Admin TOTP authentication device lost, how to get access?

[vico1959]

Hi folks,

Sorry if this has been answered before but I could not find a thread in my searching. This has not happened yet but I am asking in advance in case it does. I am using TOTP for admin GUI access. The thought has occurred to me that if I were to lose my authenticating device or access to it or something were to happen to me, how could anyone access the firewall GUI? I haven't seen any other backup authentication options such as email, etc. Would it then have to be accessed via console/ssh to resolve the issue? Or perhaps there is something else I'm not thinking of that would help. Forgive me if it is something simple that I am overlooking.

[fabian]

After all, it is an QR code. Make a backup of it in a safe place or use an access mechanism that does not depend on it such as SSH with private key. The TOTP seed is stored in the configuration file.

Also if you backup to nextcloud or anywhere else, you could extract the seed from there.

[vico1959]

That is actually not a bad idea to make a physical printout of the QR code and file that somewhere. That seems the simplest of all. Great thoughts. Thank you for that. Sometimes it is too easy to overlook the obvious.