Technology

His "just use email" like that isn't very obviously worse in every respect kind of undermines his whole premise.

I wish all sites using 2FA would just support hardware keys instead of authenticator apps. It's so much easier to login to a site by just plugging in my hardware key and tapping its button, than going to my authenticator app and typing over some code within a certain time.

It's even sinpler than email 2fa or sms 2fa or vendor app 2fa.

For authenticator app you also can't easily add more devices unless you share the database which is bad for security. For hardware security key you can just add the key as an additional 2fa, if the site allows it.

The problem with passkeys is that they're essentially a halfway house to a password manager, but tied to a specific platform in ways that aren't obvious to a user at all, and liable to easily leave them unable to access of their accounts.

Agreed, in its current state I wouldn‘t teach someone less technically inclined to solely rely on passkeys saved by the default platform if you plan on using different devices, it just leads to trouble.

If you're going to teach someone how to deal with all of this, and all the potential pitfalls that might lock them out of your service, you almost might as well teach them how to use a cross-platform password manager

Using a password manager is still the solution. Pick one where your passkeys can be safed and most of the authors problems are solved.

The only thing that remains is how to log in if you are not on a device you own (and don’t have the password manager). The author mentions it: the QR code approach for cross device sign in. I don’t think it’s cumbersome, i think it’s actually a great and foolproof way to sign in. I have yet to find a website which implements it though (Edit: Might be my specific setup‘s fault).

Passkeys are only good if they aren't in a online password manager. They are better than TOTP 2FA in terms of security and phishing resistance. I see 2FA as a last resort when someone even gets into my password manager. Storing passkeys completely makes this useless, as I'm sure anyone that can log into my accounts would've done so by getting a hold of my unencrypted password manager database. Unless android provides a real offline way of storing passkeys in the device, I am not interested alot.

I thought passkeys were supposed to be a hardware device?

This is typical embrace/extend/extinguish behavior from the large platforms that don't want their web-SSO hegemony challenged because it would mean less data collection and less vendor lock-in.

The whole idea of passkeys provided by an online platform should have been ruled out by the specification. It completely defeats the purpose of passkeys which is that the user has everything they need to authenticate themself.

There was a related news recently, that bitwarden and other pw managers will be able to sync passkeys between devices. Won't that solve these issues?

I always thought of passkeys as a convenient way to authenticate.

I am password-less on multiple services.

I have an authentication app on my phone that authenticate me when I am away of my computers. I have passkeys on my personal computer and another set of passkeys on my work laptop.

If I have to authenticate from your computer I simply use my auth app, click on "it's a public computer" and I am good to go.

The dude discovered a butter knife and he tries to replace his spoon with it just to realize it doesn't work well for eating a soup.

Why not just passkeys with a “magic link” fallback though?

This is the same as forgotten password so ytf not

With a password manager I'd argue its better but supports still not all there yet. I am waiting on bitwarden right now to support mull, basically its blacklisted, but it was added in the last 2 weeks so now its a waiting game.