Auth0 provides a built-in enrollment and authentication flow using Universal Login. However, if you want to create your own user interface, you can use the MFA API to accomplish it.

Prerequisites

Before you can use the MFA APIs, you’ll need to enable the MFA grant type for your application. Go to Auth0 Dashboard > Applications > Advanced Settings > Grant Types and select MFA.

Enroll with OTP

Get MFA token

Depending on when you are triggering enrollment, you can obtain an for using the MFA API in different ways:

Enroll authenticator

Make a POST request to the MFA Associate endpoint to enroll the user’s authenticator. The bearer token required by this endpoint is the MFA token obtained in the previous step. To enroll with OTP, set the authenticator_types parameter to [otp].
curl --request POST \
  --url 'https://{yourDomain}/mfa/associate' \
  --header 'authorization: Bearer MFA_TOKEN' \
  --header 'content-type: application/json' \
  --data '{ "authenticator_types": ["otp"] }'
If successful, you receive a response like this:
{
  "authenticator_type": "otp",
  "secret": "EN...S",
  "barcode_uri": "otpauth://totp/tenant:user?secret=...&issuer=tenant&algorithm=SHA1&digits=6&period=30",
  "recovery_codes": [ "N3B...XC"]
}
If you get a User is already enrolled error, the user already has an MFA factor enrolled. Before associating another factor with the user, you must challenge the user with the existing factor. If this is the first time the user is associating an authenticator, you’ll notice the response includes recovery_codes. Recovery codes are used to access the user’s account in the event that they lose access to the account or device used for their second-factor authentication. These are one-time usable codes, and new ones are generated as necessary.

Confirm OTP enrollment

To confirm the enrollment, the end user will need to enter the secret obtained in the previous step in an OTP generator application like Google Authenticator. They can enter the secret by scanning a QR code with the barcode_uri or by typing the secret code manually in that OTP application. You should provide users a way to get the secret as text in case they cannot scan the QR code (for example, if they are enrolling from a mobile device, or using a desktop OTP application). After the user enters the secret, the OTP application will display a 6-digit code, that the user should enter in your application. The application should then make a POST request to the , including that otp value.
curl --request POST \
  --url 'https://{yourDomain}/oauth/token' \
  --header 'content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
  --data grant_type=http://auth0.com/oauth/grant-type/mfa-otp \
  --data 'client_id={yourClientId}' \
  --data 'mfa_token={mfaToken}' \
  --data 'client_secret={yourClientSecret}' \
  --data 'otp={userOtpCode}'
If the call was successful, you’ll receive a response in the following format, containing the access token:
{
  "id_token": "eyJ...i",
  "access_token": "eyJ...i",
  "expires_in": 600,
  "scope": "openid profile",
  "token_type": "Bearer"
}
At this point, the authenticator is fully associated and ready to be used, and you have the authentication tokens for the user. You can check at any point to verify whether an authenticator has been confirmed by calling the MFA Authenticators endpoint. If the authenticator is confirmed, the value returned for active is true.

Challenge with OTP

Get MFA token

Get an MFA token following the steps described in Authenticate With Resource Owner Password Grant and MFA.

Retrieve enrolled authenticators

You can list all enrolled authenticators using the MFA Authenticators endpoint:
curl --request GET \
  --url 'https://{yourDomain}/mfa/authenticators' \
  --header 'authorization: Bearer MFA_TOKEN' \
  --header 'content-type: application/json'
You will get a list of authenticators with the following format:
[
    {
        "id": "recovery-code|dev_qpOkGUOxBpw6R16t",
        "authenticator_type": "recovery-code",
        "active": true
    },
    {
        "id": "totp|dev_6NWz8awwC8brh2dN",
        "authenticator_type": "otp",
        "active": true
    }
]

Complete authentication using received code

The user will collect a one time password, which you will then collect from them. You can verify the code and get authentication tokens using the OAuth0 Token endpoint, specifying the one time password in the otp parameter:
curl --request POST \
  --url 'https://{yourDomain}/oauth/token' \
  --header 'content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
  --data grant_type=http://auth0.com/oauth/grant-type/mfa-otp \
  --data 'client_id={yourClientId}' \
  --data 'client_secret={yourClientSecret}' \
  --data 'mfa_token={mfaToken}' \
  --data 'otp={userOtpCode}'
If the call was successful, you’ll receive a response in the format below, containing the access token:
{
  "id_token": "eyJ...i",
  "access_token": "eyJ...i",
  "expires_in": 600,
  "scope": "openid profile",
  "token_type": "Bearer"
}

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