Google will now make passkeys the default for personal accounts - eviltoast

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.

  • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    That’s a terrible take … He’s confusing “what it does and how it works” with “how you manage it”.

    It’s like saying “don’t call it a password if you write it down”. It’s confusing and unhelpful.

    • Natanael@slrpnk.net
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      1 year ago

      No it’s literally in the spec. Passkeys are designed for cross device synchronization. You have to go out of your way to make it local only (or use a different webauthn spec like physical security keys)

      • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        They’re just private keys. By nature you can copy them wherever you want. I guess I don’t know why he’s making that distinction at all.

        • Natanael@slrpnk.net
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          1 year ago

          The original spec is resident keys including TPM protected or hardware token protected keys designed to be impossible to copy. That’s why there’s a distinction.