Sooooo, Steam stole my account

[A Meat Popsicle]

When you're locked out of an account because Steam authenticator is so ♥♥♥♥ that it denies the authentication code it just sent to your damn cell phone. Check and mate, I guess? You can have the account if you want it that bad!

[Zekiran]

Maybe you should carefully read the support information on how to properly use your authenticator and phone codes. Or, make sure that the account is actually secure and not already compromised.

[nullable]

Technical difficulties are not theft, and neither are PEBKAC issues, whichever one proves true.

[Zekiran]

Brockenstein lähetti viestin:

Technical difficulties are not theft, and neither are PEBKAC issues, whichever one proves true.

I suspect both, but hey.

[Sleepwalker]

Sorry...not great with acronyms...PEBKAC??

[RcsPcsN1]

Anyways your account could actually be compromised but not likely, anyways you’d get codes on your email and or phone messenger. If you have a device with your account logged on then ask Steam Support to send you more login codes, and if these codes are so bad then just take it off and put on the Email authenticator, doesn’t need a code.

[SpunkyJones]

Ithereal lähetti viestin:

Sorry...not great with acronyms...PEBKAC??

Google is your friend.

[RcsPcsN1]

SpunkyJones lähetti viestin:

Ithereal lähetti viestin:

Sorry...not great with acronyms...PEBKAC??

Google is your friend.

I don’t want that to ruin my search history so could you explain in person? XD

[Aachen]

It won’t “ruin” your search history; it’s an acronym used in tech support and programmer circles.

[Glimmer]

To ruin the fun of being coy, Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair

[Radene]

ReecesPiecesN1 lähetti viestin:

SpunkyJones lähetti viestin:

Google is your friend.

I don’t want that to ruin my search history so could you explain in person? XD

"Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair".

Which is just a glorified way of saying the average user is not very smart.

[nullable]

Well I try not to make judgements about the "average user", but when the problem seems to favor the user being the issue... it is what it is.

Ithereal lähetti viestin:

Sorry...not great with acronyms...PEBKAC??

It's an oldie and probably more likely to be familiar to someone with some IT background, or just old enough to have heard a thousand and four acronyms.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Make sure the clocks show same time.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

A Meat Popsicle lähetti viestin:

When you're locked out of an account because Steam authenticator is so ♥♥♥♥ that it denies the authentication code it just sent to your damn cell phone. Check and mate, I guess? You can have the account if you want it that bad!

FYI cell phone authentication codes are actually not sent to the phone, but generated independently on the phone, presumably according to a proprietary algorithm that's dependent on the user account, the device, and the current time, as far as I know. I think it still works even if the phone's connections to the outside world are severed completely.

[voidCaster]

Quint the Alligator Snapper lähetti viestin:

FYI cell phone authentication codes are actually not sent to the phone, but generated independently on the phone, presumably according to a proprietary algorithm that's dependent on the user account, the device, and the current time, as far as I know. I think it still works even if the phone's connections to the outside world are severed completely.

They'd have to communicate somehow, otherwise you could just plug in any random value when Steam asks for a Guard Code. The "current time" factor for example would demand that both devices be synced with the same NTP Server. It's pretty trivial for Steam to be able to query any NTP Server anywhere, but if the phone had been offline for as little as 20-30 minutes there's going to be "drift." All drift means is that a computer can only account for time by the number of processor cycles or ticks that occur, and at the speed modern CPUs run there's always going to be some float value remainder when you divide the number of ticks that have passed by the number of ticks the CPU generally makes per second. There are other factors, but that's a big one. I can't see how either end could reliably generate a code and have the other recognize it without some kind of synchronization between the two.

[cinedine]

Gematria lähetti viestin:

Quint the Alligator Snapper lähetti viestin:

FYI cell phone authentication codes are actually not sent to the phone, but generated independently on the phone, presumably according to a proprietary algorithm that's dependent on the user account, the device, and the current time, as far as I know. I think it still works even if the phone's connections to the outside world are severed completely.

They'd have to communicate somehow, otherwise you could just plug in any random value when Steam asks for a Guard Code.

Uhm, no.
There is a slight delay between the generation and the timecode used (if you are fast enough to input, your code is actually still invalid). Both use Unix time anyway. So yes, your device shouldn't be off too much, but there is no need to communicate between server and generation device. Standalone 2FAs are completely offline.