[ARIN-consult] Consultation on Expanding 2FA Options for ARIN Online

Wed Jan 25 11:54:28 EST 2023

My thoughts (some of which others have previously stated):

  1.  I agree with others that email as MFA that is also the recovery email significantly weakens the overall security of it. Using an alternative email that is not the recovery email for 2FA would ameliorate that, if that is an option. I would be in support of email as MFA in that scenario.

  1.  Others pointed out SMS is considered a weaker MFA path (true), but I think there is a problem with widespread adoption of alternatives in ARIN’s service area. The “right” answer is to say FIDO\TOTP, but I don’t think we’re there from a practical standpoint yet and SMS use represents a practical reality for the time being. Restricting MFA to the ARIN region does seem like a continued reasonable middle ground, though I’m making that statement on the presumption that in theory those carriers are easier to assume reliability (or it is more difficult to compromise users on those services) that farther-flung international ones (which could be one of those myths I believe.) Definitely taking in the other comments and thinking about them.

  1.  I think there is a good reason to create some sort of upper bound on the number of keys registered. Unlimited disincentivizes users from actively managing the tokens registered and can create edge cases if someone takes advantage of that. 5-10 sounds superficially reasonable, though I’d be interested in other viewpoints detailing cases I may not be considering. Soft limits also seem good, if practical.

Thanks –

Doug

--
Douglas J. Camin
doug at dougcamin.com

From: ARIN-consult <arin-consult-bounces at arin.net> on behalf of Chris Woodfield <chris at semihuman.com>
Date: Tuesday, January 24, 2023 at 2:30 PM
To: ARIN <info at arin.net>
Cc: <arin-consult at arin.net>
Subject: Re: [ARIN-consult] Consultation on Expanding 2FA Options for ARIN Online

On Jan 24, 2023, at 11:16 AM, Ross Tajvar <ross at tajvar.io> wrote:

> 1. Would you support ARIN offering email as an additional 2FA method?
No. Email can be used to reset one's password. If it's used for one-time login codes as well, that's only one authentication factor. An email compromise could therefore easily result in account takeover, which defeats the purpose of 2FA.

Agreed. The password-reset mechanism and standard 2FA login process should not both use the same auth path.

> 2. Given that 13% of web user accounts list phone numbers outside the ARIN service region, should we widen the availability of SMS, or are the other offered 2FA options sufficient to meet the needs of these users?
I am against SMS 2FA being offered as an option at all, so I'm ambivalent about this.

I’m not a fan of SMS as a 2FA for all the obvious reasons, but also recognize that requiring FIDO/TOTP as the *only* supported 2FA is a sure path to tepid adoption. I believe that we should highly encourage users to prefer those mechanisms over SMS but not prohibit SMS as an option.

> 3. We agree that users should be allowed to register multiple hardware security keys. The question is: What is the optimal number of keys that should be allowed to be registered?
I can't see someone reasonably needing to register more than a handful, but I also don't think there's a good reason to set a low limit. I think 10 is a reasonable upper bound.

The only reason I can see to limit the number of keys is to discourage the use of a single account by multiple employees in an organization. I think a good approach is to have a soft limit (say, 8)  that can be increased on request to help combat this. There should also be a mechanism to delete no-longer-used 2FA keys instead of simply disabling them (Seems obvious, but I have accounts on sites that don’t allow this, leading to a ever-growing list of registered auth apps on various phones shown in my account)

Separate question - is there a workflow for manually resettting/removing user 2FA when users lose their tokens/auth apps/phone numbers/etc? How would ARIN staff authenticate those requests? Please, please don’t make that process involve a notary (I’m looking at you, AWS).

Thanks,

-Chris

On Tue, Jan 24, 2023 at 1:53 PM ARIN <info at arin.net<mailto:info at arin.net>> wrote:
On 1 November 2022, ARIN  announced that we will require two-factor authentication (2FA) on all ARIN Online accounts beginning 1 February 2023. ARIN currently has three options for customers to set up 2FA on their ARIN Online accounts:

- Time-based One-time Password (TOTP) using an authenticator of your choice
- Short Message Service (SMS) for customers within the ARIN service region
- FIDO2/Passkey-enabled Security Key

Please note: Voice 2FA is not currently available for new 2FA activations; it is still available to those customers who already have that method set up on their accounts.

Following the announcement of the planned enforcement date of 1 February 2023, we received several suggestions for further expansion of our authentication offerings, including:

- Allowing email as an authentication method
- Enabling SMS support for customers who reside outside of the ARIN service region
- Allowing registration of multiple hardware security keys.

We are seeking community feedback on these suggestions as well as additional input on our 2FA options. Specifically:

1. Would you support ARIN offering email as an additional 2FA method?

2. Given that 13% of web user accounts list phone numbers outside the ARIN service region, should we widen the availability of SMS, or are the other offered 2FA options sufficient to meet the needs of these users?

3. We agree that users should be allowed to register multiple hardware security keys. The question is: What is the optimal number of keys that should be allowed to be registered?

The feedback you provide during this consultation will help us decide the path forward regarding our 2FA options for ARIN Online. Thank you for your participation in the ARIN Consultation and Suggestion Process.

Please provide comments to arin-consult at arin.net<mailto:arin-consult at arin.net>. You can subscribe to this mailing list at: https://lists.arin.net/mailman/listinfo/arin-consult<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flists.arin.net%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Farin-consult&data=05%7C01%7C%7Cbf0bb50df42545aa2bb208dafe4179b2%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638101854428385449%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=qKZSPVTAkNB9AyQH6OXMve6wIukolPMfg048UqD020A%3D&reserved=0>

This consultation will remain open through 5:00 PM ET on 7 February 2023.

Regards,

John Curran
President and CEO
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)

Helpful Resources:

Consultation: https://www.arin.net/participate/community/acsp/consultations/2023/2023-1/
Two-Factor<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.arin.net%2Fparticipate%2Fcommunity%2Facsp%2Fconsultations%2F2023%2F2023-1%2FTwo-Factor&data=05%7C01%7C%7Cbf0bb50df42545aa2bb208dafe4179b2%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638101854428385449%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=sjBrCxaaYVFg8s3ae12vADXK7jD1f5zMb%2Bzh1GUuhL0%3D&reserved=0> Authentication at ARIN: https://arin.net/2FA<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Farin.net%2F2FA&data=05%7C01%7C%7Cbf0bb50df42545aa2bb208dafe4179b2%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638101854428385449%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=uT5HrwmseNdOl21BLKROcDi4KK9Lr7jEyTvFunkB5KU%3D&reserved=0>

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