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Show HN: Replace CAPTCHAs with WebAuthn passkeys for bot prevention

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Show HN: Replace CAPTCHAs with WebAuthn passkeys for bot prevention

#1
I built Nocaptcha after getting frustrated with traditional CAPTCHAs both as a user and developer. WebAuthn passkeys offered a promising alternative that's both more secure and user-friendly.

What makes Nocaptcha different: - Uses WebAuthn standard instead of puzzle-solving - No need for users to remember passwords or solve puzzles - Open source

Current limitation: Working with W3C WebAuthn Community Group on true passkey disposal for this use case.

Looking for feedback particularly on: 1. Integration experience 2. User experience compared to traditional CAPTCHAs

Show HN: Replace CAPTCHAs with WebAuthn passkeys for bot prevention
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Re: Show HN: Replace CAPTCHAs with WebAuthn passkeys for bot prevention

#2
I'm confused how this works. I tried the demo and Bitwarden asked me if I wanted to save the passkey. From a UX experience, this felt weird.. Why do I need to create an account, and save that account? Why is passkey storage prevent bots? Just that bots haven't added that automation yet?

Re: Show HN: Replace CAPTCHAs with WebAuthn passkeys for bot prevention

#8
post #7

What part of webauthn can a computer not do? I understand if you say bots are currently not programmed to, but is that why this will temporarily work or is there something more fundamental?

Yeah, the notably missing part in README is "how this works".

Re: Show HN: Replace CAPTCHAs with WebAuthn passkeys for bot prevention

#9
post #8
post #7

What part of webauthn can a computer not do? I understand if you say bots are currently not programmed to, but is that why this will temporarily work or is there something more fundamental?

Yeah, the notably missing part in README is "how this works".

What I'm scared of is some sort of cryptography becoming the death of the open web. Baking keys into your hardware and doing remote attestation. It doesn't tie you to a real-world identity except that you're locked into using an unrooted (DRM'd) device for using online services like a normal person

If I had to choose between two evils, I'd rather upload my passport to cloudflare and be able to get anonymous tokens from their API (RSA blind signatures or whatever) to prove I'm a real person and browse the web with Firefox and no closed source components, than be forced into hardware attestation and a locked-down device. But uploading government IDs to a (few) central point(s) of trust will create outcry about privacy whereas hidden cryptography baked into normal people's devices with Google Play Services and Apple Something and just working in the background goes unnoticed until everyone (the 99% who aren't on a custom ROM) already experienced the benefits

For webauthn I know it can be all software, I've used virtual devices for testing a server implementation's security, but I vaguely remember there also being a mode that requires having keys signed by a hardware vendor. Just not sure anymore if that was webauthn or something else related to authentication

Re: Show HN: Replace CAPTCHAs with WebAuthn passkeys for bot prevention

#10
This is neither a new idea or a good one. Cloudflare did a PR launch of pretty much the same thing a few years back, and that you haven't actually seen it in the wild probably tells you all you need to know about how useful it is.

Webauthn is not an integrity attestation; it doesn't tell you anything about how trustworthy the client is. Nor is it a uniqueness attestation; an attacker can mint an arbitrary number of different identities at basically no cost. It's a primitive for building account security systems, not one for building abuse prevention ones.

Some relevant HN threads:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27141593

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27153254

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27500326

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