Sonatype who continues their journey in challenging DevOps domain called an event on 05/04/2021 to talk about developer’s perspective on Digital transformation. Below are the topics suggested for the discussion and my take on it.
We have been talking about the changing role of the developer in a DevSecOps digital transformation – from taking ownership of source code quality and open source security, to containers and cloud infrastructure. How have you seen the role of developers change at your own organizations?
What has been the biggest change in DevOps practices and tooling in the last couple of years and how do you effectively roll out these new solutions?
What is the one thing that developers need the most when it comes to innovating more quickly to meet digital transformation goals?
How has the relationship between development and security teams changed?
What has been the biggest benefit to moving to a DevSecOps approach?
For the people attending this event, what is the one lesson learned you would want them to walk away with?
Changes in Developer’s Role
Focus is shifting indeed to containers, to their operational environments such as Kubernetes, to different deployment models and tools. While simplicity of operational tools, e.g. Ansible Playbooks vs native Kubernetes OpenShift becomes a focus for platform developers, for developers creating and deploying business apps it’s all about learning new stuff at a warp speed.
For security engineers it becomes even more challenging, because they need to learn everything in DevOps domain plus threats associated with new tools and all possible mitigating controls.
Cloud and especially multi-cloud path adds to that complexity, because in many cases it’s simply impossible to use existing on-prem security and security automation tools that worked well on-prem for decades, so security have options:
Look around for native cloud controls
Search for multi-cloud solutions
Develop their own security tools that work well in cloud environment
Once again – everything needs to be done at warp speed. Conclusion: a role of a developer becomes more a researcher than a coder.
The Biggest Change
The biggest changes occur when a company decides to move to a different operational model, e.g. from on-prem to cloud, or from working mostly on-site to a completely remote model. Covid-19 was a real Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity check for systems design mostly for on-site work where VPN was considered as an exception.
Suddenly companies realized that nobody has passed that check and new approaches to accessing systems that have been previously considered as internal. That was a big and natural transformational push to get rid of VPN and make internal applications available from Internet.
It affected DevSecOps tooling as well and the way how they are accessed: code repos, cloud deployments tools, monitoring tools, everything is available from Internet.
The good thing about this change is that companies started thinking seriously and embarking on contemporary access model, such as Zero Trust systems with continues access validation, which are not solely rely on network controls, but on many factors such as user, device and locations trustworthiness along with other factors such as target application and data sensitivity.
One thing that developers need the most
More time to learn new things and management understanding and support in this domain. To managers: trim your tactical deliverables timeline, start thinking strategically:
Stop that per-project/app approach where foundational capabilities are built as needed in a non-consistent and ad-hoc manner
Analyze new tools and knowledge will be required 3-5 years from now to enable hundreds of applications moving to cloud and to a new access model
Set priorities around those new tools and knowledge
Give people time to acquire the knowledge and tools necessary for the strategic approach and foundational services, e.g. access from anywhere, auto-scalable systems running in a multi-cloud environment, etc. (goals and strategy may very for different companies, but it’s important to have them)
Benefits of DevSecOps
For me this is all about uniting various engineering teams around a common business goal and breaking silos that could impact the goal significantly. In big organizations DevSecOps principles must be extended even more to include non-engineering groups such as risk and compliance, because engineering alone is never sufficient to solve a more or complex business goal in a highly regulated environment.
Takeaways
Going through a digital transformation is always difficult for a big organization, and you might think that things like Covid-19 and a pressure to move more systems to cloud are just additional difficulties, but what I’ve learned is that those additional challenges are also great opportunities for doing things right like:
Zero Trust access models
Access from everywhere with the same or better security controls
Software defined perimeter and infrastructure
Greater level of automation for all of the above
As some folks have already stated, their biggest sponsor in digital transformation in the last year was not their company, but Covid-19.
“Nothing moves progress, technology and cience faster than people needs”
Latest Update: 2FA Hub works with WearOS 3 devices
The app for WearOS watches was changed to support Wear OS 3 devices. It was not easy (see here for details), but the most important thing is that it does work with the new devices now.
2023.06.28 Update [Obsolete]: No Connectivity to WearOS, App Suspended
2. Google delisted my 2FA Hub ( formerGACW ) app from Play Store quoting alleged infringement on Fitbit’s IP. I appealed, but they didn’t answer my messages. The issue is pending since 06/28/2023. I think they simply continue killing the Fitbit platform and its ecosystem this way: https://www.makeuseof.com/ways-google-ruined-fitbit/
Sorry for the inconvenience, but there is not much I can do with monopolists playing the hard ball. They still get all the money while their smaller “partners” (not really) are getting all the heat and blames 😡
I don’t have another way to distribute the app now. Probably I’ll have to create a new one if Google keeps ignoring my questions.
Purpose
An idea was to have a Google Auth/2FA TOTP Client running on all Android, Apple, Fitbit and Samsung watches with companion apps running on iPhone or Android. It includes:
Contemporary high end Android phones running ver 6.0 or higher
iPhones
Contemporary Samsung Gear devices such as Gear S2, S3, Sport, Galaxy
Apple watches
Android Wear watches
Fitbit Versa and Ionic watches
The major benefit is that it integrates phone’s, Wear and Gear’s 2FA apps in a single solution and allows transferring accounts between peers in any direction: from phone to watch or vise versa. There is no need for Google’s stock app anymore, because the companion includes all GA functionality and adds features that stock GA app is currently missing.
