Firefox 2FA: What It Is, Why It’s Useful, and How to Turn It On

By Nancy Messieh

Firefox recently introduced two-factor authentication (2FA) for its browser accounts, and if you’re a regular Firefox user, you should go ahead and enable it right away.

What Is Firefox 2FA?

2FA, which has been around for quite a while, offers users an added layer of security when logging into accounts. With 2FA, the site you’re logging into will send you an SMS to your phone, or will generate a code through an app on your phone, which you can then enter into the site to confirm authorization.

This means that if someone tries to hack into your account, there’s an added barrier to letting them get through—they can’t sign in unless they have your physical phone. But as with all things, 2FA is not foolproof, and there are some vulnerabilities when it comes to the use of SMS in 2FA in particular.

Why Use 2FA in Firefox?

If you’ve saved a ton of your logins in your browser, and are syncing your Firefox info across browsers, a hacked browser account is a goldmine. Rather than risk all those saved passwords falling into the wrong hands, you can enable 2FA in Firefox to keep your data that little bit safer.

There are plenty of ways your browser can compromise your privacy, so enabling 2FA on your browser should be a no-brainer to get that added layer of security.

How to Set Up 2FA in Firefox

So if you created a Firefox account to log into your browser, sync bookmarks, logins, open tabs, add-ons, history, and more across devices, you can now enable 2FA when logging into those accounts.

Firefox added 2FA to its user accounts using the authentication standard TOTP (Time-based One-Time Password). This means that receiving security codes via SMS is not possible. Instead you’ll have to use an app to generate that code.

Here’s how to set it up:

1. The first thing you’re going to need to do (if you haven’t already) is download an authentication app on your phone. You can pick any one of the following free apps: Google Authenticator (Android | iOS), Duo Mobile (Android | iOS ), Authy 2-Factor Authentication (Android | iOS )
2. Next, open Firefox and click the Menu (hamburger) button and go to Options.
3. Click Firefox Account > Manage Account. 
4. Click the Enable button next to Two-step authentication. (If you don’t see this option – go to the very end of the URL in the address bar and add: &showTwoStepAuthentication=true or just use this URL: accounts.firefox.com/settings?showTwoStepAuthentication=true) 
5. You’ll see a QR code that you need to scan using the authentication app of your choice. 
6. Enter the security code that your authentication app generates and enter it in the Security Code field and click Confirm.
7. Firefox will offer up recovery security codes that you can print, save, or copy. You can use these to log into your account in the event that you can’t access your authentication app.