#DevDiscuss: Passwordless Authentication

Is passwordless authentication the future, a big mistake, or somewhere in between?

I'd say very much yes that passwords probably are this really funny "early days of computers" thing that won't stick around usefully longterm.

The problem is that we are sort of in an extended hellish in between of all the different ways to authenticate, and we might be that way for a while.

I think the right authentication for the future has to be sort of an abstraction over all the different stuff that came before it, and I don't know if we're there yet.

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Is passwordless authentication the future, a big mistake, or somewhere in between?

For me, it's a good choice to avoid accounts hacked with a normal credential email + password. This is very simple and securised.
Got a private key like a SSH key, is just awesome ✨

I'm using some websites who using just email, and you do check your email to click on the link and validate is you. That is the one of better way to authentification! 🙌

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Passkeys finally look like a usable and safe (by synching the passkeys between devices) way to do passwordless auth.

It's a bit too early for passkeys but at least applications could propose WebAuthn as a compliment to passwords for now.

(Full disclosure: I am the Developer Advocate at passage.id)

Passwordless authentication via WebAuthn is a powerful, secure, easy, useful, and outstanding way to authenticate.

It is easier on your users. They love not hunting up, creating, and dealing with passwords. Registering is as easy as a FaceID or a fingerprint. So is logging in.

Companies like mine make it really easy to implement. So easy, it is hard to convince developers that it really is that easy.

It's way, way, way more secure. I liken the threat surface of passkeys to a small puddle, where passwords have the threat surface of Lake Michigan.

I don't see how passwords are used at all at some point in the future. Hopefully the near future. ;-)

That's an interesting topic, I'll stick around.

I want to apply passwordless into a project but further developments on other projects are consuming my time (and my soul 😂) so I don't think it will be till march when I'm able to start the given side-project, and the info shared here can be quite useful!

Is passwordless authentication the future, a big mistake, or somewhere in between?

I'd say it's one-part marketing gimmick, and 2 parts evolving the consumer end of authentication to reflect the state of technology we have at our disposal.

Have you implemented passwordless authentication in any of your applications? What tools did you use, and how did it work?

This may sound arrogant or crass but I'm going to say yes as the concepts of Passwordless authentication aren't new. SAML for example will federate authentication without a password.

What pitfalls, traps, and flaws should devs be aware of when implementing passwordless auth?

Broadly speaking - be aware that Auth as a mature feature is not a small effort. Building your own user/password auth is a good exercise for learning, but not something you necessarily want to scale & maintain for the next 10 years. I avoid building my own auth these days, instead favoring third-parties like Auth0 or Okta.

Do you have any stories of passwordless triumphs and/or fails?

No stories, but I'll take the opportunity to give 1Password a shout out. They're an awesome product as a User for password management, and I'm loving their solution for managing and deploying secrets across my environments. The developer experience working with them has been awesome!

I like to use public/private keys (e.g., ssh), which can be considered as a passwordless auth.

This one is easy to set.

Passwordless authentication is seen as a more secure and user-friendly alternative to traditional password-based authentication. Despite that it may not be the best solution for all use cases. It's somewhere in the middle.

It's thrilling to see this discussion going on! If you ask me, passwordless authentication is certainly the future, without a doubt, as it is both way more secure and much more convenient for the user ...but there are hurdles and it's only half the story.

The hurdle is that the specification itself is very complex, making it challenging for developers and adoption slower. Moreover, it requires re-thinking authentication procedures since only registered devices can authenticate (*). Lastly, the user experience may vary depending on device/OS/browser and it is new and unfamiliar concept for users too. Nevertheless, I think it's just a question of time until it becomes the default login option for the MS, Google, Apple accounts.

This brings us to the second half of the story. In the long term, people would be annoyed to re-register their multiple devices for various websites, or call the account recovery procedure just because they bought a new phone. And that is what lead to the so-called "passkeys". (*) It is the same protocol, the same access keys, but they (MS, Google, Apple) will synchronize your keys accross all your devices. Sounds great, right, but also note that it is a weakening of the protocol since the keys are not so secret anymore.

Now, if you think even further ahead, I think it will lead to a kind of user aquisition war. I mean, you can either (passwordlessly) sign in accross all android devices or all windows devices or all apple devices, but not mix them, except if the website goes the extra mile to support it. Binding the user's access keys to the platform is kind of binding the user itself.

The only alternative to that is a platform neutral identity provider. That way, your credentials would not be bound to the platform and would be a central place to manage all allowed devices for all apps at once. I guess you see where I'm heading to, that's exactly what Passwordless.ID is meant to be.

I'm amazed that we haven't come up with the ability for people to leverage blockchain for securing their online and digital identity. The blockchain could be leveraged for so many digital tasks it makes it the perfect solution. This would allow citizens to do things such as pay for services, vote, and communicate online securely and with validation and verification.

Is passwordless authentication the future, a big mistake, or somewhere in between?

As folks already pointed out, there's no easy answer to this question. I also don't think it is a one-size-fits-all solution kinda thing either. Some devs believe, me included, that it's more secure than the traditional username/password method, while others believe that it's not the case and could lead to more security breaches. The truth is probably somewhere in between.

On one hand, passwordless authentication can provide a layer of protection against brute force attacks in the current quantum computing era (there is always the possibility that passwords could become obsolete altogether as quantum computing becomes more powerful 1.), making it much more secure than traditional password authentication. That's one of the reasons why many companies are moving towards passwordless authentication 2.

Another advantage to highlight is the usability of this method. We all know that there is a problem with keeping track of various passwords associated with different accounts. This method, however, makes it easier for us to access our accounts quickly and securely.

On the other hand, if an attacker gets access to a user's device (Stealing the browser tokens/cookies, or gaining physical access to devices, for instance), they could potentially gain access to everything.

Another issue is that PA can create a false sense of security and users may become less careful about protecting their account information.

Now, back to the original question: is passwordless authentication the future? Well, it's hard to say for sure. But it certainly seems like the right direction when it comes to authentication.

Have you implemented passwordless authentication in any of your applications? What tools did you use, and how did it work?

Nope. I will try it on the weekend. Less gooo!

I struggle keeping track of all my passwords and different 2FAs and making sure i don’t fall into the habit of reusing a password because i can’t be bothered to think of a new one 🥴😅
I personally now use a password manager and have it on my phone and pc as I’m not a fan of the apple “suggest password “ because by the time it pops up with remember password, it’s refreshed and it’s gone forever 😂
Having apps use touch or Face ID was a game changer so I’m always interested in the next thing to help with this but keeping skeptical as to making sure my passwords are secure.

I don't know if it is properly passwordless or not, but I implemented only OTP based authentication system. I was thinking about implementing 2-factor authentication with email/ phone. That time I realized if I need to secure passwords with 2-step verification then why do I need a password? there is no point in using the password. at the same time with OTP base authentication, I dont need to create any API route for resetting passwords also. here is my git: github.com/ishafiul/passwordless-auth