Two-factor logins for remote shell access

On Friday the 5th of May 2023, ssh logins from outside of UiO towards login hosts at the department of Mathematics will require two-factor authentication.

Starting on Friday the 5th of May 2023, when one tries to log into one of our login nodes (ie, "login.math.uio.no"), you will be greeted with a prompt asking for your 2FA code:

$ ssh login.math.uio.no

  This host utilizes two-factor authentication via Microsoft Azure.
  If you are using the Microsoft Authenticator mobile application, you
  should have received a notification which you need to accept in
  order to proceed. If you are using One Time Password (OTP) codes,
  enter the OTP code now.

**** Welcome to login-math-rhel9-prod.uio.no / login.math.uio.no ****

 login.math.uio.no is not a computational node.  Use this machine
 to reach other resources at UiO on which you may perform CPU or
 memory intensive tasks.

 Contact point for this machine is: drift@math.uio.no

Last login: Mon Apr 17 11:58:00 2023 from 84.210.85.204
terjekv@login-math-rhel9-prod01:~$

If you are using the Microsoft Authenticator App, as per the suggested setup, you should now get an alert in the app asking you to approve the login. It should be enough to answer "approve" to be granted access.

If you do not use the Microsoft Authenticator, or you do not have alerts set up in the app, you will have to type in the six-digit code at the prompt. Notice that there is no feedback on code entry, the login session will simply stop after the following text and wait for your code:

If you are using One Time Password (OTP) codes, enter the OTP code now.

Enter the code, six digits, and press enter. After the code is approved, you will be asked for your password, unless you are using an ssh key for authentication.

To avoid having to use the 2FA code all the time, we recommend you use the suggested ssh setup.

If you encounter problems

For questions regarding setting up 2FA in general, please contact it-support@uio.no. For questions specifically related to the login services at the Department of Mathematics, please contact drift@math.uio.no.

Why is this happening

Multiple user accounts at the the university of Oslo are comprised every single day, providing bad actors with access to personal data, research data, computing resources, and everything else we offer our users. The transition to two-factor authentication has drastically reduced these incidents and helped keep UiOs resources secure.

This change is a further step to secure your and our data.

 

By terjekv
Published May 4, 2023 10:36 AM - Last modified May 4, 2023 10:45 AM