FIDO Alliance Working on Making Passkeys Portable Across Platforms

The FIDO Alliance is developing new specifications to enable secure transfer of passkeys between different password managers and platforms. Announced on Monday, the initiative is the result of collaboration among members of the FIDO Alliance's Credential Provider Special Interest Group, including Apple, Google, Microsoft, 1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane, and others.

ios 16 passkeys websites
Passkeys are an industry standard developed by the FIDO Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium, and were integrated into Apple's ecosystem with iOS 16, iPadOS 16.1, and macOS Ventura. They offer a more secure and convenient alternative to traditional passwords, allowing users to sign in to apps and websites in the same way they unlock their devices: With a fingerprint, a face scan, or a passcode. Passkeys are also resistant to online attacks like phishing, making them more secure than things like SMS one-time codes.

The draft specifications, called Credential Exchange Protocol (CXP) and Credential Exchange Format (CXF), will standardize the secure transfer of credentials across different providers. This addresses a current limitation where passkeys are often tied to specific ecosystems or password managers.

For Apple users, the development could significantly enhance the utility of passkeys across their devices and services. Once implemented, users may be able to securely move their passkeys between Apple's built-in password management system and third-party password managers, and event to non-Apple platforms. It's worth noting that the new specifications are currently open for community review and feedback, so it could be a while before we see them implemented and the specifications could change in the meantime.

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Top Rated Comments

mystery hill Avatar
12 months ago
When will MacRumors support passkeys?
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dricci Avatar
12 months ago
This is good news. I have no desire to use Apple's implementation of this right now due to it being locked to Apple's platforms. If you use Bitwarden, you can have the same credentials on Mac OS, iOS, Windows, Linux, Android. It'll be nice to have an official portable option.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Judo Avatar
12 months ago

Using a password manager such as Bitwarden already accomplishes this.
Not quite. If Bitwarden were to shut down, you would need to transfer all of your passkeys to a different manager. This specification will allow you to do just that to any password manager that is compliant.

It's a huge step in the right direction. I cannot wait until the day we don't have to deal with passwords again. I was forced to do a password reset just today, and it took about 10min with all the hoops you have to jump through and all the services I needed to log back into.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Weaselboy Avatar
12 months ago

When will MacRumors support passkeys?
There is a new 2.3 version of the XenForo forum software that supports passkeys and the site owner @arn has mentioned he is working on getting the upgrade done. Don't have a time frame for you though.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mike090910 Avatar
12 months ago
Nice, I stopped using third party managers after IOS 16/Ventura. I only wish more companies like banks and investment companies would move in this direction.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ctyrider Avatar
12 months ago

I understand, but I'd still argue for trying to help educate and train people to be less stupid than (inevitably) robbing the rest of us of even more control and choice. I don't subscribe to the cult of unnecessary "security," so I'd much rather just use regular passwords and a manager. Sure, I can do that just fine...for now. But for how long? I'm convinced this will eventually become just like the infuriating 2-step login garbage that is now forced upon me by certain companies.
If you want to complain about 2-factor authentication - Passkeys solve that problem nicely. 2FA is baked into the Passkeys, no need to deal with SMS codes and the like.

Passwords may be "flexible", but it's a terrible 30+ year old technology, that needs to go.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)