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Passkeys Explained: The End of Passwords (sentientrant.com)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Passkeys are built on the FIDO2 standard (CTAP2 + WebAuthn standards). They remove the shared secret, stop phishing at the source, and make credential-stuffing useless.

But adoption is still low, and interoperability between Apple, Google, and Microsoft isn’t seamless.

I broke down how passkeys work, their strengths, and what’s still missing

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[–] 11 points 10 months ago (24 children)

Passkeys are cool but you still need 2fa. Which may as well be a passkey itself.

One factor is not great even if it's a passkey.

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  • [–] 12 points 10 months ago (7 children)
    1. Built-In Two-Factor Security – Passkey logins use your private key stored on your device and your face or your fingerprint or your PIN. Unlike password, these cannot be easily replicated by a scammer.
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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    Isn't this optional? I use passkeys and have yet to be asked for anything else in addition to it.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (2 children)

    I've only ever seen passkeys used as 2FA, personally.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    This only applies though if it's a per-device passkey that uses a private key stored securely that cannot be exported.

    If the private key can be exported, it can be stolen and the factors becomes invalid.

    But people also store their private key in cloud solutions (some here mentioned doing that) which just makes the factor invalid anyway, since then it's not device-bound anymore, and it's the device that verifies your identity with those methods.

    Like, what if someone hacks the cloud service storing the passkeys and steals them? Not really any different from storing passwords in a cloud, and that one isn't called 2FA either.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    The article is only referring to per device keys and passkeys that lock them on that device. In other words, someone would need to be able to get your device's key, decrypt it or brute your passkey, spoof or steal your device somehow, and send the key under it's identity. I'm sorry, but I don't think the few people that could do that would be wasting their time to do it to little old you. For most people, their insignificance is the best security they have.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    Need is a strong word.

    2FA is a pretty good idea for some applications and needless hassle for others. I don't need most of my accounts to have 2FA; I use a password manager with strong unique passwords, and for many accounts, having to make a new one would be an inconvenience rather than a tragedy.

    Service providers might be motivated to force it on me if stolen accounts could cost them money, but most of them don't need to; it's just the most expedient move for them.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago*

    You still need 2fa

    I think most passkey implementations incorporate multiple factors already. The session factor is considered distinct from the device factor, even if it’s all on the same device.

    Which isn’t super different from the traditional USB key procedure, where a user would activate a FIDO biometric after clearing an SSO portal, or what have you.

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  • [–] 0 points 10 months ago (13 children)

    Passkeys are cool but you still need 2fa.

    How do you use it then if you need to share access in the whole team?

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago (12 children)

    You don't share your personal password across the whole team now, do you? At least for your teams sake I hope you don't.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    You know that not every account is only used by a single user, right?

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  • [–] -1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    I think that's the problem right there... If you share accounts across multiple people you have far greater problems than how passkeys work...

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Or they're using it as intended. I've had more than one account I've gotten by cost sharing with friends. That's not a problem, that's a solution.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    And it only takes one person with a grudge to cause a problem. I have seen it. I have shared accounts but very carefully and if someone abuses it then they permanently lose access to my stuff even if they are family.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (6 children)

    share your personal password

    We share a password. Then we don't call it a personal password anymore. Was that your question?

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (5 children)

    That’s an IAM no-no.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (4 children)

    So? Read my question above.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    You create unique accounts for every team member so that access can appropriately be logged.

    Or you implement a PAM tool that logs access and vaults the password and rotates it after use.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    Obviously not the personal password, but sometimes you need to share a password. Think about the password for a remote desktop your team may need to connect to for troubleshooting a problem for example.

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