The companion allows scanning Google’s QR bar code, which is a client/server shared secret used for generating one time passwords (OTP).
In addition, the Android’s companion can be also used to backup and restore all 2FA accounts. Backups could be encrypted using a password based encryption (PBE) with HMAC signature intended for verifying backup’s integrity (e.g. signature verification will fail if a password is not valid).
Plain backups are also supported, but not recommended, since they are stored in Android’s “Download” directory that can be accessed by other applications that are granted “read storage” permission.
Using Dropbox for backup/restore operations makes syncing accounts across all your Android, Gear and Wear devices simple.
Where and How to Start
To create a 2FA account on your phone using this app, you’ll need a shared secret, which is a Base32 code generated by your 2FA provider. How to get that code depends on a provider and the code is generated at the time when you enable 2FA in your web app. Instructions for getting the code for all Google accounts are provided here:
However, those instructions change often, so the best way is to read recent 2FA enabling instructions for each provider. The app was tested and actively used with the following 2FA providers:
Amazon
Google
WordPress
Twitter
Fastcomet
DHS
Sonic Internet Provider
AWS
Sophos VPN
Google Cloud (GCP)
G Suite
Microsoft and their Azure products are supported with “use a different authenticator” app option that you need to chose when enable 2FA
The number of websites supporting 2FA grows fast and the list above will grow as well. Check also this to learn what other websites support TOTP: websites supporting 2FA
The following providers are known for not completely following TOTP standards or for hiding important implementation details, which makes integration with their solutions impossible:
Symantec VIP
Fidelity (uses Symantec VIP)
Schwab (uses Symantec VIP)
The rule of thumb to check provider’s compatibility: if Stock Google Authenticator works, then GAC and GACW will work as well.
Compatibility with Google’s Authenticator
If a 2FA account supported by standard Google Authenticator, it should be supported by GACW mobile application as well. You can use Google Authenticator’s bulk export to generate a QR code and then import it in 2FA Hub.
If you didn’t use Google Authenticator before, you’ll need to request a new QR bar code from your 2FA provider and then scan it in 2FA Hub.
App Flavors and Their Usage
How to Choose Right App in Google Play Store
NOTE: This app has been decommissioned since 11/9/2019 due very low demand and confusion coming from not reading instructions.
There are two apps in Google’s Play store and the simple guidance below will help you to make the right choice.
“2FA Hub – former GAC ” supports Samsung’s Gear and Android Phone. Choose this one if you want to have an authenticator that works as a standalone app on an Android phone, or if you want an Android phone and Gear app to work together. The Android app is free,
“2FA Hub for multiple watches – former GACW” is very similar to the first one, except that in addition to Gear, it supports Android Wear, Fitbit and Garmin devices as well. It also doesn’t have any ads. Choose this one if you need support for both Gear and Wear or Fitbit and Garmin devices, don’t like ads, and don’t mind to spend $2.
New 2FA Hub integrated with iPhones. Use this one if your mobile device is iPhone. It does require iPhone’s companion with the same name, which costs $4 in Apple App Store
How to Choose Right App in Samsung Store
There are three GAC apps in Samsung’s App store, and the guidance below will help you to to select the right one:
1. First Client for 2FA TOTP Google Authenticator without Android’s companion was created in 2015, supports many legacy devices such as Gear, Gear 2, Gear Neo, and Gear S, along with newer Gear S2, Gear S3, and Gear Sport. Use this application only is you need support for legacy devices. If you have S2, S3 or Gear Sport, consider other two choices. This app is completely free now, but is not actively supported and will be deprecated soon.
2. 2FA Hub (former GAC) with Companion was created in 2017, supports Gear S2, S3 and Sport only, and requires Android’s companion to work. Use this app if you have S2, S3, Sport, or Galaxy and like additional Android’s companion features such as bar code scanning and backups, and don’t need support for Android’s Wear and Fitbit devices.
3. “2FA Hub for multiple watches (former GACW) was created in 2018, has the same functionality as “2FA Hub”, but in addition, it also supports Android’s Wear, Fitbit and Garmin devices. Use this app if you have Gear S2, S3, Sport or Galaxy, and need support for other watches mentioned above. It’s free in Samsung store, but Android companion will cost you $2 in Play Store, so in the end the price is the same as for 2FA Hub.
4. Finally if you use iPhone, use newer 2FA Hub app for iPhone. Check the app’s description to make sure that you download the right app.
Prerequisites
Supported Phones
All Android Phones with Android version 7.01 and higher should be supported
iPhones are supported through a separate application called 2FA Hub, available in Apple’s AppStore
Supported Smartwatches
The following Gear devices are supported:
Gear S2
Gear S3
Gear Sport
Galaxy
Gear Fit 2 and Pro (GACW app only)
The following Fitbit devices are supported:
Ionic
Versa
Versa Light
Versa 2
Versa 3
Sense
Theoretically, all Android Wear devices should be supported by GACW as well. Since there are too many different models in this category, we were not able to test all of them, so if you see any problem with your specific Wear watch model, please provide device details to us and we’ll try to fix.
