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Passkeys: They're not perfect but they're getting better

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Re: Passkeys: They're not perfect but they're getting better

#21
post #4

I agree. I use Bitwarden on my Samsung Android phone and also on my Linux desktop. Bitwarden currently supports passkeys on almost all the apps on my android including firefox. The same passkeys which i used to login on my phone can be used on my Linux desktop where i use Firefox with Bitwarden extension. What's now possible was not even possible at the start of this year. I haven't switched everything to passkeys bu…

So the same passkey is being used on multiple devices, rather than different devices (actually applications) having distinct passkeys. Doesn't that defeat one of the centrals aims of passkeys? In what ways is your setup different than random passwords in bitwarden - what's the additional security?

The password manager has become the device (and offers some assurance if the device is lost, as you can log into the manager on another device). I agree definitely isn't the original vision of passkeys (having a different passkey on every device, stored in separate password databases?), but it makes more sense for my cases.

Re: Passkeys: They're not perfect but they're getting better

#22
“Passkeys are the future of authentication” …this is not the future I hope….When Google, Microsoft and a lot of other B*G-Tech companies promote Passkeys, you know it is not done to protect your security and privacy.

Nice read https://techrights.org/n/2025/05/02/Passkeys_Are_Vendor_Lock...

Re: Passkeys: They're not perfect but they're getting better

#23
post #4

I agree. I use Bitwarden on my Samsung Android phone and also on my Linux desktop. Bitwarden currently supports passkeys on almost all the apps on my android including firefox. The same passkeys which i used to login on my phone can be used on my Linux desktop where i use Firefox with Bitwarden extension. What's now possible was not even possible at the start of this year. I haven't switched everything to passkeys bu…

> I read about Passkey comittee being against open source passkey managers during start of this year (can't reference it, sorry) but with open source password/key managers already supporting passkeys, i don't think it turned out to be true. Here's an Okta employee threatening to use the attestation (anti)feature of passkeys to block open-source implementations, because they allow you to export your passkeys: https://…

That's the whole point of this exercise. If export is possible it's not secure against local compromise in the way that's needed.

Re: Passkeys: They're not perfect but they're getting better

#24
Until passkeys can pass the test of "my non-technical friends and family don't call me for help about them", passkeys aren't ready. Vendors keep making assumptions about how users behave which are not safe assumptions, and that keeps blowing up the interactions of non-technical users. (I'm sure there's an "assumptions developers make about user accounts" blog out there somewhere.)

For example, my family has had to call me for help on the interaction between passkeys on Apple & Amazon multiple times. They have a shared Amazon account, which neither Amazon nor Apple seem to like. The first problem came when they didn't even know they'd been moved to passkeys - there was a popup that one of them didn't understand, they clicked OK to get it to go away, and suddenly the other partner can't log in, and neither of them can figure out how to log into Prime Video on their AppleTV. Another time one of them got "nudged" to add a fingerprint to the account, again freezing out the other person.

Until that nonsense stops happening, Passkeys aren't ready.

Re: Passkeys: They're not perfect but they're getting better

#25
At its core, the main drawbacks that need to be solved for them to be a viable option are imo:

* Improving OS flows. Every passkey implementer that's also an OS gets really excited about enrolling you into their proprietary clouds, and using alternate flows to respect the users wish to use their own manager is usually hidden in confusing UI forms that don't feel consistent if you don't already know what you're doing.

* Device loss scenario is already mentioned, although more broadly speaking a lot of the reasons people get leery is because all three major providers (Google, Microsoft, Apple) are notorious for their near black box technical support. Losing access to one of these providers on its own is already enough to heavily disrupt the average person's life. Having your login details stored with them makes this even worse.

* The FIDO Alliance Is Way Too Excited About Device Attestation And I Don't Like It. Basically the FIDO Alliance's behavior around passkeys reeks of security theater and them badgering an open source password manager for daring to let users export their passkeys in the format they preferred, rather than what the FIDO Alliance wanted (which is that passkeys must always be encrypted with a password) is telling. If they are as secure as promised, it's a bad look to start threatening device attestation as a means to get people to comply with your specific idea of security. The only real barrier right now to it outright being a thing is that Apple zeroes out the field and when Apple is the only meaningful halt to that kind of attestation, something has gone very wrong.

