Two factor authentication pt PT
A while ago Valve has introduced a system known as "Escrow" that requires extra authenticator for various account-related activity. You can read more about it here and here. It's crucial to understand 2FA system firstly, before trying to understand the logic behind ASF 2FA.
Now as you can see all trades are being hold for up to 15 days, which is not a major problem when it comes to our ASF, but can still be annoying, especially for those who want full automation. Luckily, ASF includes a solution to that problem, called ASF 2FA.
Regardless if you use ASF 2FA explained below or not, ASF includes proper logic and is fully aware of accounts protected by standard 2FA. It will ask you for required details when they're required (such as during logging in). If you use ASF 2FA, program will be able to skip those requests and automatically generate required tokens, saving you hassle and enabling extra functionality (described below).
The idea is simple. We already implement steam client, implement launching and playing a game, so why not implement a mobile device? ASF 2FA is exactly what you think it is, it's just a module responsible for generating 2FA tokens as valid recognized mobile device, which allows us to skip trade holds, and automatically confirm all trades. It duplicates your existing authenticator, so there is no need to use ASF 2FA exclusively.
To enable ASF 2FA, you need to have:
- Working steam authenticator in your Android
- or working steam authenticator in your iOS
- or working steam authenticator in SteamDesktopAuthenticator
- or working steam authenticator in WinAuth
From version V2.1 onwards, ASF no longer allows you to use ASF 2FA "solo" mode - it means that you should have already linked and operational authenticator that is supported by ASF. ASF currently supports four different sources of 2FA - Android, iOS, SteamDesktopAuthenticator and WinAuth. If you don't have any authenticator yet, and you're about to link for the first time, I strongly encourage to use WinAuth, which can be then imported to ASF (and used by you).
All following guides require from you to already have working and operational authenticator being used with given tool/application. ASF 2FA will not operate properly if you import invalid data, therefore make sure that your authenticator works properly before attempting to import it. This does include testing and verifying that following authenticator functions work properly:
- You can generate tokens and those tokens are accepted by Steam network
- You can fetch confirmations, and they are arriving on your mobile authenticator
- You can accept those confirmations, and they're properly recognized by Steam network as confirmed/rejected
Ensure that your authenticator works by checking if above actions work - if they don't, then they won't work in ASF either, you'll only waste time and cause yourself trouble.
In general for importing authenticator from your Android phone you will need root access. SDA included non-root method a while ago, but it's no longer the case and it's not possible to access protected Steam files without root. The only currently supported non-root method is making a /data backup in one way or another and manually fetching appropriate files from it on your PC. Because such thing highly depends on the OS and is not in Android standard, we won't discuss it here. If you're lucky to have such functionality, you can make use of it, but majority of users don't have anything like that.
Rooting varies from device to device, so I won't tell you how to root your device. Visit XDA for excellent guides on how to do that, as well as general information. If you can't find your device or the tutorial you need, try to find it on google.
During import process we will need to access protected files. Therefore you should download any root explorer available on the market, such as this one (or any other one, really). You can also use ADB (Android Debug Bridge) or any other available to you way of accessing and copying protected files to your PC.
Now, you might choose if you want to import your authenticator to WinAuth first, then to ASF, or to ASF right away. First option is more friendly and allows you to duplicate your authenticator also on your PC, allowing you to make confirmations and generate tokens from 3 different places - your phone, your PC and ASF. If you want to do that, simply open WinAuth, add new Steam authenticator and choose importing from Android option, then follow instructions. When done, you can then import this authenticator from WinAuth to ASF, which is explained below.
If you don't want to or don't need to go through WinAuth, then simply copy /data/data/com.valvesoftware.android.steam.community/files/Steamguard-XXX where XXX is your SteamID of the account you want to add (if more than one, because if you have only one then this will be the only file). Keep in mind that /data/data directory is protected and you won't be able to access it without root access. Once you get your file on your PC, put it as BotName.maFile in ASF config directory, where BotName is the name of your bot you're adding ASF 2FA to. After this step, launch ASF - it should notice the .maFile and import it.
[*] INFO: ImportAuthenticator() <1> Converting .maFile into ASF format...