Check the link below to learn about supported Garmin devices:
The minimum Android version to run the companion app is Android 7.0
Downloads
Android application can be downloaded from Play Store: 2FA Hub (former GAC) or 2FA Hub for multiple watches ( former GACW)
iPhone application can be downloaded from AppStore: 2FA Hub
The most universal way of installing GAC application on Gear device is through Samsung’s Android Gear App: Gear App. To install GACW on your Wear watch, use Android’d Wear OS app.
If you browsing apps from a Samsung’s Galaxy phone, you can also use direct link for GAC and GACW below to install apps on your smartwatch:
Please check Google’s Play Store and Samsung Galaxy App Store refund policies before purchasing any paid app. Please also notice that Google and Samsung usually charge taxes and marketplace maintenance fees that only they can refund, so contacting them for a refund is your best option.
PLEASE READ THE POLICIES ABOVE AND DON’T BUY AN APP IF YOU DON’T AGREE WITH THE PROVIDED RULES.
If you submit a review, especially negative one, please provide as many details as you can, so we can review and help. We’ve seen quite a few responses without any details, and helping in those cases is difficult. Please also read this wiki for a quick start.
You can provide the details either in this wiki’s comments, or send a direct email to the admin whose email address can be found in the app’s description.
Expenses for supporting various Android and smartwatches apps are much bigger than income generated by app stores so far. Real smartwatches are often required to test apps on new models. Software simulators, especially Samsung’s ones are not very good, and do not reflect the real “look and feel”
Donations
If you like this project and want to see more features and other smartwatches models supported, have your own suggestions that you want us to consider, please donate to the project using the bitcoin donation box below.
Bitcoin
Donate Bitcoin to this address
Scan the QR code or copy the address below into your wallet to send some Bitcoin
Why We Have Many App’s in Galaxy Store
The old GAC app supports many legacy Gear devices such as Gear, Gear II, Gear Neo, and Gear S. Since all these devices are different, they require different binaries. Samsung App Store doesn’t allow mixing companion and non-companion binary types in a single app’s distribution. That’s why new app is needed to enable companion functionality. We will gladly merge versions as soon as Samsung changes their policies (the best scenario) or when we decide to stop supporting legacy devices.
Samsung doesn’t support Samsung Accessory Protocol for iPhone’s and that requires creating a different watch app to support 2FA Hub.
Below is an error message, which is caused by an attempt to add a companion-based binary to the old non-companion style app
Adding New Account from Android on Gear or Galaxy
To add a new account from the phone you’ll need to select “Connect to Phone” menu on Gear first:
Pic 1. Menu Page on Gear
If the device is already paired with and connected to the phone through Bluetooth, an icon on the top will turn green and you’ll see the following message:
Pic 2. Gear Connected to Phone
At this point an account page should popup on the phone automatically. You can either select an existing account or tap “+” button to add a new one. Selecting ‘+’ button will bring you to Scanner page. Now you can point the phone’s camera to a QR bar code. When QR bar code is recognized, the blue border will be blinking and a scanned code will show up in an edit box located just above the camera window.
Pic 3. QR Scanner Page
Press “Send to Watch” button and the scanned account will be sent to your Gear device. You can also save the account to phone by pressing “Save” button. After an account is saved, the “Accounts” page will be displayed. Alternatively, you can get there by pressing an “Accounts” menu in the toolbar.
Pic 4. Accounts Page
At the “Accounts” page you could see a list of OTP tokens for all your accounts, and you can use the buttons on the bottom to perform the following actions (left to right):
Send selected accounts to Gear
Save all accounts to a backup file
Delete selected accounts from your phone
Restore all accounts from a backup
Add more accounts by either scanning QR bar code or by typing a shared secret manually
Tap a token if you want to zoom it. The token will be refreshed properly in the zoomed view as well. When a color of the border becomes red, a new token will be generated automatically.
Pic 5. Zoomed Token
You can scroll accounts on this page using left and right arrow buttons on the bottom.
Changing Account’s Order
By default the accounts are stored in an alphabetic order, but it’s possible to change the order by long pressing an account name and dragging it to the new place.
Editing Account
Tap an account name in the list to edit it. It will bring you to the Scanner page where you can edit account name, the bar code, or scan the code using the phone’s camera. Press store icon on the bottom to save the account to the phone.
Backing up and Restoring Accounts on Phone
Account restore page can be reached by tapping restore button (second from the right) on Accounts page.
Pic 6. Backup and Restore
By default restore logic will try to create an encrypted backup and password will be required to decrypt the accounts and to verify a signature created by a backup. You can use plain unencrypted backup by unchecking “Encrypt backup” option in Settings, but that option is strongly discouraged. If you want your app to remember the password, use “Remember password” option in Settings.
A button located below “From Watch” title can be used to restore phone’s accounts directly from a watch.
The backups that are not needed anymore can be deleted by selecting them in the backup list and pressing a “trash” button on the bottom.
Saving accounts to a backup file is similar and has two options as well: encrypted and unencrypted backups.
Dropbox can be used to backup and restore accounts as well. Use the ‘eye’ button to see what backups are available
Legacy Backup and Restore
Legacy backup and restore are used to save or restore data in gac-codes.mp3 file that can be used for integrating with an older Gear’s GAC version that doesn’t have an Android’s companion app. Use either MP3 button on the bottom or Legacy Backup/Restore menu items in tool bar to create a backup or restore your accounts from it. The MP3 file will be created in Music directory that can be used by Samsung’s Gear App for transferring it further to your Gear device, where the file can be used to initialize the accounts through “Init from File” menu.
