With the release of iOS 16 and macOS Ventura last fall, Apple added support for passkeys. By using biometrics and advanced public key cryptography, the goal is that passkeys can replace passwords altogether. Now, the team behind 1Password has announced that it is planning full support for passkeys.
This means that starting this summer, users will be able to create and unlock their 1Password account solely using a passkey.
What are passkeys?
Passkeys rely on biometrics combined with public key cryptography to authenticate you, and at no point is there a password involved. After all, passwords are an increasingly horrible approach to security. They make users prone to phishing attacks, having their data revealed in data leaks, and more.
Passkeys, however, solve these problems by allowing our devices to authenticate us. Here’s the basic idea of how this works on an iPhone with Face ID:
- A website or app asks you to identify yourself, and prove your identity.
- Your iPhone receives that request, and activates Face ID.
- If your face matches, your iPhone tells the website who you are, and that it has confirmed your identity.
The digital key that’s created in this process is fully end-to-end encrypted and is never stored on a web server; each passkey you create is unique to that app, website, or service. Using the combination of biometrics and the cryptographic key is how the passkey process completely removes passwords altogether.
Passkeys are based on an open standard developed by the FIDO Alliance, which means it works across all platforms, including iPhone, iPad, Mac, the web, Windows, and more.
1Password and passkeys
In a blog post today, 1Password explained how its support for passkeys builds upon its long-time support for biometrics, but there’s more to it than that:
Passkeys also use biometrics, but they allow us to go farther and eliminate the underlying password entirely. If you’re curious to learn how exactly they work, you can explore our passkey explainer. But in a nutshell, passkeys are built on the same security foundation as our Secret Key – public key cryptography – but without requiring a password. This ensures strong security properties, while being a heck of a lot more convenient to use.
It’s win-win for both security and usability. All you’ll ever need to sign in to 1Password, unlock your vaults, and securely access your data is your one passkey.
“For passkeys to be the way forward, it’s not enough for them to replace some of your passwords,” the company explains. “They have to be able to replace all passwords – including the one you use to unlock 1Password.”
According to 1Password, here are some ways that support for passkeys will streamline the experience for users — while also making things even more secure:
- Create a 1Password account without a password or a Secret Key.
- Sign in on new devices with ease.
- Use your phone to unlock 1Password on your Mac, PC, and in the browser.
- Accelerate onboarding for enterprise users, or friends and family.
- Use built-in biometric authenticators everywhere you use 1Password including on the web.
Support for using a passkey to create and sign in to your 1Password account is coming this summer, the company says. The company previously announced that passkeys will come to sites and services stored in 1Password sometime in early 2023 as well.
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