# Question about NK3 "secrets"
**URL:** https://support.nitrokey.com/t/question-about-nk3-secrets/7795
**Category:** Nitrokeys
**Created:** [October 25, 2026, 5:47pm UTC](https://support.nitrokey.com/t/question-about-nk3-secrets/7795 "2026-10-25T17:47:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@T.L.7Gadi](https://support.nitrokey.com/u/T.L.7Gadi)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2026, 5:47pm UTC](https://support.nitrokey.com/t/question-about-nk3-secrets/7795/1 "2026-10-25T17:47:19Z")
Hello,
I just read [this](https://docs.nitrokey.com/nitrokeys/nitrokey3/set-pins#passwords-and-otp-secrets) section of your good documentation. Can you please explain a bit in detail what are OTP _secrets._ And what _exactly_ are passwords? Plain text strings? And the last question.
There is an option to add random data to the nk3 - `nitropy nk3 rng`. What does this mean and should I do so?
Regards. 🙂
T.L.
---
### Author:  [@robin-nitrokey](https://support.nitrokey.com/u/robin-nitrokey)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2026, 10:08am UTC](https://support.nitrokey.com/t/question-about-nk3-secrets/7795/2 "2026-10-26T10:08:12Z")
Yes, passwords are just strings. OTP secrets are one-time passwords, typically TOTP, see [Two-factor Authentication with One-Time Passwords (OTP) - Nitrokey Documentation](https://docs.nitrokey.com/nitrokeys/features/totp/). They can be used as a second factor similar to FIDO2.
`nitropy nk3 rng` does not add data to the Nitrokey, it provides random data backed by the hardware RNG of the Nitrokey. So you can use it for anything that requires random input.