Working with Samsung Watch
Token Page
After accounts have been imported to the watch, they will appear in the main menu. Simply tap an account to see a token. To return to menu again tap a “list” button on the top of token page.
Account Deletion
To delete an account, tap an account name in the list and hold for a couple of seconds until it changes a color and starts buzzing. Confirm account deletion on the following screen:
Getting Help
To get more help on usage tap the “Help” item in the main menu.
Other Screens Seeing on Samsung Watch
When accounts are successfully received by Gear you’ll see the following screen:
Pic 7. Accounts Received from Phone
When messages are sent by Gear to phone, you’ll see the confirmation screen:
Pic 8. Accounts Sent to Phone
If Gear is disconnected from its peer, the green icon will turn red.
Pic 9. No Connection Page
GAC Widget
GAC widget can be used to see the last viewed account and is activated in the same way as any other Gear’s widget: you add it on home screen selecting and tapping the icon below (just swipe screens left until you see it).
Pic. 11 Adding GAC Widget
After widget is added and if a user had recently viewed an account in the GAC app, the latter account will be displayed in the widget. If there was no account previously selected by a user, the following screen will show up.
Pic. 12 Non-initialized Widget
Tap the widget to initialize it or if you want to change a previously selected account. After an account is selected, the widget will display it until another account is selected.
Pic. 13 Initialized Widget
Navigate to the home screen and slide screens left to see the GAC widget.
Adding New Account from Android on Wear
First, start GACW app on Android phone, then start the same on your Wear watch. The beacon icon will turn green on the watch and Wear OS icon will show up in phone’s app tool bar.
Select accounts on your phone and press a “Send to Watch” button or menu item. After accounts are transferred, the Android app is not needed anymore. You’ll see an account list on your Wear device:
Pic. 14 Account list on Wear
Now you can select an account from the list to see the token:
Pic. 14 Auth Token on Wear
Google Auth for Fitbit
NOTE for users with iPhones: New app called “2FA Hub” is available in iPhone’s App Store now. It makes account creation and transfer easier. Connectivity is much better than in Android’s. Give it a try!
New Features Introduced in ver 1.1.3
The following new features have been implemented in ver. 1.1.3
App version is visible in app’s Settings (see General section)
App auto-close timeout setting was added. By default it’s off. Edit “Auto close app after n secs” property to setup the timeout in seconds. This can be used to avoid excessive battery usage if app was not closed.
Tested Devices
The following Fitbit devices have been tested:
Versa (real device)
Ionic (real device)
Versa Light (simulator)
Versa 2 (simulator)
Versa 3 (simulator)
Sense (simulator)
Required Fitbit OS SDK
The first app’s version (1.0.5) was built with Fitbit SDK 1.0, which is supported by all known Versa and Ionic devices. However, starting from version 1.0.7 the SDK used was 3.1. It means that for using the latest versions of the app you’ll probably need a firmware upgrade. The minimum firmware version that supports SDK 3.1 on Versa is 32.33.1.30, for Ionic – 27.33.1.30. Updates are available in Fitbit’s mobile app when you choose your device in the dashboard. Use Settings/About on your Fitbit device to check its firmware version.
If you don’t see the latest app’s version in the Gallery, it’s because your firmware was not upgraded.
Tap Apps icon and type “Google Auth” to a search bar
Quick Start
Open Fitbit App on Android and make sure that your Fitbit device is visible
Open GACW App on Android. This step could be optional if you don’t mind typing your accounts manually
Open Google Auth app on Fitbit device
The following screen will popup on Fitbit device:
Pic. 15 No Accounts Screen
4. To quickly check if the app is functional, click top-left button. It will import a testing account from settings:
Pic. 16 Account Received
5. Press green Ok button on the right and you’ll see an account list:
Pic. 17 Account LIst
6. Tap “Test” item to see a token:
Pic. 18 Test Token
7. If everything worked as described above, you can proceed to creating your own accounts. There are two ways of doing this: using GACW Android App and typing accounts manually in Fitbit’s Android App settings.
If you can’t import testing account, most likely you have a connection problem. Read the next section to troubleshoot the connection.
Troubleshooting Connection With the Phone
If buttons on the top do not work it’s certainly a connection issue. To troubleshoot go through the following steps:
Make sure that Fitbit device is connected through BT to phone’s Fitbit App
Wait until sync is completed
Start the 2FA app on Fitbit device
Start 2FA app on phone (if not started yet)
Tap gray beacon on watch
Wait until it’s green
Select accounts in 2FA app on phone and tap ‘sent to watch’ button
If 5-7 doesn’t work:
Exit 2FA app on watch
Exit 2FA app on phone (use power button in the app’s toolbar – it’s important)
Start 2FA app on phone and then 2FA app on watch
Try 5-7 again
If you’ve tried everything and connection to the phone is still not available, you can always enter the accounts manually in the app’s Settings section from the phone.
