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Passkeys might really kill passwords (www.theverge.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

179 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Passkeys: how do they work? No, like, seriously. It’s clear that the industry is increasingly betting on passkeys as a replacement for passwords, a way to use the internet that is both more secure and more user-friendly. But for all that upside, it’s not always clear how we, the normal human users, are supposed to use passkeys. You’re telling me it’s just a thing... that lives on my phone? What if I lose my phone? What if you steal my phone?

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (6 children)

Passkeys work like a public/private key pair you’d use to secure SSH access to a server. You give the website a public key that corresponds to a private key generated on your local device. Unlike a password it’s not feasible to brute force and there’s nothing you have to remember which makes it more convenient for you to use. If a site is hacked and they gain access to the public passkey you use to authenticate, it can’t be used to authenticate anywhere.

It’s not really an alternative to a password manager, because you can use a password manager to generate and sync a single passkey between all your devices. In fact 1Password is a big proponent of passkeys and even maintain a big directory of sites that use passkeys.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (5 children)

there’s nothing you have to remember which makes it more convenient for you to use

Unlike my devices, I always have my brain on me. Devices are much more easily lost or stolen than memories. I often might want to access sites using my account from third party devices which I don't want to be able to use my accounts when I'm not using them.

I just can't understand how using passkeys (or password managers, for that matter, massive single points of failure that they are) is supposed to be in any way shape or form more convenient than simply remembering a passphrase (which can easily be customisable for each site using some simple formula so that no two sites will share the same but it'll still be trivial to remember).

Both password managers and passkeys seem like colossal inconveniences and security risks to me when compared to passphrases, frankly. And if you want extra security there's always two factor authentication (with multiple alternatives in case you don't have access to one of them, of course; otherwise you might as well delete your account).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Coming up with a simple formula is a big security risk. It makes your passwords easier to brute force, and with enough entropy, probably easy to guess as well.

And what happens if the password is breached? Do you change the formula? What happens if a site requires a password change? Even if the formula accounts for versioning/iterating, how do you remember which iteration you’re on?

Extra security with 2FA I agree with, but that’s not mutually exclusive to using a password manager.

And are password managers really single points of failure? These password managers can sync to multiple devices, so your data is generally safe. If someone gets your password manager password, that’s a problem, yes, but they’d need access to your device to view anything, as installing on another device requires a separate master key to set it all up (which should not be stored digitally anywhere).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

It makes your passwords easier to brute force

Passphrases are by definition hard to brute force.

The formula should not be obvious. Don't just put the site's name in the passphrase, put a similar sounding but easy to remember word, something that rhymes, the first and last letters of the site's name plus the number of letters in the domain name, whatever.

An attacker would need to specifically target you and have more than one of your passphrases using the same formula in order to try to figure it out. Too much work. If they're that interested in your password it's easier to beat you up until you tell them.

And what happens if the password is breached? Do you change the formula? What happens if a site requires a password change?

You can have a couple different formulas or variations.

how do you remember which iteration you’re on?

Same way you'd remember the password you used for a site if you reused two or three different passwords.

And if you use the wrong one just try again; sure, passphrases can be a bit long, but having to type them multiple times is a good way to make sure you remember which one you used, lest you have to type it again.

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