<1> Please enter your Device ID (including "android:"):
You will need to do only one more step - find your DeviceID property in /data/data/com.valvesoftware.android.steam.community/shared_prefs/steam.uuid.xml. It will be inside XML tags and starting with android:. Copy that and put it in ASF as asked. If you did everything correctly, import should be finished.
[*] INFO: ImportAuthenticator() <1> Successfully finished importing mobile authenticator!
Please confirm that accepting confirmations in fact works. If you made a mistake while entering your DeviceID then you'll have half-broken authenticator - tokens will work, but accepting confirmations will not. You can always remove Bot.db and start over if needed.
For iOS you can use ios-steamguard-extractor. This is possible thanks to the fact that you can make decrypted backup, put in on your PC and use the tool in order to extract Steam data that is otherwise impossible to get (at least without jailbreak, due to iOS encryption).
Head over to latest release in order to download the program. Once you extract the data you can put it e.g. in WinAuth, then from WinAuth to ASF (although you can also simply copy generated json starting from { ending on } into BotName.maFile and proceed like usual). If you ask me, I strongly recommend to import to WinAuth first, then making sure that both generating tokens as well as accepting confirmations work properly, so you can be sure that everything is alright. If your credentials are invalid, ASF 2FA will not work properly, so it's much better to make ASF import step your last one.
For questions/issues, please visit issues.
Keep in mind that above tool is unofficial, you're using it at your own risk. We do not offer technical support if it doesn't work properly - we got a few signals that it's exporting invalid 2FA credentials - verify that confirmations work in authenticator like WinAuth prior to importing that data to ASF!
If you have your authenticator running in SDA already, you should notice that there is steamID.maFile file available in maFiles folder. Copy that file to config directory of ASF. Make sure that .maFile is in unencrypted form, as ASF can't decrypt SDA files - unencrypted file content should start with { character.
You should now rename steamID.maFile to BotName.maFile in ASF config directory, where BotName is the name of your bot you're adding ASF 2FA to. Alternatively you can leave it as it is, ASF will then pick it automatically after logging in. Helping ASF makes it possible to use ASF 2FA before logging in, if you won't help ASF, then the file can be picked only after ASF successfully logs in (as ASF doesn't know steamID of your account before in fact logging in).
If you did everything correctly, launch ASF, and you should notice:
[*] INFO: ImportAuthenticator() <1> Converting .maFile into ASF format...
[*] INFO: ImportAuthenticator() <1> Successfully finished importing mobile authenticator!
From now on, your ASF 2FA should be operational for this account.
Firstly create new empty BotName.maFile in ASF config directory, where BotName is the name of your bot you're adding ASF 2FA to. Remember that it should be BotName.maFile and NOT BotName.maFile.txt, Windows likes to hide known extensions by default. If you provide incorrect name, it won't be picked by ASF.
Now launch WinAuth as usual. Right click on Steam icon and select "Show SteamGuard and Recovery Code". Then check "Allow copy". You should notice familiar to you JSON structure on the bottom of the window, starting with {. Copy whole text into a BotName.maFile file created by you in previous step.
If you did everything correctly, launch ASF, and you should notice:
[*] INFO: ImportAuthenticator() <1> Converting .maFile into ASF format...
<1> Please enter your Device ID (including "android:"):
This is when tricky part comes in. WinAuth is missing deviceID property that is required by ASF, so you'll need to do one more thing.
Go back to WinAuth's "Show SteamGuard and Recovery Code" and you should notice "Device ID" property above the JSON code you were copying not that long ago. Copy whole android device ID, including android: part into ASF.
If you've done that properly as well, you're now done!
[*] INFO: ImportAuthenticator() <1> Successfully finished importing mobile authenticator!
Please confirm that accepting confirmations in fact works. If you made a mistake while entering your DeviceID then you'll have half-broken authenticator - tokens will work, but accepting confirmations will not. You can always remove Bot.db and start over if needed.
From that moment, all 2fa commands will work as they'd be called on your classic 2FA device. You can use both ASF 2FA and your authenticator of choice (Android, iOS, SDA or WinAuth) to generate tokens and accept confirmations.