I think passkeys are interesting, but I just flat out don't trust the FIDO Alliance with the idea. They're way too invested in big tech being good stewards of the ecosystem, which is becoming increasingly unpalatable as more and more evidence piles up that they're really bad actors on everything else. (So why should we trust them with our credentials?) The idea genuinely has value (it's literally the same kind of mechanism as SSH keys), but the hostility towards user freedom is deeply concerning and a blocker to getting people to use it. Even non-technical people seem leery of them, just because of how aggressively big tech has been pushing it.

Re: Passkeys: They're not perfect but they're getting better

#26
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I read about Passkey comittee being against open source passkey managers during start of this year (can't reference it, sorry) but with open source password/key managers already supporting passkeys, i don't think it turned out to be true. Here's an Okta employee threatening to use the attestation (anti)feature of passkeys to block open-source implementations, because they allow you to export your passkeys: https://…

That's the whole point of this exercise. If export is possible it's not secure against local compromise in the way that's needed.

The point of passkeys is to protect against phishing and password reuse. You can't protect against local compromise, even if your passkeys are stored in something like a YubiKey, because once you log in to your bank with your hardware-backed passkey, the malware on your computer could use the session you started to transfer all of your money out of your account.

Re: Passkeys: They're not perfect but they're getting better

#27
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I read about Passkey comittee being against open source passkey managers during start of this year (can't reference it, sorry) but with open source password/key managers already supporting passkeys, i don't think it turned out to be true. Here's an Okta employee threatening to use the attestation (anti)feature of passkeys to block open-source implementations, because they allow you to export your passkeys: https://…

That's the whole point of this exercise. If export is possible it's not secure against local compromise in the way that's needed.

Needed for whom? As others have said, without export it's a recipe for vendor lock-in.

Re: Passkeys: They're not perfect but they're getting better

#28
How are passkeys different from API keys or just random chains of characters?

And why can't we have the use of such keys enforced by an EU legislation so that all businesses allow users to login using such strings of random characters?

The world would then be a better place.

Re: Passkeys: They're not perfect but they're getting better

#29
post #4

I agree. I use Bitwarden on my Samsung Android phone and also on my Linux desktop. Bitwarden currently supports passkeys on almost all the apps on my android including firefox. The same passkeys which i used to login on my phone can be used on my Linux desktop where i use Firefox with Bitwarden extension. What's now possible was not even possible at the start of this year. I haven't switched everything to passkeys bu…

> I read about Passkey comittee being against open source passkey managers during start of this year (can't reference it, sorry) but with open source password/key managers already supporting passkeys, i don't think it turned out to be true. Here's an Okta employee threatening to use the attestation (anti)feature of passkeys to block open-source implementations, because they allow you to export your passkeys: https://…

> because they allow you to export your passkeys

because they allow you to export your passkeys in plaintext, for easy stealing.

"Information wants to be free" should not apply to passwords!

Re: Passkeys: They're not perfect but they're getting better

#30

At its core, the main drawbacks that need to be solved for them to be a viable option are imo: * Improving OS flows. Every passkey implementer that's also an OS gets really excited about enrolling you into their proprietary clouds, and using alternate flows to respect the users wish to use their own manager is usually hidden in confusing UI forms that don't feel consistent if you don't already know what you're doing.…

> * Improving OS flows. Every passkey implementer that's also an OS gets really excited about enrolling you into their proprietary clouds, and using alternate flows to respect the users wish to use their own manager is usually hidden in confusing UI forms that don't feel consistent if you don't already know what you're doing.

You're kidding yourself if you think that this is something Microsoft, Apple, or Google are incentivized to solve. Microsoft is especially bad here - pushing their crappy products in Windows every chance they get. Once some marketing director gets the idea that this can improve retention in Outlook or something the UI will get more confusing and the dark patterns will get darker.

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