SUsusam·Jan 19, 2026
Original source of the 8 liner Python code: https://github.com/susam/mintotp/blob/main/mintotp.py
In MTOTP: Wouldn't it be nice if you were the 2FA device?susam
mintotp
Python2019–2026
susam / mintotp
mintotp
Minimal TOTP generator in 20 lines of Python
6Distinct people
16Mentions
1Explicit recommenders
1.4KGitHub stars
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What it is
Minimal TOTP generator in 20 lines of Python
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use has been verified yet.
What people are saying
I'm so glad this has been created. I've felt for quite some time that TOTP is such a triumph of simplicity and security. It's so simple that if you have your secret key on…
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This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year16 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2019-10-19 09:48:05 UTC to 2026-01-19 19:29:34 UTC.
* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 4 | 1 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
What Hacker News says
16 sourcesI'm super curious how this hack worked, but I feel like the story is just about the last step. What did the attacker have such that this last step did it?
My guess is that the attacker had the google password, and also the login for Coinbase was somehow stored in Google, so the attacker getting into google also exposed Coinbase. I just looked at Coinbase, and it does have a "Sign In With Google" feature.
If you want to live the stripped-down TOTP lifestyle, you have to love this 20 line Python solution. Does not depend on weird libs, and the last edit is 4 years ago. Write the seed on a Post-It and you're all set. Not so convenient, but sound sleeping!
https://github.com/susam/mintotp
In Scammed out of $130K via fake Google call, spoofed Google email and auth syncIt is a bit terse, but there is a 20-line Python implementation which cleared up the ideas for me: https://github.com/susam/mintotp
In Behind the 6-digit code: Building HOTP and TOTP from scratchI'm so glad this has been created. I've felt for quite some time that TOTP is such a triumph of simplicity and security. It's so simple that if you have your secret key on hand, you can generate your TOTP code with just 30 lines of Python!: https://github.com/susam/mintotp/blob/main/mintotp.py
It's amazing! Its default UX assumes you're basically air gapped. It works based on a minimal shared secret that's totally portable. Conceptually, it's as clear as "hash (your secret+(now()//30)), display hash as decimal, only show the last 6 (ish) digits".
What a triumph. I love TOTP.
This is meant as a sidelong critique on passkeys.
In Towards a test suite for TOTP codesPython includes libraries that match up with the needs well, so a python TOTP generator can be pretty small, 30 lines in this case...and not too golfed:
https://github.com/susam/mintotp/blob/main/mintotp.py
In TOTP Codes in the TerminalHow do I back these up in case of catastrophic data loss, such as my house and all my possessions burning down (there are approximately 350000 house fires a year in the USA, so it's worth worrying about when its your entire digital life)? I take my security safety, but I take the durability of my digital life much more seriously.
Right now, I am able to back up all my personal passwords and all my personal TOTP secrets into printed paper form that I keep in tamper-evident packaging and distribute to a safe-deposit box and the basements/attics of different trusted friends/family members. The printed packet of paper has instructions on how to use it, the passwords and TOTP secrets themselves, and the brief source code for one program, one that lets you generate TOTP codes from all my secrets (TOTP is very simple, it's like 30 lines of pytho
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n[0]). I've tested it all and it is sufficient to access any account I have. Since it's all recorded on paper, each packet will function for my entire lifetime; I don't have to worry about storing a device and that device's charging/power equipment, and I don't have to worry about that device's capacitors or battery going bad in 10 years.
So in the world of "passkeys", how do I simply and durably record them so that if need be, someone who is not me, who I've never met, and who has access to none of my electronic devices, can authenticate as me given that this person is willing to put several days effort into dealing with my authentication archive (e.g. an estate lawyer)?
I know that this is "possible"; it's all based on data and secrets recorded somewhere, but I'm having a hard time understanding the FIDO description, and I don't see an Open-Source equivalent of what Google's offering here. Is there a "KeePassX" of the passkey world?
[0] - https://github.com/susam/mintotp/blob/main/mintotp.py
I like minitotp[0] which only uses the Python standard library available from Python 3.4 and above.
[0] https://github.com/susam/mintotp
In TOTP Authentication with Free SoftwareA little golfed, but TOTP in python, using only base/included modules, is not much code.
https://github.com/susam/mintotp/blob/main/mintotp.py
In TOTP Authentication with Free SoftwareI believe it is worth mentioning here that reading secrets from command line arguments exposes the secrets in shell history (e.g., ~/.bash_history, ~/.zsh_history, etc.), thus writing the secrets in cleartext to the filesystem. If command line auditing is enabled on a system, any secrets in command line arguments would be exposed in such audit logs too.
Further, if multiple users are logged into the same system (perhaps an unlikely scenario for most people), then secrets in command line arguments would expose the secrets in the output of ps -ef too thereby exposing the secrets to other users.
By the way, I have a similar script at https://github.com/susam/mintotp but it reads secrets from the standard input (as opposed to reading from command line arguments), one secret per line, and outputs TOTP values, one per line. Most of what this sc
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ript does can be done with oathtool too and there is a section titled "Alternative: OATH Toolkit" in the README that documents this in detail.
MinTOTP – Minimal TOTP generator in 20 lines of Python
157 points · Open discussionMinimal TOTP Generator in 20 Lines of Python
2 points · Open discussionMinimal TOTP Generator in Python
2 points · Open discussion> I even have a 6-line Python function.
In case, anyone is curious what that might look like, I have a 30-line Python code here (TOTP generation only, no verification): https://github.com/susam/mintotp. Indeed the core function (the HOTP function) contains only 6 lines, thanks to Python's extensive standard library.
In RFC6238 TOTP implementation in pure PostgreSQLMinimal TOTP generator in 20 lines of Python
18 points · Open discussionMinTOTP – Minimal TOTP Generator in 20 Lines of Python
1 points · Open discussionShowing the 15 most recent of 16 sources. Enable JavaScript to search and browse every indexed mention.