Standards Milestone Could Mark Beginning of End for Passwords

[Matthew Valencia]

https://www.technewsworld.com/story/Standards-Milestone-Could-Mark-Beginning-of-End-for-Passwords-85268.html  

 

A Web standards milestone announced Tuesday could point to the end of the road for pesky passwords.

The new standard, WebAuthn, has won near-final approval from the World Wide Web Consortium, which establishes Web standards.

WebAuthn defines a standard Application Program Interface that can be incorporated into browsers and Web infrastructure. It opens the door for new ways for users to authenticate themselves on the Internet that are more secure and convenient than passwords.

"Security on the Web has long been a problem which has interfered with the many positive contributions the Web makes to society," said W3C CEO Jeff Jaffe.

"While there are many Web security problems and we can't fix them all, relying on passwords is one of the weakest links," he continued. "With WebAuthn's multifactor solutions, we are eliminating this weak link."

 

 

[Enderman]

This will also make it easier for them to track you and know exactly who and where you are  but at this point that won't make any difference anyway.

[Spotty]

For those wondering how you would log in without a password:

Quote

FIDO's aim is that its specifications will support a full range of authentication technologies, including biometrics such as fingerprint and iris scanners, voice and facial recognition, as well as existing solutions and communications standards, such as Trusted Platform Modules (TPM), USB security tokens, embedded Secure Elements (eSE), smart cards, and near field communication (NFC).^[4] The USB security token device may be used to authenticate using a simple password (e.g. four-digit PIN) or by pressing a button.^[5] The specifications emphasize a device-centric model.^[4] Authentication over the wire happens using public-key cryptography.^[4] The user's device registers the user to a server by registering a public key.^[4] To authenticate the user, the device signs a challenge from the server using the private key that it holds.^[4] The keys on the device are unlocked by a local user gesture such as a biometric or pressing a button.^[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIDO_Alliance

Devices such as mobile phones and modern laptops that have built in fingerprint scanners, facial recognition capable cameras, microphones, and NFC chips could easily adopt this new standard, however users of desktop PCs which lack many of these features may still be struggling to remember "correcthorsebatterystaple" for a little while longer.

 

 

[sazrocks]

Quote

The specifications emphasize a device-centric model.

Oh. So this is basically no different than just using icloud keychain and a good password. That's kinda dumb; I was expecting something actually cool.

[Sauron]

Wasn't this posted before? 

or is this something else?

[Matthew Valencia]

I think it's the same... Just joined here like an hour ago I have no idea .-.

[Matthew Valencia]

6 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Wasn't this posted before? 

or is this something else?

yeah it's the same my bad

[Spotty]

13 minutes ago, Enderman said:

This will also make it easier for them to track you and know exactly who and where you are  but at this point that won't make any difference anyway.

Don't be so paranoid. It's not as if the FBI and NSA are going to demand a backdoor be put in to allow them access...

 

Spoiler

And yeah looks like a duplicate thread. inb4 lock

[Sauron]

4 minutes ago, Matthew Valencia said:

I think it's the same... Just joined here like an hour ago I have no idea .-.

 

1 minute ago, Matthew Valencia said:

yeah it's the same my bad

No problem, remember to check next time

[mr moose]

16 minutes ago, Spotty said:

For those wondering how you would log in without a password:

Devices such as mobile phones and modern laptops that have built in fingerprint scanners, facial recognition capable cameras, microphones, and NFC chips could easily adopt this new standard, however users of desktop PCs which lack many of these features may still be struggling to remember "correcthorsebatterystaple" for a little while longer.

 

 

you use that password too?