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How Hype (Passkeys) Will Turn Your Security Key Into Junk (fy.blackhats.net.au)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by nihilx7E3 to c/technology

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tl;dr: passkeys, as proposed now, will fill up existing fido2/webauthn authenticators if the feature becomes widespread enough. this is because the feature of "passkeys" actually refer to resident keys, which most authenticators today can only store a limited amount of (some, none at all!). preventing this will require changes to either webauth, fido, or passkey libraries.

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[–] oktux 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I think both passkeys and security keys rely on the hardware being one of your multiple factors. This is what keeps a remote hacker who stole some website's password database from using the stolen passwords to log in--they don't have your physical hardware.

You can't store the passkey in your password manager because your password manager isn't hardware.

You could store the passkeys in your laptop's (or phone's, etc.) hardware, and in fact that's how passkeys are intended to work.

Disclaimer: I barely understand this stuff and welcome corrections/elaborations.

[–] coldredlight 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I believe password managers are getting the ability to store passkeys, bitwarden is rolling it out as a new feature soon. Here's their announcement: https://bitwarden.com/blog/what-are-passkeys-and-passkey-login/

[–] Domiku 2 points 2 years ago

1Password also: https://www.future.1password.com/passkeys/

[–] oktux 2 points 2 years ago

Interesting! I wonder if they're actually storing the keys in the cloud or if they're just using Bitwarden as a way to sync keys between hardware.

In any case, it seems like your original suggestion is a good one. Thanks for the info!