Time Based One Time Password C Implementation

Completeness

I have completed all requirements in this project regarding the project description.

Running instructions

Dependencies

To run the code, OpenSSL library and its sublibraries are a must. (EVP, HMac)
Must-have header files include:

• <stdio.h>
• <string.h>
• <time.h>
• <math.h>
• <openssl/evp.h>
• <openssl/hmac.h>
• <signal.h>
• <stdlib.h>
• <ctype.h>
• <openssl/rand.h>
  
  This code was written and tested in Kali Linux with openssl version OpenSSL 3.0.10
  

To compile the code:

run 'make'
Or
gcc -o totp totp.c -lm -lcrypto

To delete the binary file:

run 'make clean' in the terminal

To see the possible commands on terminal

Run "./totp help"

To generate a random key

./totp generateRandomKey

To generate a TOTP with the default key

./totp

This will generate a TOTP with a default seeded key: "3132333435363738393031323334353637383930"

To generate a TOTP with a custom key

./totp key [your key] (e.g ./totp key 1234567890)
Recommended: Use generated random key instead of the default key.

To verify your TOTP with the default key

./totp verify [your TOTP] (e.g ./totp verify 612212)

To verify your TOTP with your custom key

./totp verify [your key] [your TOTP] (e.g ./totp verify 1234567890 612212)

To run the test cases from the paper

./totp test

Implementation Details

This code is based on the rfc6238 paper.
See: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc6238 for details
Time Step (X) is 30 seconds.
T0 initial time is 0.
Current unix time is based on seconds.
EVP's HMAC and sha3-512 algorithms are used for calculating the hash value.
For the test function sha1 is used for calculating the hash value.

Verifying Process

This algorithm accepts one time-step backwards TOTPs in addition to the current TOTP.
For example if in time interval 0, the algorithm generates TOTP 123456, and in time interval 1, it generates 234567, both values are accepted at time interval 1.
Normally the securest way is to accept only one time interval's output. However, I decided to allow this because opening a second terminal or restarting the terminal to verify the code may take some time.

Random Key Generation

Use of a random key is important for security. Please generate a random key with ./totp generateRandomKey and store this key as a secret to ensure security.