Passkey is some sort of specific unique key to a device allowing to use a pin on a device instead of the password. But which won’t work on another device.
Now I don’t know if that key can be stolen or not, or if it’s really more secure or not, as people have really unsecure pins.
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I don’t think that access to your personal data/email/files being dependent on a battery-powered electronic device is a great idea, to be honest.
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The fact is that I fail to see something obviously wrong with outrageously long/complicated passwords managed by e.g. Bitwarden or the likes.
Long passwords can still be phished. Passkeys cannot. It’s a huge upgrade.
I don’t think so, but whatever.
What do you mean? Do you not believe the anti-phishing features will work as described for a reason?
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It would probably be better for you to explain what’s wrong and not just call them a boomer as if that explains it.
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“It’s old so it’s bad” is not a very convincing argument.
I think he was wondering how technically the new solution is better, especially compared to password database solutions where complex password and password reuse isn’t an issue.
Webauthn has domain bindings and single use challenges which prevents MITM credential stealing, etc
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It kinda sounds like you dont actually know whats wrong, and are just blindly following the trends.
Doesnt that make you the boomer?
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oh man. so I am a boomer. good to know.
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What do you see that’s wrong with it that we don’t if I may ask?
Mostly phishing. Passkeys can’t be phished. And really, passwords are awful in general for security purposes. You don’t have to use your phone or google or apple or whatever.
I actually have a physical usb key that I use as a passkey. Its just a more secure login implementation and will likely be the only option in the future.
Passkeys can be phished, it’s just much more difficult than with passwords, TOTP MFA, SMS MFA, other OTPs, or push notification-based MFA (e.g., Duo or the way Microsoft, Apple, and Google push a notification to their app and you confirm and/or enter the key).
Passkey is extremely phishing resistant in the same as Webauthn MFA and U2F MFA are, in that origin checks by the browser prevent attackers from initiating the auth process. But it can still be attacked in these ways:
From memory, passkeys, webauthn, and u2f should prevent over 99% of phishing attacks that are successful without them in place.
There’s also the risk of the passkey itself being compromised, though that level of risk is dependent on your device / how you’re storing your passkeys and isn’t a “phishing” risk.
The main point is all those attacks need to attack the local software or hardware implementation on one of the two ends (or a cert issuer), and even then it’s replay protected so for example an XSS attack lasts only for one session, so it’s more robust.
My understanding of Apple Keychain is that every credential is useable from every device, and can be backed up and restored to a new device. Most importantly Apple doesn’t have access, although we have to trust them on that
It’s not quite unique to a specific device. You can store your private key in a password manager or something similar, and then access it from other devices
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Me, at the bank:
Robbers, as they enter the bank: everybody freeze
Me: ah shit
Robbers: everyone give me your phones
Me: aw hell naw
mission impossible style shootout
But it becomes much easier if you want to compromise a specific target individual
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Hi, yes, I am that minority
I have a 37 character password with both cases, numbers and special characters to login to my pw vault using long random strings
My phone has a swipe pattern lock since that is the safest lock option it allows in the first place. I wish I could lock it better, but the only other options available to me are a 4 character pin, and fingerprints/facial scan. I hope the problems with those are obvious
Couple that with the fact that I have a daily predictable commute in public transit where I have a habit to put my phone next to me during breakfast and you have a recipe for disaster.
Finger prints on Android stop working after 24 hours, a reboot, and some other cercumstances. I feel pretty OK using fingerprint to unlock my phone, because in about 99% of cases I might be compelled to unlock my phone, I will either be able to restart it first, or that 24 hour timer will have expired.
I may be misunderstanding you, but how does that stop an attacker?
Getting a copy of someone’s fingerprint can be done without their knowledge since it is the easiest biometric to accidentally leave behind. Having to restart my phone doesn’t suddenly change my fingerprints.
Or, do you have to actually re-register your prints on a daily basis via a different form of authentication? That’d seem inconvenient and like it would just move the problem around
US legal system can compel you to give biometrics, but not password/pin
They won’t be able to compel you before the biometric access timer expires.
Tell that to cops at traffic stops
Yes it’s a thing
After the phone restarts, you must unlock your phone with your PIN(or swipe pattern) before you can use your finger again. The same is true with the 24 hour timer. Android also has a feature that if you hit the power button a set amount of times, it requires the PIN/Pattern too. So if my phone and my finger print have been separate for more than 24 hours, my fingerprint is useless. If I have any warning at all, my fingerprint is useless. Also, after a set number of failed biometric attempts it requires PIN as well. Which means the law better get the finger print right in only a few tries or they lose their chance.
Yes, it is technically possible that law enforcement may steal my phone, duplicate my finger print(in a way that works on my phone’s finger print reader), and use that to unlock my phone while they have a chance, then suck everything out of my phone. But for anything government, that’s moving pretty swift for anything they might want to book me for.
I’m guessing you could reduce that to a lower number of hours if you really felt the need.
You have to enter your pin/pattern to re-enable biometrics
Also, I’m not sure which phone you’re using, but if it’s an Android there should be the option for password, some OEMs don’t give that option but they’re rare and the standard set by Google is to provide that and also the pins to be very long (I haven’t personally checked the limit, but you can make them longer than reasonable)
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I have MFA in addition to that pw, yes
That’s news to me. Which other mobile authentication is there besides pin, pattern, facial and fingerprint?
My 6 character alphanumeric pin is more secure than your four digit numeric
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Even FIDO2 MFA doesn’t protect you from attacks that involve malware running on your machine. If there was a keylogger on their machine then that machine is likely compromised in other ways, and any credentials entered or stored on it should be considered compromised and should be reset.