Passkeys: The Cryptographic Revolution in Authentication

This article delves into the cryptography behind passkeys, explaining how they use key pairs to create digital signatures without transmitting sensitive information to servers, thus preventing phishing and password reuse. The WebAuthn specification enhances security through origin binding, ensuring passkeys are only used on the correct website. Different authenticator types are explored, along with how WebAuthn extensions can generate and store cryptographic keys. Potential threats like browser attacks and compromised authenticators are discussed, along with mitigation strategies. While not a perfect solution, passkeys offer significantly improved security and represent a compelling future for authentication.