posted in Technology
I don't like passkeys | Ethan Hawksley
hawksley.dev/blog/i-dont-like-passkeys
Replying to @lemmydividebyzero@reddthat.com
This article does a great job of articulating a lot of the uncomfortableness I have around passkeys. I’ve always said they make a lot more sense in an corporate environment but the level of control you lose in a personal setting is not commensurate with the protections and possible lock-in they offer.
I just don’t like passkeys. They are an overly technical solution to what is mostly a human problem.
Replying to @audaxdreik@pawb.social
Idk, when I want to log into my personal GitHub a bitwarden window opens from the extension, I click the GitHub profile I wanna sign in, and I do.
It’s a great implementation since it’s not linked to a physical device and it lets me authenticate in place. It’s still MFA, it’s just more comfy.
It’s not MFA if all you need is your bitwarden password.
Replying to @anguo@piefed.ca
It technically is, it’s not about the amount of actions you need to do, it’s about the amount of actions the platform you are logging in needs to do with you. That both interactions interface with a bitwarden local device makes the weak link your local device, which already was anyway.
Github only asks me for (bitwarden’s) passkey. That’s just a single factor.
Replying to @anguo@piefed.ca
If you’re using software that properly uses your device’s SE / TPM chip then it’s much more secure against malware, etc. And the main selling point is the much stronger phishing resistance (can’t trick you into logging in via a fake site, etc)
Replying to @anguo@piefed.ca
A securely stored modern certificate is going to be magnitudes more secure than password plus MFA.
The certificate path uses cryptography to prevent disclosure of your secret, and can’t be compromised when the site inevitably gets hacked.
Replying to @anguo@piefed.ca
I wouldn’t classify passkeys as MFA tho, they are a passwordless method that’s more secure than most MFA methods. Afaik it’s based on signed certificates or something like that and that’s virtually unhackable unless someone gets physical access to your device (and that’s game over anyway).
But bitwarden uploads it to the cloud to be used on any computer, AFAIK.
Replying to @anguo@piefed.ca
Bitwarden uploads the whole vault (the whole json of passwords, passkey codes, MFA identifiers, credit card info…) encrypted with your master password. Meaning that whatever is on the cloud should be virtually unbreakable. That’s why every time you write the password in the extension or Android app or whatever it takes a second or two to open, because it’s downloading and decrypting everything locally.
When you update a password they need to reencrypt the whole vault and re-upload it again even though it’s wasteful since that’s their whole security plan.