Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Passkeys is the way to go. Password manager support for passkeys is getting really good. And how do you access your password manager when your computer is locked ?
How do you access the phishing site when your computer is locked?
Emailing a one-time code is worse than passwords
341–350 of 816 posts
Re: Emailing a one-time code is worse than passwords
#342Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree, but unfortunately the spec authors are already going out and dangling possible bans in front of projects who implement Passkeys in more user-friendly ways: https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc/issues/10407 > To be very honest here, you risk having KeePassXC blocked by relying parties But having a choice about how you store your credentials shouldn't depend on the good faith of service providers or the…
There's a tension here between "user freedom" and a service wanting to make sure that credentials that it trusts to grant access to stuff aren't just being yolo'd around into textfiles on people's dropboxes. People forget that one of the purposes of authentication is to protect both the end user and the service operator.
Re: Emailing a one-time code is worse than passwords
#343Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple’s works fine, including when I’m logging on to my windows machine. Opening the camera app is a little annoying, but I don’t have to do it frequently. 1Password works well too and it runs on everything. There’s open source options, but I can’t attest to their UX.
That's fine, but Chrome has 67% market share, and the majority of people will pick the default option for passkeys if prompted. For passkeys to replace passwords it's got to be seamless and easily recoverable without compromising security.
Re: Emailing a one-time code is worse than passwords
#344The attack pattern is: 1) User goes to BAD website and signs up. 2) BAD website says “We’ve sent you an email, please enter the 6-digit code! The email will come from GOOD, as they are our sign-in partner.” 3) BAD’s bots start a “Sign in with email one-time code” flow on the GOOD website using the user’s email. 4) GOOD sends a one-time login code email to the user’s email address. 5) The user is very likely to trust…
I still don’t really understand what recovery looks like for a lost passkey… especially if I lose all of them. Not everything has a physical location where an identity can be validated, like a bank. Even my primary bank isn’t local. I’d have to drive about 6 hours to get to a branch office.
Re: Emailing a one-time code is worse than passwords
#345Earlier quoted context omitted.
Such long passwords are silly, they will be effectively truncated by the key length of the underlying cryptography.
Agreed. But since every character gives you around 6 bits (26*2 letters + 10 numbers + some special characters ≈ 64 = 2^6), you'd need 256/6 ≈ 43 characters to exhaust the checked entropy, so up to that level it makes sense. If you use sentences instead of randomly generated characters, the entropy (in bits/character) is lower, so 100 characters might well make sense.
Re: Emailing a one-time code is worse than passwords
#346Whole heartedly agree. It's not more secure if you only use the second factor of two factor auth.
Codes that are provided on demand by a service will always be far less secure than proper TOTP. Because in the case of proper TOTP, no secret ever leaves the service after initial configuration, but in the case of discount 2FA through email or especially SMS, a fresh secret has to be delivered to me each time, where it can easily be intercepted by all manner of attacks.
Re: Emailing a one-time code is worse than passwords
#347The attack pattern is: 1) User goes to BAD website and signs up. 2) BAD website says “We’ve sent you an email, please enter the 6-digit code! The email will come from GOOD, as they are our sign-in partner.” 3) BAD’s bots start a “Sign in with email one-time code” flow on the GOOD website using the user’s email. 4) GOOD sends a one-time login code email to the user’s email address. 5) The user is very likely to trust…
Isn’t clicking on a link in an email also problematic? It gets users in the habit of trusting links in emails. There is a history of those being used in bad ways as well. I still don’t really understand what recovery looks like for a lost passkey… especially if I lose all of them. Not everything has a physical location where an identity can be validated, like a bank. Even my primary bank isn’t local. I’d have to driv…
Re: Emailing a one-time code is worse than passwords
#348Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t like passkeys. Before my process to login was: - open website - if not already logged in, log in to 1Password - autofill password - autofill TOTP Now: - open website - if logged in to 1Password the Use Passkey usually shows up - if not: - log in to 1Password - choose use passkey - this almost always does nothing - choose “use other method” - choose “password” - autofill that - now there is another dialog to c…
And if I'm not using passkey, but the web site detects I'm using a passkey-compatible browser or password manager, the site takes over and tries to "sell" me a passkey anyway. No, I don't want it!
Now that I’m so paranoid about this, and not remembering which sites I have them for, I always dismiss the passkey prompt, then have to click several more times to get to the password login and fill it in with my password manager.
Re: Emailing a one-time code is worse than passwords
#349Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you have some examples where people actually require attestation in 3rd party facing systems? Or is this purely "But in theory..." and you've dismissed all the very real problems with the alternatives because you're scared of a theoretical problem ? I always reject attestation requests and I don't recall ever having been refused, so if this was a real problem it seems like I ought to have noticed by now.
Microsoft Entra ID goes out of its way to enforce attestation for FIDO 2 keys. The protocol normally allows you to omit the attestation, but they worked around an extra call after a successful registration flow that sends you to an error page if your FIDO2 passkey isn't from one of these large approved vendors: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/authenticat... I found out by trying to prototype my own F…
I do remember explicitly telling them (because of course having agreed to do this they have no idea how and need our instructions) not to enable attestation because it's a bad idea, but you seem to be saying that it'll somehow be demanded (and then ignored) anyway and that was not my experience.
So, I guess what I'm saying here is: Are you really sure it's demanded and then ignored if you turn it off from the administrative controls? Because that was not my impression.
Re: Emailing a one-time code is worse than passwords
#350Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Passkeys is the way to go No, at least not on its own. Let's not repeat the mistakes. Password managers are the way to go and ONLY FOR RARE EXCEPTIONS we should use dedicated MFA, such as for email-accounts and financial stuff. And the MFA should ask you to set up at least 3 factors and ask you to use 2 or more. And if it doesn't support more or less all factors like printed codes, OS-independent authenticator apps…
If you like password managers, you'll love passkeys! Passkeys is an interface between your password manager and a website without all the fluff with filling or copy-pasting passwords.