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A future without passwords

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51–60 of 227 posts

Re: A future without passwords

#51

The thing I like about the password is that it does not involve any additional technology dependencies. GitHub is going down this road, too, announcing that they will soon disallow password-based auth on git operations. I'm not sure if I will keep using it after that, because having to log into the website from every workstation, some of which may not even have a browser "good enough" for github.com, is more extra wo…

Can you still use ssh keys? I haven’t used http for git in years. I store the SSH key’s password in the keychain and then I’m good to go.

Re: A future without passwords

#52
TLDR: There is no actual talk or details of how the future without passwords would look or work.

It’s just a blog post about Google patting themselves on the back for how ‘awesome’ they are at keeping your passwords safe, and promoting some of their recent and upcoming tech to help manage passwords.

Re: A future without passwords

#53
The biggest threat is not the password but the recovery email being hacked or google locking out your account if you supply a phone but are unable to verify it after changing your location. That will lock your account. As always google always misdiagnoses the problem which they themselves helped create.

Re: A future without passwords

#54
post #38

Please can we get this more attention: https://sqrl.grc.com/

SQRL requires that web sites re-engineer their user authentication, the same cost they'd incur for implementing WebAuthn.

SQRL also requires users to get some additional software in order to work. Of course (this being Steve Gibson) that software is perpetually unfinished and buggy, and may not even be available for your browser (e.g. Safari) - but the next version will always be great...

But then unlike WebAuthn SQRL's anti-phishing protection is marginal, it might work, unless it doesn't work, and then it's your fault for not carefully matching things, a task machines are good at and humans are bad at.

Use WebAuthn.

Re: A future without passwords

#55
post #28
post #4

Am I the only person who loathes this form of 2FA? I have this on my eBay account and it never works. I click the "Approve" button, and it fails to send so I can't login. I would prefer to just use my 2FA TOTP app, which has yet to fail me! My work has the same sort of setup, they expect you to install the "Microsoft Authenticator" app (no TOTP supported) and click approve in that. But how have we increased safety wh…

> But how have we increased safety when my Team/Outlook phone app requests that I click "approve" on a different app? By ensuring that whoever signs into the account has at least two distinct factors: the password and the trusted phone with the authenticator app. One thing you know, one thing you have. Perfect. (Depending on your phone's settings around biometric unlock, it might be even the trifecta: one thing you k…

GP is saying they're using an authenticator running on the computer they're logging in on (they alt-tab to it from the browser). So they have two factors in the sense of "something you know" vs. "something you have" but in this case the something they have is the same device.

Re: A future without passwords

#56
I don't carry around my smartphone, just a nokia. I hate this approach with a passion. Please just send me a text message, or an email to confirm my login as a second factor to my password, and then trust the IP on user decision. Please don't make me use a smartphone app.

Re: A future without passwords

#57
In a "future without passwords" every signle web site will use their own app for 2FA, forcing you to install all of them. It should be possible to have one common open standard for "push" 2FA apps and let consumer chose which app to use. Like we have now with Google Authenticator, andOTP, DuoMobile, etc, but with unified "push" functionality.

Re: A future without passwords

#58
post #49
post #26

https://myaccount.google.com/signinoptions/two-step-verifica... > Google prompts > "To stop getting prompts on a particular phone, sign out of that phone." Well, f* you too. I genuinely hate this idiotic future where I'm not given a choice. I have a yubikey, a TOTP, and backup codes. Leave my phone out of this.

Google has chosen poorly in forcing Google Prompts on all signed-in phones and tablets when 2-step verification is turned on. It nullifies the extra security of a hardware key, turning all of your phones and tablets into weaker second factors, whether you want it or not. To disable Google Prompts and just use your YubiKey's U2F, you could enroll in Google's Advanced Protection Program. But then your TOTP and backup c…

> U2F is a real pain because you can't make backup copies of the key

Dogma: If it isn't backed up then it doesn't exist.

Re: A future without passwords

#59
post #31

Why don't web browsers have good password managers (like keepass or bitwarden) built in? It seems like a good solution would be to make random password generators more usabile than to throw out the baby with the bath water.

There's Firefox Lockwise: http://lockwise.firefox.com

Firefox also introduced a feature that offers to generate a secure password when it detects a sign-up page.

Re: A future without passwords

#60
post #6
post #4

Am I the only person who loathes this form of 2FA? I have this on my eBay account and it never works. I click the "Approve" button, and it fails to send so I can't login. I would prefer to just use my 2FA TOTP app, which has yet to fail me! My work has the same sort of setup, they expect you to install the "Microsoft Authenticator" app (no TOTP supported) and click approve in that. But how have we increased safety wh…

I would rather use FIDO2, which is an open, decentralized standard that's both super secure and convenient. Why is nobody supporting that? That way we don't even need to remember usernames, let alone passwords.

I was really hoping that would catch on when I got my first yubikey some years ago. So far it seems that basically no one is using it. Which really sucks because it's so much more secure. Makes it impossible to accidentally send credentials to the wrong site.
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