Windows 11 Gains Support for Managing Passkeys (techcrunch.com) 49
At an event today focused on AI and security tools and new Surface devices, Microsoft announced that Windows 11 users will soon be able to take better advantage of passkeys, the digital credentials that can be used as an authentication method for websites and apps. From a report: Once the expanded passkeys support rolls out, Windows 11 users will be able to create a passkey using Windows Hello, Windows' biometric identity and access control feature. They'll then be able to use that passkey to access supported webs or apps using their face, fingerprint or PIN. Windows 11 passkeys can be managed on the devices on which they're stored, or saved to a mobile phone for added convenience.
"For the past several years, we've been committed to working with our industry partners and the FIDO Alliance to further the passwordless future with passkeys," Microsoft wrote in a blog post this morning. "Passkeys are the cross-platform, cross-ecosystem future of accessing websites and applications." Microsoft began rolling out support for passkey management several months ago in the Windows Insider dev channel, but this marks the capability's general availability.
"For the past several years, we've been committed to working with our industry partners and the FIDO Alliance to further the passwordless future with passkeys," Microsoft wrote in a blog post this morning. "Passkeys are the cross-platform, cross-ecosystem future of accessing websites and applications." Microsoft began rolling out support for passkey management several months ago in the Windows Insider dev channel, but this marks the capability's general availability.
MIKKKRO$OFT?? (Score:1)
Why is there all this SHILLING Slashvertising???
Re: (Score:3)
There was a Microsoft event recently. Just the same as when we get a whole bunch of Apple news after one of their events.
Re: (Score:2)
Because tons of idiots think MS is the real shit (when in reality it is "just shit") and give them tons of money. And there are even the "useful idiots" that do not even get paid for shilling (plenty of those here) but are just unable to face thir own bad choices.
Really? (Score:2)
Is this good news?
Re: (Score:3)
Still a little sad that we didn't get SQRL [wikipedia.org] instead of passkeys, but oh well, it's better than passwords.
Re: (Score:2)
That goes a little beyond passwordless and becomes identityless. Great for privacy I'm sure. I think for end users, it would be really hard to tell if you're logging into your own account or someone else's or to even realize you're sharing Identity when it's copied between devices. I haven't really seen an implementation in person but it seems sort is baked in.
Re: (Score:2)
In trying to kill passwords, they're essentially going to end 2FA. With passkeys being FIDO certified, they hopefully will end up getting used more for 2FA. And I'd like to see more vendors and providers moving to multi-MFA choices instead of sticking to just one of each type. When I'm on a temporary device, I might want an offline code from an authenticator or a device push. If I'm at home on my own computer, the native computer authentication should be the second factor.
Something you have and somethin
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. Passwords are in no way obsolete at this time. Yes, they are a pain and insecure, but as a second factor they are still pretty good and better than the alternatives.
Re: (Score:1)
Is this good news?
MS adding some basic functionality? Well, maybe. Unless they screwed it up as they do so often.
Incidentally in a proper OS (not the toy crap MS pushes), passkeys are application responsibility, i.e. the browser does it.
Re: (Score:2)
I see the Stockholm-Syndrome sufferers have gotten mod-points by accident again...
Neat (Score:2)
I don't believe any accounts I use normally use it, but I am prolly wrong on that for at least email.
Re: (Score:3)
They store saved creds in the TPM? They just stop people using saved creds without entering a PIN of some sort so you couldn't just highjack cookies like you normally would? Why do they require me to put a screen lock on my phone? How do they get setup in the first place? You type in your un and pw and they send a code? What happens if you want a different device? Same process? How is that any different from happening now? Wha
Re: (Score:2)
They aren't like cookies. Passkeys are used to perform a cryptographic handshake between a device and a website, to authenticate the user. The website doesn't need to store the user's secret key, only a public key. That makes them more secure than passwords, because there is no known way to brute force them in a realistic timeframe.
Another upshot is that cookies are no longer needed to stay logged in. This is part of the move to deprecate cookies entirely. Instead a website can just seamlessly log you in ev
Re: Neat (Score:2)
My 2018 computers support it fine, he'll my garage computer supports it and it has nifty features like DDR3 and floppy disk drive
Windows 11? The one that's eating SSDs? (Score:1)
No thanks.
Just reloaded my rig after it destroyed my disk subsystem performance.
Re: (Score:3)
oh no! not the disk subsystem performance!
Re: (Score:1)
Yep, Win11 should not only not exist (but MS brazenly lied to us all), it is clearly a lemon.
Re: (Score:3)
Not seeing what you're seeing.
I installed Windows 11 on a laptop and two desktops two years ago. All have SSDs, none have shown any degradation of performance.
Re: (Score:2)
That's just it. The bug is intermittent.
Therefore Microsoft cannot properly troubleshoot it.
In the latest patch as of a week and a half ago, it fixed SOME people.
But that was the patch that broke me.
And my main rig isn't a game machine.
So having productivity ground to a halt for me was unacceptable.
Re: (Score:2)
OK, so your machine has a problem with its SSD. How do you know the problem is a Windows 11-specific bug? How do you know it's a Windows bug? Couldn't it be a manufacturer device driver bug? Maybe it's the game you're playing? A lot of computer games suck at optimizing resources.
I'm not saying it couldn't be Windows 11, but without an actual diagnosis, it seems a stretch to blame it on the OS.
Re: (Score:2)
https://www.pcworld.com/articl... [pcworld.com]
A clean reinstall restored all the disk subsystem performance.
Re: (Score:2)
It sounds like Windows is too complicated for you. Consider thinking different.
Re: (Score:2)
For the _disk_ subsystem? Windows does not even let you configure anything there without jumping through hoops...
