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Chapter 1. About two-factor authentication (2FA) for Red Hat user accounts

Red Hat allows users to enable two-factor authentication as an additional layer of security for logging in to their Red Hat user accounts. When two-factor authentication is enabled, you use your password plus a one-time code to log in to your account. The one-time code is the second authentication factor.

The two-factor authentication feature is available to customers in one of two ways:

  • Organizational two-factor authentication. When your organization enables two-factor authentication, all users who belong to a specific organization account will be required to use a second factor each time they authenticate. Users will be prompted to enable two-factor authentication upon the first log in attempt after the organization account is enrolled.
  • Individual opt-in two-factor authentication. Individual users can enable or disable two-factor authentication for their Red Hat account. When organizational two-factor authentication is turned on, individual users cannot disable it.
Note

The current implementation of two-factor authentication only applies to applications using a browser-based authentication flow. It does not apply to command line authentication flows.

1.1. Organizational two-factor authentication

The Organization Administrator for an account can enable organization-wide two-factor authentication. When enabled, all users on that account must use two-factor authentication for authentication when they log in. See Section 2.1, “Configuring organization-wide authentication factors”.

1.2. Two-factor authentication and token support

Token support for two-factor authentication is limited to smartphones or other devices that can install either of the following applications from Apple App Store or Google Play.

  • Google Authenticator
  • FreeOTP Authenticator

Google Authenticator and FreeOTP Authenticator are the only supported token generators. Hardware tokens, SMS (text-message) tokens, and other apps are not supported.

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