diff --git a/internal/processing/user/twofactor.go b/internal/processing/user/twofactor.go
index 28c089e10..02365f3f1 100644
--- a/internal/processing/user/twofactor.go
+++ b/internal/processing/user/twofactor.go
@@ -31,13 +31,13 @@ import (
 	"time"
 
 	"codeberg.org/gruf/go-byteutil"
-	"github.com/google/uuid"
 	"github.com/pquerna/otp"
 	"github.com/pquerna/otp/totp"
 	apimodel "github.com/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/internal/api/model"
 	"github.com/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/internal/config"
 	"github.com/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/internal/gtserror"
 	"github.com/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/internal/gtsmodel"
+	"github.com/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/internal/util"
 	"golang.org/x/crypto/bcrypt"
 )
 
@@ -207,7 +207,7 @@ func (p *Processor) TwoFactorEnable(
 	// to show to the user ONCE ONLY.
 	backupsClearText := make([]string, 8)
 	for i := 0; i < 8; i++ {
-		backupsClearText[i] = uuid.NewString()
+		backupsClearText[i] = util.MustGenerateSecret()
 	}
 
 	// Store only the bcrypt-encrypted
@@ -215,7 +215,7 @@ func (p *Processor) TwoFactorEnable(
 	user.TwoFactorBackups = make([]string, 8)
 	for i, backup := range backupsClearText {
 		encryptedBackup, err := bcrypt.GenerateFromPassword(
-			[]byte(backup),
+			byteutil.S2B(backup),
 			bcrypt.DefaultCost,
 		)
 		if err != nil {
diff --git a/internal/util/secret.go b/internal/util/secret.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..915cc77ba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/util/secret.go
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+// GoToSocial
+// Copyright (C) GoToSocial Authors admin@gotosocial.org
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: AGPL-3.0-or-later
+//
+// This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+// it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by
+// the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+// (at your option) any later version.
+//
+// This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+// GNU Affero General Public License for more details.
+//
+// You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
+// along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+package util
+
+import (
+	"crypto/rand"
+	"encoding/base32"
+	"io"
+)
+
+// crockfordBase32 is an encoding alphabet that misses characters I,L,O,U,
+// to avoid confusion and abuse. See: http://www.crockford.com/wrmg/base32.html
+const crockfordBase32 = "0123456789ABCDEFGHJKMNPQRSTVWXYZ"
+
+// base32enc is a pre-initialized CrockfordBase32 encoding without any padding.
+var base32enc = base32.NewEncoding(crockfordBase32).WithPadding(base32.NoPadding)
+
+// MustGenerateSecret returns a cryptographically-secure,
+// CrockfordBase32-encoded string of 32 chars in length
+// (ie., 20-bytes/160 bits of entropy), or panics on error.
+//
+// The source of randomness is crypto/rand.
+func MustGenerateSecret() string {
+	// Crockford base32 with no padding
+	// encodes 20 bytes to 32 characters.
+	const blen = 20
+	b := make([]byte, blen)
+	if _, err := io.ReadFull(rand.Reader, b); err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+	return base32enc.EncodeToString(b)
+}
diff --git a/internal/util/secret_test.go b/internal/util/secret_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..99b2df32c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/util/secret_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+// GoToSocial
+// Copyright (C) GoToSocial Authors admin@gotosocial.org
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: AGPL-3.0-or-later
+//
+// This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+// it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by
+// the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+// (at your option) any later version.
+//
+// This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+// GNU Affero General Public License for more details.
+//
+// You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
+// along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+package util_test
+
+import (
+	"regexp"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/internal/util"
+)
+
+func TestMustGenerateSecret(t *testing.T) {
+	var (
+		rStr = `^[0123456789ABCDEFGHJKMNPQRSTVWXYZ]{32}$`
+		r    = regexp.MustCompile(rStr)
+	)
+
+	for i := 0; i < 10; i++ {
+		secret := util.MustGenerateSecret()
+		if !r.MatchString(secret) {
+			t.Logf("%d: secret %s does not match regex %s", i, secret, rStr)
+			t.Fail()
+		}
+	}
+}