Is 6 digits really enough for an OTP code?

  • DNS Benchmark v2 is Finished and Available!
    Guest:
    That's right. It took an entire year, but the result far more accurate and feature laden than we originally planned. The world now has a universal, multi-protocol, super-accurate, DNS resolver performance-measuring tool. This major second version is not free. But the deal is, purchase it once for $9.95 and you own it — and it's entire future — without ever being asked to pay anything more. For an overview list of features and more, please see The DNS Benchmark page at GRC. If you decide to make it your own, thanks in advance. It's a piece of work I'm proud to offer for sale. And if you should have any questions, many of the people who have been using and testing it throughout the past year often hang out here.
    /Steve.
  • Be sure to checkout “Tips & Tricks”
    Dear Guest Visitor → Once you register and log-in please checkout the “Tips & Tricks” page for some very handy tips!

    /Steve.
  • BootAble – FreeDOS boot testing freeware

    To obtain direct, low-level access to a system's mass storage drives, SpinRite runs under a GRC-customized version of FreeDOS which has been modified to add compatibility with all file systems. In order to run SpinRite it must first be possible to boot FreeDOS.

    GRC's “BootAble” freeware allows anyone to easily create BIOS-bootable media in order to workout and confirm the details of getting a machine to boot FreeDOS through a BIOS. Once the means of doing that has been determined, the media created by SpinRite can be booted and run in the same way.

    The participants here, who have taken the time to share their knowledge and experience, their successes and some frustrations with booting their computers into FreeDOS, have created a valuable knowledgebase which will benefit everyone who follows.

    You may click on the image to the right to obtain your own copy of BootAble. Then use the knowledge and experience documented here to boot your computer(s) into FreeDOS. And please do not hesitate to ask questions – nowhere else can better answers be found.

    (You may permanently close this reminder with the 'X' in the upper right.)

Someone noted up-thread that a website ought to not prevent endless guessing for a user, and that's true. But given the changing code every 30 seconds, and the typical site response turn-around, brute forcing OTP's is not practical. :)
Ya, I think we did arrive at the agreement that brute forcing OTPs is not practical, but that the reason that it's not practical is because of the response turnaround time for each guess and other security measures likely to be in place such as lockouts after a certain number of guesses and use in conjunction with a long, strong password.

Hypothetically, if a bad actor were truly able to make 1000 guesses per second, brute forcing a 6 digit OTP code would be very practical even if the correct OTP code also changed 1000 times per second, but as noted in this lengthy discussion, this would never be possible or allowed in the real world. :)