Exporting Microsoft Authenticator TOTP secrets

README.md

Background

Workplaces may enforce TOTP 2FA to be enabled Office 365 accounts, which require the Microsoft Authenticator app to be installed.

Regular TOTP applications (such as Aegis, Authy, or LastPass) cannot be used as Microsoft uses a proprietary scheme called phonefactor. Furthermore, the application requires Google Services Framework (GSF) to be installed (likely to provide device notifications), and will refuse to work when it is not present on the device.

Forunately, after the registration is complete, the underlying mechanism the app uses to generate TOTP codes is regular otpauth, and its secrets can be exported with a little bit of effort.

Extracting the keys

1. To extract the keys, a complete registration must first be done with a rooted Android device. I used a virtual Android device created with Android Studio's Device Manager.

2. Once complete, an SQLite database storing the keys can be found on the device at:

   /data/data/com.azure.authenticator/databases/PhoneFactor

   (accessing the /data partition is what requires root)

3. ADB can then be used to connect to the device/emulator, using its bundled sqlite3 tool to view the database:

   $ adb root  # Ensure we run as the root user 
   $ adb shell  # Launch a shell as the root user 
   emu64xa:/ # whoami
   root 
   emu64xa:/ # sqlite3 /data/data/com.azure.authenticator/databases/PhoneFactor  # Connect to the database file
   sqlite> SELECT name, username, oath_secret_key from accounts;
   GitHub|[email protected]|w0swofa8wl02vqml0pkbzphvp54zyx5x
   

   The 32-length string in the oath_secret_key column can then be imported into any TOTP application.

Thanks for this guide; this still works in 2025! Just wanted to say that and add some extra steps that I took:

1. I created a normal emulator image with Google Play Services and rooted it with the rootAVD tool (InstallKernelModules option), as in one of the above comments.
2. I signed in with Google into the Play Store, installed the Microsoft Authenticator app, and restored the backup.
3. I used adb shell to copy the MS Auth's app's folder in /data/data to /sdcard, then used adb pull to copy it to my computer.
4. On my computer, I ran the following commands:

   > cd com.azure.authenticator\databases
   > sqlite3 PhoneFactor
   sqlite> .headers on
   sqlite> .mode csv
   sqlite> .output accounts.csv
   sqlite> SELECT * FROM accounts;
   sqlite> .quit

5. I created two Node.js scripts to work with the resulting CSV:
   • conv.js
     This reads the CSV and writes a plain text file with a list of otpauth:// URIs. This can be imported into other authenticator apps (sometimes indirectly, e.g. plain text → import to Aegis → export as Aegis → import into Bitwarden Authenticator)
   • show-qrs.js
     This reads the list of otpauth:// URIs and shows the QR codes in the terminal one-by-one for apps that I wasn't able to import into (e.g. Google Authenticator)

Works great. Thank you, the people above me, for writing it up!

These were my full steps to do this on MacOS. It's not complicated if you are familiar with the terminal.

• $ brew install --cask android-studio
• In android studio > Device Manger > New Device (pick any, I used Pixel 9)
• run emulator once, shutdown
• get https://gitlab.com/newbit/rootAVD

git clone https://gitlab.com/newbit/rootAVD.git
cd rootAVD

• put this temporarily in .zshrc:

export PATH=~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools:$PATH
export ANDROID_HOME=~/Library/Android/sdk

• reload shell (source ~/.zshrc)
• locate system image: find $ANDROID_HOME -name "ramdisk.img"
• run rootAVD FAKEBOOTIMG. rootAVD expects a img path relative to $ANDROID_HOME, so clean up the img path to start with system-images, like here:

./rootAVD.sh system-images/android-36/google_apis_playstore/x86_64/ramdisk.img FAKEBOOTIMG

• rootAVD will tell you when you need to open Magisk in the emulator and press "Install > Patch file > Select file "/sdcard/Download/fakeboot.img", then press Enter in rootAVD
• shut down emulator and cold reboot
• on the emulator search for and install aurora from https://aurorastore.org, configure, use Anonymous account
• in Aurora install Microsoft Authenticator and set up your 2FA
• $ adb shell
• inside run:

su
# grant the Magisk request in the emulator
whoami #==> root (success)
cd /data/data/com.azure.authenticator
cp -r databases/ /sdcard/Download/

• on your machine

adb pull /sdcard/Download/databases
cd databases
sqlite3 PhoneFactor

# inside sqlite
.headers on
.mode csv
.output accounts.csv
 SELECT * FROM accounts;
.quit

# back in shell
cat accounts.csv | cut -d, -f5
#=> oath_secret_key
#=> ______________ (your secret)

• open KeepassXC, right click db entry, setup TOTP, paste secret
• test that 2FA works

Thank you @jneidel 🙏
Am I missing something at this step ? 🧐

jeremy@MacBook-Air-de-Jeremy-2 rootAVD % find $ANDROID_HOME -name "ramdisk.img"
/Users/jeremy/Library/Android/sdk/system-images/android-36/google_apis_playstore/arm64-v8a/ramdisk.img
jeremy@MacBook-Air-de-Jeremy-2 rootAVD % ./rootAVD.sh /Users/jeremy/Library/Android/sdk/system-images/android-36/google_apis_playstore/arm64-v8a/ramdisk.img FAKEBOOTIMG
rootAVD A Script to root AVD by NewBit XDA

Usage:	rootAVD [DIR/ramdisk.img] [OPTIONS] | [EXTRA ARGUMENTS]
or:	rootAVD [ARGUMENTS]

Arguments:
	ListAllAVDs			Lists Command Examples for ALL installed AVDs...

rootAVD does nothing....

@thefyfy yes, rootAVD does not want the absolute path to the image, but one relative from $ANDROID_HOME. I clarified this above. In your case:

# this
./rootAVD.sh system-images/android-36/google_apis_playstore/arm64-v8a/ramdisk.img FAKEBOOTIMG
# not this
./rootAVD.sh /Users/jeremy/Library/Android/sdk/system-images/android-36/google_apis_playstore/arm64-v8a/ramdisk.img FAKEBOOTIMG

This tripped me up too 😄