sane option than trying to sync up TOTP secrets every time a new shared account gets added? Any other critiques or suggestions?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (2 children)

All it takes to sync TOTP is to manually set up the secrets on all keys.

Keeping a second factor in a password manager makes it a single factor, doesn’t it?

[–] girsaysdoom 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It depends. Do you need MFA to access the password manager?

If not, then yes it reduces the effectiveness of having MFA on your accounts but they are still more secure than not having MFA at all.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

The password vaults do have MFA already. So they'd still need a password and the upgraded hardware key to get into the vaults.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

So let's say I'm at work, I set up NewAccount to use Yubikey A. Partner has Yubikey B and isn't nearby. How would I share or retrieve that secret key later? My understanding is that's not possible if it's stored on the key, but maybe I'm wrong.

[–] girsaysdoom 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

If you're just storing the password on the key then, no you can't get it unless you have the key. The main usage (arguably) for a yubikey is the FIDO2 auth method where you add those keys as MFA methods. That would allow access using either key.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I think of that like putting multiple things in the same basket, but putting two locks on that basket.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Thanks, that's kind of what I was thinking.

Sounds like a YK5 might still be a viable use case, but I'd have to do a deeper analysis of what account 2FA secrets would need to be shared versus which can be relegated onto individual keys and safely lose that "always accessible anywhere" trait.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I’m not evaluating whether or not you should do that, but, assuming you trust your partner and their op sec, you could send them the secret via a disappearing message on Signal or some other E2E encrypted communication method.

You set it up on your key, they add it to theirs later, the secret disappears into the ether.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Something to consider, certainly. Might be more complexity than my partner is willing to handle, but I'll have to have that conversation with them.