Also suppose you Facebook account was compromised, that bad, sad for the person affected. May cause some media attention if the person was famous.

But if the right GitHub account is compromised, we could see massive supply chain issues. Or a big important web service with millions of users affected.

The downside of making a wrong call here is just really really big.

There are real businesses being deployed from GitHub.

I'm not even convinced it's the real person. Lost your items, lost your email, changed passwords, criminal records. Sounds like a scam for sure.

No offense, OP, but it seems easier to recover the email if you can prove physical identity.

No idea, which is why I recommend talking to a lawyer and not random people on the internet. Anecdotally I have heard stories of people successfully recovering web accounts via court order.

There's no dispute that he provided his telephone number, the dispute would be over the ownership of the GitHub account, which is a separate item, and perhaps still registered in his name. Without additional details, we're both guessing.

I trusted the wrong person.

This hits me hard. So you went to prison, and the person you trusted the most... turned out not to be trustworthy. Please hang in there and hope you meet (or have met already?) people you can rely on!

I'm very grateful for the many people in my life I can absolutely rely on.

You might want a lawyer's help to get that person to assist. Perhaps through an agreement not to sue for past wrongs, and maybe with a payment.

I'd assume that there is simply no "ok, this individual got released from prison and can proof everything" policy in place, and that might be the real issue here. Big organizations begin to tumble once you request something where there are no policies in place.

That's how you turn 2fa into single factor authentication ( The ID ).

GitHub is such a large attack vector for the whole planet, that I understand their stance.

GitHub support a "recovery code" more secure than government ID. Print it out, store on USB, store on QR, etc, and stick it in at least one secure safe.

An idea might be to require a financially meaningful deposit to pursue an account recovery like this. The deposit would be forfeit if the identity verification failed.

Though now that I write this, it creates a perverse incentive for a company to collect deposits and deny account recovery.

I think that part is made easier by the fact that I uploaded the ID in the first place under fully trusted conditions.

If I have the same physical piece of ID—as I imagine OP might have, upon release from prison—then they can directly compare it to the copy that I supplied previously. Scuff marks and specific document numbers included. I think that probably even scales.

If I lose access to my main identity document, one advantage of government ID is that I’ll urgently have it reissued. In most of the places I’ve lived, that’s the kind of thing you can validate against either the underlying authority or a sleazy-but-reasonably-accurate data broker. But in either case it’s out-of-band from my relationship with the tech company, in a way they can validate by semi- or fully-automated means, and with reference to an independent authority.

If somebody wants to physically mug me to steal my ID for access to my GitHub, I figure I’m pretty much out of luck—to paraphrase James Mickens [0], Mossad’s gonna Mossad.

[0] https://www.usenix.org/system/files/1401_08-12_mickens.pdf

You don't have to do things "at scale". Github could require a substantial financial transaction to cover all the costs associated with ID verification and account re-instatement, as well as keep backups before that point so if it's proven after the fact that it was fraud, they could restore to the original state.

Like my data center (not US based) has a process where if you lose all of the documentation proving that a server is yours, you can go on site physically with ID, and the police and/or national identity service will verify on the spot that your finger prints match what is on file for the ID. It costs something like $300 and you risk being arrested if you're a criminal.

You can use a TOTP authenticator with backup support (I use Aegis on Android, and less critical ones in Bitwarden), and backup your recovery codes.

We need something better. I don't know what it would be.

Choosing a long, very secure password for your account works really, really well. GitHub hates this, however, and nudges toward less secure practices that are more likely to result in the sorts of compromises described in this thread.

Someone high enough in the food chain at GitHub can override that policy at their whim. I have personally had my day saved by that very "loophole" in another "lost access to an online service" situation in the past.

Part of the problem here is that there is no prior association of an identity with an account. So proving who you are is somewhat irrelevant since even if the account has your name, email, and photo, that's no guarantee that the account was created by you. If identity verification were required ahead of time, then perhaps verifying identity after loss of access could be reasonable recovery method. But of course there are many reasons why requiring such verification is problematic.

