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Big Tech passkey implementations are a trap | Proton (proton.me)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/technology

221 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Big Tech has implemented passkeys in a way that locks users into their platforms rather than providing universal security
Passkeys were developed to replace passwords for better account security, but their rollout by Apple and Google has limited their potential
Proton Pass offers passkeys that are universal, easy to use, and available to everyone for improved online security and privacy.

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[–] paraphrand 16 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

If you think forcing everyone to carry an object other than their phone around so they can use 2factor on their phone is a good idea... Or if you said I need to go to my laptop when I’m logging in on my phone and vise versa… that’s nonsense too. Sure maybe some companies require this. But that’s different.

Authy on my phone is just as “dumb” as Keychain on my phone.

How else are you imagining this should work? Keep in mind normal people need to do it too.

[–] plz1 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If I'm on my laptop, and the 2fa code shows on that same laptop, it defeats the purpose of it. The point is sortation of security privileges, ask this just adds more work while providing no less security to the device. It does protect you from remote compromise, though.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It doesn't defeat the purpose of it, as you indicate, it can protect from remote attacks.

[–] AA5B 2 points 8 months ago

Also most or all of these should require some for of local authentication.

For example I have 2fa apps on my phone, where I need to use them, so yes, that’s less than ideal. However

it protects against remote attacks
it protects against SIM attacks
and even if someone stole my phone and unlocked it, they’d still need my face id for every use

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

I bring my yubikey with me, it's in my keychain. This is not only more secure against phone theft/access, which probably is not very relevant for most people, but it spreads the risk of locking yourself out.

For example, I was in Iceland with my girlfriend and she "lost" her phone. We wanted to locate it, so I logged to Google for her, which asked 2FA. If she used her phone, she would have been toast. Instead I made her use yubikeys too, and she just logged in and found her phone.

Obviously you can lose your hardware tokens too, but it's generally less likely (you take out your home keys way less than your phone, for example). You can also backup your TOTP on multiple devices etc., of course.

[–] AA5B 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

For Apple, it’s your iCloud account that everything depends on, and it’s the weakest point. Not by itself maybe, but in practice there needs to be a way to reset your iCloud password, even without your phone. Currently I believe that’s just an Apple representative asking life questions, but that information is mostly publicly available. There needs to be a better way.

A physical 2fa device may be just what we need to securely rest our iCloud passwords, keeping everything else more secure

[–] paraphrand 1 points 8 months ago

That’s a fair point. iCloud Keychain is a single point of failure.