Apple Finds Another Way to Login to Devices Without a Password

Jakarta, Selular.ID – Passwords are hard to remember especially if you use many online services and try (which you should) use strong, different passwords for each. But it looks like it will soon be deprecated for Apple users.

In a WWDC developer session titled “Move Beyond Passwords,” Apple engineer Garret Davidson demonstrated a new feature, which allows users to sign up for new online services using Face ID or Touch ID instead of a password.

The feature, called Passkeys in iCloud Keychain, is coming to iOS 15 and macOS Monterey, and must be supported by a third-party service for it to work. Using it is very simple; when it finds the “login” page on a new service,

Users will be able to register for it with Face ID or Touch ID, and won’t have to type in a password to log into those services.

As quoted by Apple Insider, this technology works by using the open WebAuthn standard to generate a pair of cryptographic keys, one public and one private. Unlike passwords, private keys – which are used to prove that it was indeed the one who logged into the service – are never sent to the remote server.

This makes passkeys more secure than passwords, in fact, Apple claims that they are even more secure than using shared passwords with some sort of two-factor authentication.

Passkeys are also easy to recover and more resistant to phishing than passwords. Finally, they sync across all Apple devices using iCloud, and work across apps, as well as on the web.

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However, the feature currently only works on Apple devices, which is a pretty big limitation. Apple is working with partners to create solutions that will work on other devices as well.

It’s also important to note that passkey in iCloud Keychain will launch as a technology preview for developers to test and will thus be turned off by default at launch

Later, Apple will preview passkeys in the next iOS, iPadOS, and MacOS developer versions.

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