They are so in love with their policies, how about a policy for something better than 2FA for this possibility? Like pay $10,000, go to their headquarters in person with a lawyer and all your documents and have a "hearing" of some kind. This is even better than 2FA, call it 20FA if it makes them feel good about it! Someone in this unique situation needs a unique way to solve the issue. If I lost all of my documents in a fire, I could still get my life back together and be able to fly on airplanes again. So, there is a way to do this, even if it is extreme, if people would care and stop hiding behind paperwork and bureaucracy. Yeah, maybe they would lose some of their time they spend talking or surfing the web at their desk, but it would greatly help someone with a legitimate need that can be proven.

I’m not sure that blaming tech support for not understanding context is the best approach here. The other sides of that context, which are understandable from their point of view, is that you were charged with some serious crimes. There’s a large delta between the charges and the conviction, but you’ve got some scary words written about you online. Secondarily, GitHub has policy so whereas you’re coming at it from a position of being correct, they’re in a position where they have to break policy. That’s a big risk.

Your best bet would likely be legal. US Federal law imposes some strict rules on lawyers for identity verification to combat money laundering so attorneys have a legally recognized toolkit to verify identity. Having a third party who works for you in the mix could help. Though again, it would involve breaking their policy so this would be a decision made several layers above Zendesk access.

Otherwise, I think this is doing precisely what 2FA is meant to do. It’s not okay for you and you’ve clearly lost a lot because of this, but with the current threat environment, GitHub has to be very careful especially with 2FA. From their point of view, there likely isn’t that big of a gap between your interactions and interactions with people who are trying to take over accounts. A lawyer may not work, but it sure changes that equation.

I find this infuriating. I get absolutely no sense that this is AI, and this bizarre attitude towards em dashes is nonsense. Loads of people use them, especially in less formal writing. Get over it.

I do.

I'm aware.

Also could be a honeypot.

Not to mention I’m pretty sure their only physical location you can walk into is in Seattle? Maybe SF?

I agree that simply emailing in copies of identity documents after the fact shouldn't be sufficient. However, there should be a verification process that includes verification of identity documents through legal means, including perhaps a processing fee. The fee would preclude many attackers from even trying to break this process.

Maybe this would only work for new accounts as you'd probably need to provide identity information on before losing access.

I haven't any help to offer, but want to say that this post along with reading your site the other day has shown a level of composure and resiliency that i aspire to.

Good luck getting your access back.

I also imagine the identity proof for asking GH support to archive the old repo would be lighter than for recovering an account entirely.

I have no experience with any of this but thinking thru the other side, if I'm an IT helpdesk person getting an account reset/unlock request, I have no means to validate any identity paperwork anyone sends in. My response would be a curt email accd to policy and move on to the next IT ticket.

I think the legal path is your best bet unless you know someone higher up. A legal path could bypass all the offshore IT helpdesk staff (making assumptions, MSFT is a giant mega-corp).

You could initiate some kind of legal action to access your data. You'd need a lawyer.

I think it's likely that you wouldn't have legal grounds to force them to give you your data but it's an approach that would most certainly get their attention at a higher level than anything you're able to do from a customer service perspective.

You'd have to have some legal argument as to why they could be obligated to produce the records under subpoena but the standards for that could be quite low.

Just do as I do and keep all the 2FA TOTP Codes in your keepass.

Far too many of the critical services (banks) still only offer SMS 2FA.

For most of them. It's a tool, but not a silver bullet

I use 2 yubikeys. I registered both on multiple services. So… yes, it is possible. One key is a backup if the other key stops working.

So Bitwarden can store _the password and TOTP for Bitwarden itself_. (!) I actually keep this in an entry entitled 'How meta!' because I'm cute and silly.

So, let's say you're sitting down in front of a fresh install of Bitwarden. You can go to your phone in your pocket and get the password and TOTP and then set Bitwarden to not require a password for 30 days.

Similarly, let's say you've installed the desktop app for Bitwarden but not yet the browser extension. You can look up the BW password and TOTP in the desktop app and use that to authenticate the browser extension. Or vice versa! T

Store only the backup key. It would be crazy to have a single key.