Go to accounts page on Fitbit device and press beacon icon (top-right button)
Device pairing dialogs will show on Fitbit and GACW:
Pic. 19 Pairing
4. Enter PIN from Fitbit to GACW and press enter. If paring is successful, you’ll see a confirmation message
5. Choose Ok button on Fitbit and GACW to close dialogs.
6. Beacon icon should be green on Fitbit’s accounts page. Fitbit icon will show up in GACW’s toolbar and “send to watch” button on the bottom-left will turn green. Select account that you want to transfer and press low left button on GACW to send them to Fitbit. If transfer is successful, you’ll see “accounts received” message on Fitbit.
Pic. 20 Accounts in GACW
7. Tap an account on Fitbit to see a token
Creating Accounts Manually
For each account that you want to create you’ll need:
Arbitrary account name, e.g. “Google”;
Shared secret in Base32 form.
In Android’s Fitbit App find Google Auth and open its settings:
Pic. 21 Accounts in Fitbit’s Settings
2. Tap “Add Account” link and add a new account in the form: Account:SharedSecret. Make sure that there is no any errors in “Errors” section below.
Pic. 22 Settings Page
Alternatively starting with version 1.1.5
you can add optional parameters after the secret, e.g.
AccountName:f7gjhjrjaheksk6f:10:1:8
where
10 is a sequential number of the account in the list (use it if you want to change the order of accounts when they are displayed
1 indicates that HmacSHA256 will be used (default is 0, which is HmacSHA1)
8 length of the token (default is 6)
The full syntax of the account string is as follows:
3. On Fitbit’s device tap left-top button to import accounts from setting. An “accounts received” page will show up if import is successful.
Pic. 23 Accounts Page
Auto Close App
To avoid app running forever and consume battery if a user forgot to exit it by pressing “back” button, auto close feature has been implemented starting from version 1.0.8. The default timeout is set to 0, meaning there is no timeout, but it can be changed in the app Settings page on the phone.
=========Below is Archive With OldComments======================
Update for Fitbit Users with iPhones
A new iPhone app called 2FA Hub has been released. It makes account creation and integration with your Fitbit smart watch easier. Check supported models in Fitbit section of this document.
Update for Gear Fit 2 and Pro Users
GACW app for Gear Fit 2 and Pro has been published. Please provide your feedback in Galaxy App Store
Purpose
An idea was to have a Google Auth/2FA TOTP Client running on all Android, Apple, Fitbit and Samsung watches with companion apps running on iPhone or Android. It includes:
Contemporary high end Android phones running ver 6.0 or higher
iPhones
Contemporary Samsung Gear devices such as Gear S2, S3, Sport, Galaxy
Apple watches
Android Wear watches
Fitbit Versa and Ionic watches
The major benefit is that it integrates phone’s, Wear and Gear’s 2FA apps in a single solution and allows transferring accounts between peers in any direction: from phone to watch or vise versa. There is no need for Google’s stock app anymore, because the companion includes all GA functionality and adds features that stock GA app is currently missing.
The companion allows scanning Google’s QR bar code, which is a client/server shared secret used for generating one time passwords (OTP).
In addition, the Android’s companion can be also used to backup and restore all 2FA accounts. Backups could be encrypted using a password based encryption (PBE) with HMAC signature intended for verifying backup’s integrity (e.g. signature verification will fail if a password is not valid).
Plain backups are also supported, but not recommended, since they are stored in Android’s “Download” directory that can be accessed by other applications that are granted “read storage” permission.
Using Google Drive for backup/restore operations makes syncing accounts across all your Android, Gear and Wear devices simple.
Where and How to Start
To create a 2FA account on your phone using this app, you’ll need a shared secret, which is a Base32 code generated by your 2FA provider. How to get that code depends on a provider and the code is generated at the time when you enable 2FA in your web app. Instructions for getting the code for all Google accounts are provided here:
However, those instructions change often, so the best way is to read recent 2FA enabling instructions for each provider. The app was tested and actively used with the following 2FA providers:
Amazon
Google
WordPress
Twitter
Fastcomet
DHS
Sonic Internet Provider
AWS
Sophos VPN
Google Cloud (GCP)
G Suite
Microsoft and their Azure products are supported with “use a different authenticator” app option that you need to chose when enable 2FA
The number of websites supporting 2FA grows fast and the list above will grow as well. Check also this to learn what other websites support TOTP: websites supporting 2FA
The following providers are known for not completely following TOTP standards or for hiding important implementation details, which makes integration with their solutions impossible:
Symantec VIP
Fidelity (uses Symantec VIP)
Schwab (uses Symantec VIP)
The rule of thumb to check provider’s compatibility: if Stock Google Authenticator works, then GAC and GACW will work as well.
Compatibility with Google’s Authenticator
If a 2FA account supported by standard Google Authenticator, it should be supported by GACW mobile application as well. However, it’s not possible to simply export accounts from Google Authenticator and import them to GACW.
You’ll need to request a new QR bar code from your 2FA provider and then scan it in GACW.
App Flavors and Their Usage
How to Choose Right App in Google Play Store
There are two apps in Google’s Play store and the simple guidance below will help you to make the right choice.
“GAC – 2FA TOTP Auth Client ” supports Samsung’s Gear and Android Phone. Choose this one if you want to have an authenticator that works as a standalone app on an Android phone, or if you want an Android phone and Gear app to work together. The Android app is free,
“GACW – 2FA TOTP Auth Client for Wear” is very similar to the first one, except that in addition to Gear, it supports Android Wear and Fitbit devices as well. It also doesn’t have any ads. Choose this one if you need support for both Gear and Wear or Fitbit devices, don’t like ads, and don’t mind to spend $2.
