
Underground forums are full of offers to hack an account or two (or sell you the login credentials of some ten million accounts if you like). In most cases, such attacks involve phishing (sorry, social engineering) and use fake authentication pages. However, this method is ineffective if the user gets pushed a prompt or receives a text message with a six-digit verification code. I am going to demonstrate how to breach the two-factor authentication system by hacking a Google account belonging to one of this magazine’s humble editors.