I've always wondered how people manage this in practice. Is seems great if you never sign up for anything new, but I end up creating one account per week or something. How do you keep the key in your safe deposit box current?

Is your laminate rated to be in constant soil contact for however many years you need to hold onto a backup code for?

Soil is acidic, and soda bottles are meant to keep their seal for a two years, not a decade.

All my digital life is sorted with a password manager that sync's in a cloud (I know some consider this an anti-feature). I guess OP probably had to disclose information to someone (s)he trusts when going to prison and that trust was abused.

FWIW I had a similar conundrum with Slack. I had set-up my business Slack workspace in college; 4 years after graduation my university changed policies (they used to forward name@edu => name@alumni.edu).

I tried the normal means (support tickets etc) to no avail. The third or fourth time I got someone in account recovery. There was a very formal process for verifying my identity (I'm sure based on the process this happens all the time). Eventually I they helped me recover my account. It probably took a few months on the whole, but once I got the right support rep it was only a week or so.

So my advice would be to submit more tickets. Because they might have a process that not all support agents know about, and some are more helpful than others.

They're private.

all my personal items were stolen IRL and the same person changed a bunch of my passwords.

Have you filed a police report? Do you know who this person is? Getting your stuff back might be easier than dealing with github support.

Not a thief - someone they trusted.

Maybe, depending on where you are in the world, you could make some kind of GDPR request to get access to your data, even if you don't recover your account?

Do you personally know the person who stole all of your items and accounts?

I understand if you can't get or won't get in contact with them, but I'm curious as to whether this was a random or someone taking advantage of you.

Edit: Nevermind, I saw your response to someone else.

There are alarming statistics about phone snatching in London. Plus, we are NOT OUR PHONES. Doesn't GitHub have a way for people to verify and prove somebody's identity? Given that's a fact, isn't it best to disable 2FA and stop recommending it to people?

Following this post, I have reviewed all my main accounts, created recovery codes, set up backups, and added alternative email addresses, among other tasks. Hope for the best.

What you might consider doing is try contacting Ruby Central, or whoever it is that runs Ruby Gems. Even if they can't/won't give you access to the account, I'm wondering if they could/would freeze publishing updates to these gems until the account "owner" proves they are who they say they are. That way they don't risk giving control to someone who is hard to verify (you) and they prevent malware from being uploaded by the person who now controls your email until they verify the you are (which obviously they shouldn't be able to do).

IIUC, the issue is not that they can't verify OP. It's that there is a policy decision not to restore access.

So you have to work around the policy issue.

WELCOME TO TANGENTIAL INJUSTICE!

Lost access to my phone, then went to Tarrant County jail awaiting trail (innocent until proven guilty but $250,000 bond where no humans or property harmed), and only was able to get a few G-M-@-1-L related accounts reset following a plea bargain to get back my freedom. Lots of corpses in that system. IYKYK.

What can you do? Ask nicely. Hope to escalate. First off though, think of Jack Handey...

If you lost your keys in lava, man, let 'em go, they're gone.

Coincidentally, this article was posted on HN yesterday and has been playing on my mind... https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2022/06/ive-locked-myself-out-of-my...

It sounds like you trusted someone you shouldn't have. This person wouldn't happen to be someone who also has spent some time in prison?

joshmn

ez get a new account

Brutal situation—sorry you’re dealing with it. A playbook that’s worked for folks: assemble “hard” proofs that tie you to the account and ask GitHub Support for human identity review, not automated 2FA reset. Think: old phone number ownership, email at a domain you control, past billing receipts (Sponsors/Actions/Marketplace), SSH public key or GPG signature fingerprints from your commits, WHOIS matching your name, and ecosystem attestations (RubyGems maintainers confirming you own those packages). Put all that in one concise ticket and request escalation.

In parallel, talk to RubyGems support about stewarding the gems if GitHub recovery stalls. They can add/transfer ownership with credible verification, so users aren’t stuck. Worst case, spin up a new GitHub, mirror the repos, and note the account transition in README/changelogs—plus a release on RubyGems pointing to the new home. Not ideal, but it keeps your users safe and the project alive while you push on account recovery.