Re: (Score:2)
https://www.pcworld.com/articl... [pcworld.com]
Exactly. And trying to strip out older KBs to rectify the issue is a no-go.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. This is just plain direct MS incompetence and not caring. Blaming the users for something like that is without insight at all.
Re: (Score:2)
Ha ha ha.
Fuck off troll.
https://www.pcworld.com/articl... [pcworld.com]
Only Windows Hello and/or biometrics? (Score:2)
Windows 11 users will be able to create a passkey using Windows Hello, Windows' biometric identity and access control feature.
That'll work great on my desktops that don't have a camera, fingerprint scanner and onto which I haven't attached a microphone.
Thankfully, I'm not using Windows 11 and don't ever intend to and am in the process of migrating from my Windows 10 system (which, incidentally, cannot officially run Windows 11 anyway) to my Linux Mint 21 system -- the major hold up is that I'm lazy.
Re: (Score:2)
Biometric is pushed because users don't have to remember anything other than which finger they used or where the camera is. They're trying to improve security without requiring the users to do anything more than necessary, because users will often not do anything that isn't strictly necessary.
Biometrics aren't perfect and have their own risk profile, but it's a risk tradeoff. If you get significantly higher uptake than you would with passwords, it's a net win. Those who choose passwords instead may still do
Re: (Score:2)
That'll work great on my desktops that don't have a camera, fingerprint scanner and onto which I haven't attached a microphone.
Windows Hello is the name of their authentication system. Nearly all Windows 11 users log in using Windows Hello, no need for biometrics, it supports physical security keys, smartcards, passwords, and PIN as well.
Thankfully, I'm not using Windows 11
Everyone is thankful you're not using Windows 11. You clearly don't understand anything about it, though if you ever did use it, you'll instantly learn everything about Windows Hello the moment you login. ... it's literally the first thing you get asked to setup.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, anyone can migrate to ... what was it?
Re: (Score:2)
Having never been exposed to 11, of what use to the rest of us is your contribution?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
No way those end up on a publicly shared OneDrive.
If by publicly shared OneDrive you mean your TPM module ... sure.
Same as Android (Score:3)
Just like your phone, now your laptop is your identity. This is just another step for Microsoft turning Windows into an advertising platform, the same as Android.
Re: (Score:2)
The strange thing is that despite Android being an "advertising platform", I never seen any ads on it.
My wife does get spammed with Apple ads though, such as in the settings menu. She has an iPhone.
Windows does have built in ads. I disabled most of them on 10, but I hear that it's much more difficult on 11.
I am still on the last version of Windows, ever (Score:1)
Called "Windows 10". What is this "Windows 11" thing? Did Microsoft brazenly _lie_ to us all?
Incidentally, I have windows for 3 things: 1. Games 2. MS Office (only for work) and 3. connecting to projectors (for lectures).
Item 3. is a failure of some quite expensive projection equipment. Linux does fine connecting to projectors. But some projectors do not do fine emulating a display. For example, I had one that claimed to be able to do 2048x2028 pixels and X.org was entirely fine giving it that. The beamer c
Slashdot logic for Windows (Score:2)
An operating system that somehow will share all your credentials on the public cloud, while simultaneously locking them deep away in TPM where you can't even access them yourself.
The comments here are already a funny demonstration of utter cluelessness, and there's only 19 of them.
Re: (Score:2)
There's 20 now, and I know about SSD substrate systems at the dark core of rascalized center points quantized into beer units.
Can we get backups of passkeys? (Score:2)
If Microsoft wants to treat passkeys like HSM protected keys, it would be nice if they offered some way to back them up securely, even if it some mechanism from TPM to TPM. And not just something that requires Azure, preferably something that can use a USB flash drive or local storage as well, just so people can be sure of the physical location of their auth items.
Griefers (Score:2)
There are so many people here complaining about Windows 11. Use whatever you like, but complain about something you don't use?
I remember when Windows 10 came out. The number of people who were claiming that they'd never use it and will stick to Windows 7 was quite large. I am guessing that they are now on Windows 10 and refusing to use Windows 11. Until Windows 14 comes out and then they'll swear they are not getting off Windows 11.
Re: (Score:1)
I, personally, would still be on 7 if it weren't for hardware support forcing me to 10 (Specifically, my CPU). The amount of fighting I have to do with Windows to get it to stop trying to update, gather and send off telemetry, or reconfigure itself out from under me in a way I don't like is exceedingly annoying. For every nice-to-have that gets added, something else I care about and/or use more becomes a holy war against the OS itself.
I'm sure I'll eventually be forced to either the latest Windows or a non-
Re: (Score:2)
There are so many people here complaining about Windows 11. Use whatever you like, but complain about something you don't use?
Windows is a perfectly usable OS -- I've used every version through Windows 10 -- and many people tolerate its idiosyncrasies and "features" and would probably continue using it but MS seems to be making that more undesirable in Windows 11. Requiring a cloud account to login instead allowing only a local account, excluding older hardware for no real good reason (from the end-user's perspective) forcing people to buy new HW -- my systems run Windows 10 fine, but don't meet Windows 11 "requirements" -- forc
For how long will this be safe? (Score:2)
I wonder how long it'll take for this to get hacked.
I wonder how many people will be victim of identity theft because of this.
Windows 11 is a sales gimmick for PCs (Score:2)
One gets the impression that the hardware requirements of Windows 11 are more intended to drive a total hardware replacement. Was surprised to see a long list of Xeon processors that no longer make the cut -- including my three year old Lenovo workstation. Hopefully MS will refrain from sabotaging existing Win 10 Pro installations through the 'patch' process. Or be as disfunctional as the daily application update process that appeared on one of my machines that fails to update MS applications.