every single argument I’ve seen against passkeys could be said against TOTP and 2FA in general.
SMS token: they need to know your phone number. it’s a privacy issue. also actual lock in to one device.
MS authenticator with push notifications: actual lock in to a single app
TOTP: you need a manager to store it, way more phishable than passkeys
and yes, you could use third part TOTP managers, but as you said, the average user wont. I dont feel any argument against passkeys is particularly strong.
Who has used as argument that passkeys are phishable?
The argument is that passkeys include “attestation” as part of the official standard, which is a method explicitly intended for services to be able to securely identify what local authenticator you used with the explicit purpose of allowing the service to reject access if it’s not considered “safe”. Can you say that about TOTP?
The problem is not the general idea of passkeys… there are actually good things in the standard. The criticism was that there’s also a part in the standard that seems perfectly designed for companies to use them in anti-consumer practices.
every single argument I’ve seen against passkeys could be said against TOTP and 2FA in general.
and yes, you could use third part TOTP managers, but as you said, the average user wont. I dont feel any argument against passkeys is particularly strong.
Who has used as argument that passkeys are phishable?
The argument is that passkeys include “attestation” as part of the official standard, which is a method explicitly intended for services to be able to securely identify what local authenticator you used with the explicit purpose of allowing the service to reject access if it’s not considered “safe”. Can you say that about TOTP?
The problem is not the general idea of passkeys… there are actually good things in the standard. The criticism was that there’s also a part in the standard that seems perfectly designed for companies to use them in anti-consumer practices.