paper token is a PDF generator to create paper-based OTP (RFC 4226) token.
why?
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Hardware tokens are very costly and often require a proprietary infrastructure.
(near impossible to find HOTP-compatible hardware token without
requiring the linked proprietary infrastructure)
Software tokens can be also painful and always require a second device like
a phone to operate properly.
security?
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Paper is not less secure than an phone running a software token. With
a sheet paper and a pencil, you have the control of the token. Do you
have the control of your phone and the software running on it?
For a negligible cost, you have a token and you just need to protect
that sheet of paper.
An OTP is just an one-time password and this recommendation makes a
lot of sense for the paper-based token too :
``Simply, people can no longer remember passwords good enough to reliably defend against dictionary attacks, and are much more secure if they choose a password too complicated to remember and then write it down. We're all good at securing small pieces of paper. I recommend that people write their passwords down on a small piece of paper, and keep it with their other valuable small pieces of paper: in their wallet.