How to Choose Right App in Samsung Store
There are three GAC apps in Samsung’s App store, and the guidance below will help you to to select the right one:
1. First Client for 2FA TOTP Google Authenticator without Android’s companion was created in 2015, supports many legacy devices such as Gear, Gear 2, Gear Neo, and Gear S, along with newer Gear S2, Gear S3, and Gear Sport. Buy this application only is you need support for legacy devices. If you have S2, S3 or Gear Sport, consider other two choices.
NOTE: This app has been decommissioned since 11/9/2019 due very low demand and confusion coming from not reading instructions.
2. Client for 2FA TOTP Google Authenticator with Companion was created in 2017, supports Gear S2, S3 and Sport only, and requires Android’s companion to work. Use this app if you have S2, S3, Sport, or Galaxy and like additional Android’s companion features such as bar code scanning and backups, and don’t need support for Android’s Wear and Fitbit devices.
3. “GACW – 2FA TOTP Google Auth Client for Gear, Wear, Android” was created in 2018, has the same functionality as “Client for Google Authenticator with Companion”, but in addition, it also supports Android’s Wear devices. Use this app if you have Gear S2, S3, Sport or Galaxy, and need support for Android Wear or Fitbit watches as well. It’s free in Samsung store, but GACW companion will cost you $2 in Play Store, so in the end the price is the same as for other two.
Prerequisites
Supported Phones
All Android Phones with Android version 6 and higher should be supported
iPhones are supported through a separate application called 2FA Hub, available in Apple’s AppStore
Supported Smartwatches
The following Gear devices are supported:
Gear S2
Gear S3
Gear Sport
Galaxy
Gear Fit 2 and Pro (GACW app only)
The following Fitbit devices are supported:
Ionic
Versa
Versa Light
Versa 2
Versa 3
Sense
Theoretically, all Android Wear devices should be supported by GACW as well. Since there are too many different models in this category, we were not able to test all of them, so if you see any problem with your specific Wear watch model, please provide device details to us and we’ll try to fix.
The minimum Android version to run the companion app is Android 7.0
Downloads
Android application can be downloaded from Play Store: GAC or GACW
iPhone application can be downloaded from AppStore: 2FA Hub
The most universal way of installing GAC application on Gear device is through Samsung’s Android Gear App: Gear App. To install GACW on your Wear watch, use Android’d Wear OS app.
If you browsing apps from a Samsung’s Galaxy phone, you can also use direct link for GAC and GACW below to install apps on your smartwatch:
Please check Google’s Play Store and Samsung Galaxy App Store refund policies before purchasing any paid app. Please also notice that Google and Samsung usually charge taxes and marketplace maintenance fees that only they can refund, so contacting them for a refund is your best option.
PLEASE READ THE POLICIES ABOVE AND DON’T BUY AN APP IF YOU DON’T AGREE WITH THE PROVIDED RULES.
If you submit a review, especially negative one, please provide as many details as you can, so we can review and help. We’ve seen quite a few responses without any details, and helping in those cases is difficult. Please also read this wiki for a quick start.
You can provide the details either in this wiki’s comments, or send a direct email to the admin whose email address can be found in the app’s description.
Expenses for supporting various Android and smartwatches apps are much bigger than income generated by app stores so far. Real smartwatches are often required to test apps on new models. Software emulators, especially Samsung’s ones are not very good, and do not reflect the real “look and feel”
Donations
If you like this project and want to see more features and other smartwatches models supported, have your own suggestions that you want us to consider, please donate to the project using the bitcoin donation box below.
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Scan the QR code or copy the address below into your wallet to send some Bitcoin
Why We Have Many App’s in Galaxy Store
The old GAC app supports many legacy Gear devices such as Gear, Gear II, Gear Neo, and Gear S. Since all these devices are different, they require different binaries. Samsung App Store doesn’t allow mixing companion and non-companion binary types in a single app’s distribution. That’s why new app is needed to enable companion functionality. We will gladly merge versions as soon as Samsung changes their policies (the best scenario) or when we decide to stop supporting legacy devices.
Samsung doesn’t support Samsung Accessory Protocol for iPhone’s and that requires creating a different watch app to support 2FA Hub.
Below is an error message, which is caused by an attempt to add a companion-based binary to the old non-companion style app
Adding New Account from Android on Gear or Galaxy
To add a new account from the phone you’ll need to select “Connect to Phone” menu on Gear first:
Pic 1. Menu Page on Gear
If the device is already paired with and connected to the phone through Bluetooth, an icon on the top will turn green and you’ll see the following message:
Pic 2. Gear Connected to Phone
At this point an account page should popup on the phone automatically. You can either select an existing account or tap “+” button to add a new one. Selecting ‘+’ button will bring you to Scanner page. Now you can point the phone’s camera to a QR bar code. When QR bar code is recognized, the blue border will be blinking and a scanned code will show up in an edit box located just above the camera window.
Pic 3. QR Scanner Page
Press “Send to Watch” button and the scanned account will be sent to your Gear device. You can also save the account to phone by pressing “Save” button. After an account is saved, the “Accounts” page will be displayed. Alternatively, you can get there by pressing an “Accounts” menu in the toolbar.
