Alexa "Open by Voice" not requiring PIN for cover

Configuration Voice Assistant
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A garage cover is being exposed to Alexa from HA, but Alexa will open the cover without asking for a PIN, which is a security issue. I don’t know if this is an Alex problem or a problem how HA is exposing the cover.

I was using the MyQ integration (back when it was still working). Alexa recognized it as a security device and required a PIN every time Alexa was asked to open the garage.

I moved over to Ratgdo for local control of the garage doors via ESPHome.

Now, Alexa does show the garage device exposed by HA, and it DOES provide the “Open by Voice” option (see image), but it does NOT ask for the PIN.

I’m not sure if this is a HA/cloud issue (how the device is exposed & discovered) or an Alexa issue. I posted a question about this on the Amazon Forum, but have not heard anything.

Below you can see that the cover was exposed to Alexa as a “Garage door” type. And, more importantly, that Alexa is requiring “Open by Voice” which I have enabled and set a PIN for. But speaking “Alexa, open the single garage door” works without Alexa asking for the PIN.

The security issues, of course, is anyone can open the garage by asking Alexa. (And I’ve tried with multiple different people – so it’s not bypassing by knowing my voice.)

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Seeing how Alexa asked for a PIN with the exposed MyQ integration and not with the new Ratgdo cover, I created my own “fake” cover in configuration.yaml and exposed it to Alexa. The Alexa app does recognize it is a cover and offers the “Open by Voice” but Alexa does not ask for the PIN. In other words, it doesn’t seem to be specific to the Ratdgo/ESPHome integration.

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The “fake” cover works both in HA and I can ask Alexa to “open the fake garage door” and it will “open” it in HA.

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I’m happy to post the YAML for setting up the fake garage, if that helps.

But my main question is if this is an issue in HA or Alexa.

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I was following this post, as i have the same experience & concern. I just ended up disabling the garage door in alexa, then created a script in HA to open the garage door & created a routine in alexa that runs the script when i call ‘Alexa, open the gateway to hell.’ (Or whatever you want to call your garage door)

Some ideas i had:
Execute Order 66
Open the money pit
Where’s my car
Get to the chopper
I feel the need for speed
Go to warp speed
Let’s go racing
Open Stargate
We’re going to need a bigger boat

Etc, let your imagination go! Be sure to make another script to close the garage door

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Well, I guess a special phrase is as good (if not better) than a four digit passcode, so seems like a good solution.

I just wish I understood if this is an Alexa problem or a change in HA (or cloud?) behaivor.

Thanks for the reply and the suggestions.

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I’m in the same boat here. I would like to just use the native command and it bugs me that the option is there but it is just being ignored.

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Same issue. I guess, for now, we call it something else besides the garage door.

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The voice pin seems to be working fine for me. I have the option to set a voice code in the Alexa app on my phone. When I ask Alexa to open the garage door, she asks me for the voice code.

Just guessing, but for those who are having issues, do you have device_class: garage in the configuration of your cover?

Edit: There’s another thread here with some suggestions.

There’s also a note in the Alexa documentation:

Note: Skills that control a garage door are supported in de-DE , en-GB , en-US , es-ES , es-US , fr-FR , and it-IT .

So for anyone having issues - in order to identify some patterns it would probably be good to identify:

  • Locale
  • Language
  • Which method you used to integrate with Alexa (most should be either Nabu Casa or Smart Home Skill)

For me, I’m in the US using en-US with the Smart Home Skill. And it works fine.

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So to answer the questions…

I do not have the garage door device class defined in my configuration.yaml.

Local: us
Language: en
Integration: I used the paid Nabu Casa option utilizing the smart home skill.