MFA

Treat MFA Recovery Codes as Real Credentials

Multifactor authentication can fail for ordinary reasons: a phone is lost, a hardware key breaks, or a device is replaced before an authenticator is migrated. Recovery codes give users a way back into an account without asking support staff to improvise an identity check. That convenience creates a security boundary of its own. If a recovery code can bypass the normal second factor, anyone who obtains that code may be able to do the same. A recovery system that is easier to attack than the authentication it replaces can quietly become the preferred path into the account.