Pic 4. Accounts Page
At the “Accounts” page you could see a list of OTP tokens for all your accounts, and you can use the buttons on the bottom to perform the following actions (left to right):
Send selected accounts to Gear
Save all accounts to a backup file
Delete selected accounts from your phone
Restore all accounts from a backup
Add more accounts by either scanning QR bar code or by typing a shared secret manually
Tap a token if you want to zoom it. The token will be refreshed properly in the zoomed view as well. When a color of the border becomes red, a new token will be generated automatically.
Pic 5. Zoomed Token
You can scroll accounts on this page using left and right arrow buttons on the bottom.
Changing Account’s Order
By default the accounts are stored in an alphabetic order, but it’s possible to change the order by long pressing an account name and dragging it to the new place.
Editing Account
Tap an account name in the list to edit it. It will bring you to the Scanner page where you can edit account name, the bar code, or scan the code using the phone’s camera. Press store icon on the bottom to save the account to the phone.
Backing up and Restoring Accounts on Phone
Account restore page can be reached by tapping restore button (second from the right) on Accounts page.
Pic 6. Backup and Restore
By default restore logic will try to create an encrypted backup and password will be required to decrypt the accounts and to verify a signature created by a backup. You can use plain unencrypted backup by unchecking “Encrypt backup” option in Settings, but that option is strongly discouraged. If you want your app to remember the password, use “Remember password” option in Settings.
A button located below “From Watch” title can be used to restore phone’s accounts directly from a watch.
The backups that are not needed anymore can be deleted by selecting them in the backup list and pressing a “trash” button on the bottom.
Saving accounts to a backup file is similar and has two options as well: encrypted and unencrypted backups.
Google Drive can be used to backup and restore accounts as well. Use Google Drive button with a question mark to check what backups are available.
Legacy Backup and Restore
Legacy backup and restore are used to save or restore data in gac-codes.mp3 file that can be used for integrating with an older Gear’s GAC version that doesn’t have an Android’s companion app. Use either MP3 button on the bottom or Legacy Backup/Restore menu items in tool bar to create a backup or restore your accounts from it. The MP3 file will be created in Music directory that can be used by Samsung’s Gear App for transferring it further to your Gear device, where the file can be used to initialize the accounts through “Init from File” menu.
Working with Samsung Watch
Token Page
After accounts have been imported to the watch, they will appear in the main menu. Simply tap an account to see a token. To return to menu again tap a “list” button on the top of token page.
Account Deletion
To delete an account, tap an account name in the list and hold for a couple of seconds until it changes a color and starts buzzing. Confirm account deletion on the following screen:
Getting Help
To get more help on usage tap the “Help” item in the main menu.
Other Screens Seeing on Samsung Watch
When accounts are successfully received by Gear you’ll see the following screen:
Pic 7. Accounts Received from Phone
When messages are sent by Gear to phone, you’ll see the confirmation screen:
Pic 8. Accounts Sent to Phone
If Gear is disconnected from its peer, the green icon will turn red.
Pic 9. No Connection Page
GAC Widget
GAC widget can be used to see the last viewed account and is activated in the same way as any other Gear’s widget: you add it on home screen selecting and tapping the icon below (just swipe screens left until you see it).
Pic. 11 Adding GAC Widget
After widget is added and if a user had recently viewed an account in the GAC app, the latter account will be displayed in the widget. If there was no account previously selected by a user, the following screen will show up.
Pic. 12 Non-initialized Widget
Tap the widget to initialize it or if you want to change a previously selected account. After an account is selected, the widget will display it until another account is selected.
Pic. 13 Initialized Widget
Navigate to the home screen and slide screens left to see the GAC widget.
Adding New Account from Android on Wear
First, start GACW app on Android phone, then start the same on your Wear watch. The beacon icon will turn green on the watch and Wear OS icon will show up in phone’s app tool bar.
Select accounts on your phone and press a “Send to Watch” button or menu item. After accounts are transferred, the Android app is not needed anymore. You’ll see an account list on your Wear device:
Pic. 14 Account list on Wear
Now you can select an account from the list to see the token:
Pic. 14 Auth Token on Wear
Google Auth for Fitbit
NOTE for users with iPhones: New app called “2FA Hub” is available in iPhone’s App Store now. It makes account creation and transfer easier. Connectivity is much better than in Android’s. Give it a try!
New Features Introduced in ver 1.1.3
The following new features have been implemented in ver. 1.1.3
App version is visible in app’s Settings (see General section)
App auto-close timeout setting was added. By default it’s off. Edit “Auto close app after n secs” property to setup the timeout in seconds. This can be used to avoid excessive battery usage if app was not closed.
Tested Devices
The following Fitbit devices have been tested:
Fitbit Versa (real device)
Fitbit Ionic (through simulator only)
Required Fitbit OS SDK
The first app’s version (1.0.5) was built with Fitbit SDK 1.0, which is supported by all known Versa and Ionic devices. However, starting from version 1.0.7 the SDK used was 3.1. It means that for using the latest versions of the app you’ll probably need a firmware upgrade. The minimum firmware version that supports SDK 3.1 on Versa is 32.33.1.30, for Ionic – 27.33.1.30. Updates are available in Fitbit’s mobile app when you choose your device in the dashboard. Use Settings/About on your Fitbit device to check its firmware version.