If you have authenticator on your phone, you can optionally remove SteamDesktopAuthenticator and/or WinAuth, as we won't need it anymore. However, I suggest to keep it just in case, not to mention that it's more handy than normal steam authenticator. Just keep in mind that ASF 2FA is NOT general purpose authenticator and it should never be the only one you use, since it doesn't even include all data that authenticator should have. It's not possible to convert ASF 2FA back to original authenticator, therefore always make sure that you have general-purpose authenticator in other place, such as in WinAuth/SDA, or on your phone.
If ASF 2FA is available, ASF will use it for automatic confirmation of trades that are being sent/accepted by ASF. It will also be capable of automatically generating 2FA tokens on as-needed basis, for example in order to log in. In addition to that, having ASF 2FA also enables 2fa commands for you to use. That should be all for now, if I didn't forget about anything - basically ASF uses 2FA module on as-needed basis.
You will need 2FA token to access 2FA-protected account, that includes every account with ASF 2FA as well. You should generate tokens in authenticator that you used for import, but you can also generate temporary tokens through 2fa command sent via the chat to given bot. You can also use 2fa <BotNames> command to generate temporary token for given bot instances. This should be enough for you to access bot accounts through e.g. browser, but as noted above - you should use your friendly authenticator (Android, iOS, SDA or WinAuth) instead.
Yes, your original authenticator remains functional and you can use it together with using ASF 2FA. That's the whole point of the process - we're importing your authenticator credentials into ASF, so ASF can make use of them and accept selected confirmations on your behalf.
ASF mobile authenticator is saved in BotName.db file in your config directory, along with some other crucial data related to given account. If you want to remove ASF 2FA, read how below.
Simply stop ASF and remove associated BotName.db of the bot with linked ASF 2FA you want to remove. This option will remove associated imported 2FA with ASF, but will NOT delink your authenticator. If you instead want to delink your authenticator, apart from removing it from ASF (firstly), you should delink it in authenticator of your choice (Android, iOS, SDA or WinAuth), or - if you can't for some reason, use revocation code that you received during linking that authenticator, on the Steam website.
I linked authenticator in SDA/WinAuth, then imported to ASF. Can I now delink it and link it again on my phone?
No. ASF imports your authenticator data in order to use it. If you delink your authenticator then you'll also cause ASF 2FA to stop functioning, regardless if you remove it firstly like stated in above question or not. If you want to use your authenticator on both your phone and ASF (plus optionally in SDA/WinAuth), then you'll need to import your authenticator from your phone, and not create new one in SDA/WinAuth. You can have only one linked authenticator, that's why ASF imports that authenticator and its data in order to use it as ASF 2FA - it's the same authenticator, just existing in two places. If you decide to delink your mobile authenticator credentials - regardless in which way, ASF 2FA will stop working, as previously copied mobile authenticator credentials will no longer be valid. In order to use ASF 2FA together with authenticator on your phone, you must import it from Android/iOS, which is described above.
Yes, in several ways. First and most important one - using ASF 2FA significantly increases your security, as ASF 2FA module ensures that ASF will only accept automatically its own confirmations, so even if attacker does request a trade that is harmful, ASF 2FA will not accept such trade, as it was not generated by ASF. In addition to security part, using ASF 2FA also brings performance/optimization benefits, as ASF 2FA fetches and accepts confirmations immediately after they're generated, and only then, as opposed to inefficient polling for confirmations each X minutes done e.g. by SDA or WinAuth. In short, there is no reason to use third-party authenticator over ASF 2FA, if you plan on automating confirmations generated by ASF - that's exactly what ASF 2FA is for, and using it does not conflict with you confirming everything else in authenticator of your choice. We strongly recommend to use ASF 2FA for entire ASF activity - this is much more secure than any other solution.
If you're advanced user, you can also generate maFile manually. It should have a valid JSON structure of:
{
"shared_secret": "STRING",
"identity_secret": "STRING",
"device_id": "STRING"
}device_id is optional during import, but mandatory for ASF operation - ASF will ask for it during importing if you omit it. Of course, you need to replace "STRING" with valid content in each field.
Standard authenticator data has more fields - they're entirely ignored by ASF during import, as they're not needed. You also don't have to remove them - ASF only requires valid JSON with 2 mandatory fields described above, and optionally also device_id.
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