Apple is developing a new passkey feature that will allow customers to use Face ID and Touch ID-based account authentication instead of a password, Apple engineer Garrett Davidson explained in a WWDC developer session.
Passkeys in iCloud Keychain, a feature in iOS 15 and macOS Monterey, stores a new WebAuth login service called Passkey in iCloud Keychain. It is used instead of a password for account creation and login, with one-click login. When you create an account with a passkey, you don't have to worry about a password. You can access that account with just a login and authentication with Touch ID or Face ID.
Passkeys are more secure than password plus two-factor authentication solutions
No password is required, as your Apple device handles generating and storing the unique passkey for the website, so logging in is just a matter of entering a username and authenticating yourself. The passkeys are end-to-end encrypted and synced across all your Apple devices thanks to iCloud Keychain. Since everything is stored in iCloud Keychain, login credentials are preserved even if Apple devices are lost or stolen. Passkeys are, by and large, more secure than most password-plus-two-factor authentication solutions. And best of all, developers can easily implement support for logins via passkeys. Currently, passkeys only work with Apple devices, so Apple is talking to partners at FIDO and the World Wide Web Consortium about a broader solution that would allow users to eliminate passwords on non-Apple devices as well.
Currently not intended for production accounts
Passkeys on iOS 15 and macOS Monterey are currently for testing, not production accounts, as Apple is testing the feature and allowing developers to test passkeys as part of a multi-year effort to replace passwords.
The focus of this preview is the authentication technology, an iCloud Keychain-powered WebAuthn implementation. An industry-wide transition away from passwords will require thoughtful and consistently applied design patterns that are not part of this preview.
If you want to learn more about passkeys, you can find further information in the WWDC session “Move beyond passwords”. (Photo by Unsplash / Miguel Tomás)