If you don’t see the latest app’s version in the Gallery, it’s because your firmware was not upgraded.
Tap Apps icon and type “Google Auth” to a search bar
Quick Start
Open Fitbit App on Android and make sure that your Fitbit device is visible
Open GACW App on Android. This step could be optional if you don’t mind typing your accounts manually
Open Google Auth app on Fitbit device
The following screen will popup on Fitbit device:
Pic. 15 No Accounts Screen
4. To quickly check if the app is functional, click top-left button. It will import a testing account from settings:
Pic. 16 Account Received
5. Press green Ok button on the right and you’ll see an account list:
Pic. 17 Account LIst
6. Tap “Test” item to see a token:
Pic. 18 Test Token
7. If everything worked as described above, you can proceed to creating your own accounts. There are two ways of doing this: using GACW Android App and typing accounts manually in Fitbit’s Android App settings.
If you can’t import testing account, most likely you have a connection problem. Read the next section to troubleshoot the connection.
Troubleshooting Connection With the Phone
If buttons on the top do not work it’s certainly a connection issue. To troubleshoot go through the following steps:
Open Android’s Fitbit App
Make sure that Sync is not running. If it does connection from the watch will be ignored.
Select your watch by clicking its name and press “Apps” button. If you see “Unable to Connect” message, you don’t have a connection. Make sure that Bluetooth and Location are on in your telephone settings.
Exit the app on the watch
Start the app on the watch again and check if top-left and top-right buttons work this time
If you tried everything and connection to the phone is still not available, you can always enter the accounts manually in the app’s Settings section from the phone.
Go to accounts page on Fitbit device and press beacon icon (top-right button)
Device pairing dialogs will show on Fitbit and GACW:
Pic. 19 Pairing
4. Enter PIN from Fitbit to GACW and press enter. If paring is successful, you’ll see a confirmation message
5. Choose Ok button on Fitbit and GACW to close dialogs.
6. Beacon icon should be green on Fitbit’s accounts page. Fitbit icon will show up in GACW’s toolbar and “send to watch” button on the bottom-left will turn green. Select account that you want to transfer and press low left button on GACW to send them to Fitbit. If transfer is successful, you’ll see “accounts received” message on Fitbit.
Pic. 20 Accounts in GACW
7. Tap an account on Fitbit to see a token
Creating Accounts Manually
For each account that you want to create you’ll need:
Arbitrary account name, e.g. “Google”;
Shared secret in Base32 form.
In Android’s Fitbit App find Google Auth and open its settings:
Pic. 21 Accounts in Fitbit’s Settings
2. Tap “Add Account” link and add a new account in the form: Account:SharedSecret. Make sure that there is no any errors in “Errors” section below.
Pic. 22 Settings Page
Alternatively starting with version 1.1.5
you can add optional parameters after the secret, e.g.
AccountName:f7gjhjrjaheksk6f:10:1:8
where
10 is a sequential number of the account in the list (use it if you want to change the order of accounts when they are displayed
1 indicates that HmacSHA256 will be used (default is 0, which is HmacSHA1)
8 length of the token (default is 6)
The full syntax of the account string is as follows:
3. On Fitbit’s device tap left-top button to import accounts from setting. An “accounts received” page will show up if import is successful.
Pic. 23 Accounts Page
Auto Close App
To avoid app running forever and consume battery if a user forgot to exit it by pressing “back” button, auto close feature has been implemented starting from version 1.0.8. The default timeout is set to 0, meaning there is no timeout, but it can be changed in the app Settings page on the phone.
Progress bar might not work correctly on some older Android’s phone models: it didn’t go all the way to the end and didn’t refresh the tokens. The issue has been fixed in GAC version 3.4.0.
There was a complain that camera can’t scan QR code on Pixel 2. Unfortunately, no details have been provided. Research has shown that Pixel 2 had many problems with camera in other apps as well. One suggestions was to use 16:9 resolution, which I did for Pixel2 and Pixel 2 XL devices only. Try Android’s version 3.4.5+ and let me know if it works. A ticket was opened with Google to investigate the issue, but they are very slow and I don’t have any confidence that they will ever find or fix it: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/77754219. Note: The latest message from Google was that it does work on Pixel and other Google devices. If you still have problems with those, please provide details.
No support for Lollipop and lower versions. I’ve created a debug version for Lollipop. Try it and let me know if it works. If it doesn’t, please provide details and a log file (adb logcat -d >log.txt). You can install it from here: https://credelius.com/credelius/app-debug.apk (simply click on the link from your phone’s browser). You’ll need to enable install from 3rd parties to make it work: Settings->Security->Unknown Sources. I’ll merge that version with the main branch if see a need for Lollipop and a positive feedback. So far I’ve seen only one user who wanted it.
Under Investigation (happens rarely)
Sometimes tapping on GAC widget doesn’t start the GAC app. If you see “Launching app” message too long and nothing happens, just tap the widget again. The root cause of the problem has not been identified yet. It could be platform related.
On a very rare occasion, GAC widget can stop working and won’t react on a tap. It’s not clear why it’s happening, and reproducing is not possible, since it’s a very rare event. A work around for now: long press the widget and remove it, then add again. We’ll fix as soon as find a reason. It could be platform related.
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