Passkey is some sort of specific unique key to a device allowing to use a pin on a device instead of the password. But which won’t work on another device.

Now I don’t know if that key can be stolen or not, or if it’s really more secure or not, as people have really unsecure pins.

  • alvvayson@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    It’s definitely more secure, since stealing someone’s phone is much more difficult to scale up compared to stealing passwords.

    • Engywook@lemm.ee
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      2 years ago

      I don’t think that access to your personal data/email/files being dependent on a battery-powered electronic device is a great idea, to be honest.

      • alvvayson@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        That’s why they invented chargers, eh.

        But more seriously, there are recovery procedures if you lose a phone with or without a backup and if you are willing to share the keys with a cloud provider, you can also store them there and use them on any of your devices.

        Or you can get something like a yubikey if the battery aspect is really that problematic for you.

        • Engywook@lemm.ee
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          2 years ago

          The fact is that I fail to see something obviously wrong with outrageously long/complicated passwords managed by e.g. Bitwarden or the likes.

          • alvvayson@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            Bitwarden is also supporting passkeys, so it won’t make a difference for their users whether they use passwords or passkeys.

            And the fact that you don’t see anything wrong is more a you problem. Boomer mentality, dude. Don’t became one.

            • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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              2 years ago

              It would probably be better for you to explain what’s wrong and not just call them a boomer as if that explains it.

    • Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 years ago

      It’s not quite unique to a specific device. You can store your private key in a password manager or something similar, and then access it from other devices

      • alvvayson@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Depends on your personal choice. You can definitely limit them to a single, hardeneddevice if you want the highest level of security.

        For most users and most situations, a synced solution will be preferable.

    • V0lD@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      But it becomes much easier if you want to compromise a specific target individual

      • alvvayson@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        No, not really.

        Even if you want to target a specific user, it doesn’t become necessarily easier.

        Unless you happen to target an individual that combines good password OpSec with shitty phone OpSec.

        But I would expect those to be a minority.

        • V0lD@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          Hi, yes, I am that minority

          I have a 37 character password with both cases, numbers and special characters to login to my pw vault using long random strings

          My phone has a swipe pattern lock since that is the safest lock option it allows in the first place. I wish I could lock it better, but the only other options available to me are a 4 character pin, and fingerprints/facial scan. I hope the problems with those are obvious

          Couple that with the fact that I have a daily predictable commute in public transit where I have a habit to put my phone next to me during breakfast and you have a recipe for disaster.

    • Midnight Wolf@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Me, at the bank:

      Robbers, as they enter the bank: everybody freeze

      Me: ah shit

      Robbers: everyone give me your phones

      Me: aw hell naw

      mission impossible style shootout