Totp on the laptop

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There are not a great many good solutions to generate TOTP tokens on a laptop.
The one we recommend is KeepassXC

Installation

Please refer to the download and install section of the KeepassXC website for your OS.

Configure TOTP

TOTP is mostly used in combination with a smartphone. Therefore, most sites generate a QR code that encodes a TOTP secret in your mobile TOTP application.
To be able to use a TOTP generator on your laptop, we need to copy the secret.

Find your TOTP secret on your mobile phone

  • Open your TOTP mobile app. For each site that this app manages, you see an entry. Per site, you will see three dots in the upper right corner.
  • Click and choose 'edit account'
  • There you will find the secret key.
  • Copy this key and send it to your laptop.

Add secret to your Keepass vault

  • Open Keepass and create a new database if you do not have one already. A Keepass Database is meant to store your passwords. However, we recommend to keep your passwords and TOTP tokens in separate applications. If you choose to use Keepass for both, then make a separate database for both and use different passwords to lock the different databases
  • Once you have a database, add a new entry (entries -> new entry)
  • Add the basic information (TOTP cannot yet be added in this stage) and push OK.
  • Right click on your new entry -> TOTP > Set up TOTP
  • Add your secret key and press OK.

Using your TOTP

Once the secret key is added, KeppassXC can generate the tokens you are used to.

  • Right click your entry > TOTP > Copy TOTP
  • Your token can now be pasted into the website you try to access.
  • Test your token. If it does not work, it might mean that the defaults with which the secret was imported were not correct. Have a look if your token was indeed SHA-1 (99% of the cases).