2FA is not great
CCTrader went ahead and enabled two-factor authentication (2FA) via SMS, not as an opt-in security feature, but as a blocking mechanism for logging into your existing account.
1) SMS should not be used for 2FA if it can be avoided. It is relatively insecure and can be compromised with social engineering, MITM attacks, etc. There is plenty of literature available on this. One of the common ways hackers gain access to accounts is via SIM swaps.
2) If you are traveling and using a different SIM card, or if you cannot connect to a cell network, you are going to have a bad time.
3) If you permanently lose access to your phone number (e.g. change numbers without considering CCTrader first), you are going to have a bad time.
CCTrader should instead,
1) Provide opt-in 2FA support that supports multi-platform authenticator apps like Google Authenticator, Authy, etc. There should be a prompt and easy-to-follow set of instructions to enable it upon successful login. One-time passwords sent by email would also be better than SMS.
OR, even better,
2) Provide 2FA functionality, such as a code generator, directly in their own app (and allow enabling bypass with TouchID or other biometric ID), and associate your preferred *device* (not SIM card) to your account for any 2FA purpose.
A code generator in an app consists of a hash of a shared secret key (e.g. derived from device ID) with the current timestamp. Look into TOTP, RFC6238, RFC4226. I cannot think of a good reason a modern OTP / 2FA implementation should start with SMS when there is already a smartphone app available.
Immediate upgrade to 5 stars when this is improved or made opt-in.
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The app is a web view. Waiting for the real thing!
I wouldn't normally have a ton of issues with this, but some things need to be tweaked. For example, 1) there is a delay when opening the menu; 2) when you navigate you get the spinner but the view doesn't change until loading is complete (the view should immediately change to some loading or null state); etc. Basic fundamental UI tweaks would make this much better & make it harder to realize that it's a web view.
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edit: thanks for the response & roadmap tip!
1) SMS should not be used for 2FA if it can be avoided. It is relatively insecure and can be compromised with social engineering, MITM attacks, etc. There is plenty of literature available on this. One of the common ways hackers gain access to accounts is via SIM swaps.
2) If you are traveling and using a different SIM card, or if you cannot connect to a cell network, you are going to have a bad time.
3) If you permanently lose access to your phone number (e.g. change numbers without considering CCTrader first), you are going to have a bad time.
CCTrader should instead,
1) Provide opt-in 2FA support that supports multi-platform authenticator apps like Google Authenticator, Authy, etc. There should be a prompt and easy-to-follow set of instructions to enable it upon successful login. One-time passwords sent by email would also be better than SMS.
OR, even better,
2) Provide 2FA functionality, such as a code generator, directly in their own app (and allow enabling bypass with TouchID or other biometric ID), and associate your preferred *device* (not SIM card) to your account for any 2FA purpose.
A code generator in an app consists of a hash of a shared secret key (e.g. derived from device ID) with the current timestamp. Look into TOTP, RFC6238, RFC4226. I cannot think of a good reason a modern OTP / 2FA implementation should start with SMS when there is already a smartphone app available.
Immediate upgrade to 5 stars when this is improved or made opt-in.
===
The app is a web view. Waiting for the real thing!
I wouldn't normally have a ton of issues with this, but some things need to be tweaked. For example, 1) there is a delay when opening the menu; 2) when you navigate you get the spinner but the view doesn't change until loading is complete (the view should immediately change to some loading or null state); etc. Basic fundamental UI tweaks would make this much better & make it harder to realize that it's a web view.
--
edit: thanks for the response & roadmap tip!
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Response from developer
Thanks for the feedback, we'll pass this on to our UI team to see what they can do. In the meantime we welcome you to follow our public roadmap (https://trello.com/b/TOdBkXEv/cctrader-public-roadmap) to view and vote on future features which will be added to the platform.
