![]() The moral of the story: Passkeys have non-replayability built in without requiring additional time, effort, and risk like typical MFA methods. So there’s nothing of value to lose, intercept, steal, forget, or expire because your private key never leaves your device. These processes happen in one ultra-quick step without a password or one-time code in sight. There’s nothing of value to lose, intercept, steal, forget, or expire because your private key never leaves your device. The keys exchange information 1 and after you prove possession of the private key – the sole match for the public key stored by the website or app you want to access – you’re signed in to your account. But there’s more.Įach passkey consists of a public and private key and those components get to work next. When you authorize the use of a passkey with your biometric information or device passcode, you prove you own and can unlock the device that holds the passkey.Īnd with that, you’ve proven more than you will ever prove by signing in with a password only (one-factor security). The added security of MFA is core to the passkey design - it’s built right in. Where MFA adds protection to your passwords, passkeys have fundamental protection of their own. The expiration eliminates the TOTP’s ability to be used again which, in turn, can help protect your accounts and data. Time-based one-time passwords are generated securely and expire after 30 seconds. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) methods provide protection against replayability. Passwords are considered very replayable: After an attacker steals your password once, they can use it to access the associated account (or accounts) as often as they want. ![]() ![]() Data is replayable when it can be intercepted, delayed, and reused. Replayability is arguably the biggest issue with traditional plaintext passwords. Passkeys lack additional steps and codes that might be vulnerable to theft.īut passkeys and 2FA have one thing in common: both improve upon traditional password-only account protection (one-factor security). Signing in with a passkey is relatively automatic – meaning there’s nothing to type or enter – and inherently more secure because passkeys lack additional steps and codes that might be vulnerable to theft, phishing, and interception if you’re not careful. The other notable difference is susceptibility to attack. But your traditional password remains the first factor or step in most 2FA flows. Rather than replacing something, 2FA adds a step (factor) to help strengthen the security of a password-protected account. Two-factor authentication is an entirely different concept. Passwordless authentication is passwordless by definition – it’s designed to replace your passwords. ![]() The first contrast is the presence, or lack of, a password. There are two primary differences between passkeys and 2FA. So, passkeys or 2FA? Let’s look at the differences between them, and what sets passwordless technology apart from (and above) the password-plus-TOTP combination the security industry has encouraged for years. If you want the protection of true 2FA, your one-time passwords need to come from a different device than the one that holds your account passwords. Let’s say you store your passwords digitally - in a first-rate password manager, for example. Two-factor authentication requires two separate and distinct factors - it’s not merely the step of entering a TOTP that creates true 2FA. You authenticate with your biometric information or device passcode, and everything else happens behind the scenes, like that. This form of passwordless authentication allows you to sign in to websites and apps (that support passkey authentication) without a typical plaintext password. We think this calls for a passkey and 2FA face-off, don’t you? We’ve compared passkeys to passwords and magic links, and recently explored two-factor authentication (2FA) and time-based one-time passwords (TOTP). ![]()
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