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2FA Email, not phone

JAB Creations

I would like to setup 2FA for WHM however it wants me to install a phone app: no.

I just want WHM to send me an email code for 2FA. Where is this option hidden?

Comments

2 comments

Date Votes
  • rbairwell

    There isn't a two factor authentication by email option.

    You don't actually need a phone app. Whilst there are plenty of ad-free and free-of-charge mobile authentication apps you could use (such as Google Authenticator, Authy , Duo , Proton Authenticator , YubiCo Authenticator , Microsoft Authenticator , FreeOTP , Aegis Authenticator ), there are a number also available on desktop (such as the YubiCo authenticator and FreeOTP) and most password managers (such as 1Password, BitWarden and LastPass) can also store the ToTP 2FA secret and generate the code.

    You could also host your own 2fa generator on a website (not really recommended) or on your local machine using available online code or from scratch using the documentation at https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6238/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-based_one-time_password 

    Failing all that, there are (shuddering at the thought), web based 2fa generators such as https://2fa.co.com https://www.twofa.net https://twofa.co which might work (I haven't tried them and would not personally trust my private authentication secrets to a third party website like them).

    Honestly, there is no reason I can think of not to have a 2fa app of some sort on a phone/computer/tablet instead of having to wait for emails (what would happen in your scenario if you needed to login to restart exim? Your server cannot send out emails without it and if your email is hosted on the same server and dovecot is down you couldn't receive it). ToTP just relies on two systems knowing the approximately time (usually within a minute of each other) and shared secrets - nothing else is needed. 

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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    We actually have a feature request open for exactly this over at https://features.cpanel.net/c/282-2fa-with-email-security-codes so I'd encourage you to add any feedback you have there!

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