|
|
|
|
|
|
by secabeen
1249 days ago
|
|
|
Are Passkeys exportable and re-importable by another service, site, or system? I am strongly opposed to any authentication system that makes my authorization workflow for unrelated third-party sites dependent on any company whose terms of service allow them to suspend or terminate my use without reasonable recourse or recovery. Passwords have problems, but I can print them out on a piece of paper in a fire safe. |
|
|
The expectation is that websites will allow you to register multiple passkeys, and that these may correspond to different devices. For instance, I may have both my iPad, android phone and windows desktop registered as three separate passkeys on an account.
There is a cross device flow that works across ecosystems, based on QR codes and wireless proximity. So the expectation is that websites could (if they desire) see that you authenticated using your phone onto your Windows Hello capable desktop, and ask if you want to register a new passkey from your Windows desktop to make things more convenient in the future.
Before platforms added backup to cloud sync fabric, you would lose your credentials when you lost your security keyfob or upgraded your phone. It was a user's responsibility to register additional credentials, such as remembering to go back after-the-fact to use a security key they kept at home in their firesafe to register their 'backup' credential.
This strong hardware binding made it more useful for secure environments (which typically have MFA requirements and staff dedicated to account recovery) and a lot less useful for consumer environments (which want to prevent breaches but not at the expense of additional user friction or support costs)
Web Authentication is effectively saying to let the user utilize whatever they want to authenticate, and let a relying website determine how to react to the capabilities or limitations of that choice. What is considered a capability or liability will depend on the particular deployment business requirements, and that will determine how they adapt. For example, an enterprise might decide to just reject everything except the exact security key they issued to an employee or contractor. For most other verticals, that is not a viable strategy.