Google is looking to make passwords obsolete by prompting users to create passkeys to unlock accounts and devices with a fingerprint, face scan or pin number.
I didn’t mean after you logged in… I meant as the default login option to a new Linux box. Passkeys are strong because they are asymmetric, but we currently fall back on symmetric passwords to manage access to those inconveniently-large private keys. How will you reset your Google access if your computer hard disk dies or your phone drops into the ocean if Google will no longer allow passwords? I figure that independence from big brother and fault tolerance to hardware failures would be appropriately-robust if this great new approach could work offline bootstrapping the security of a new computer.
PassKeys work on Linux… you just need to use a compatible browser which is most these days.
It’s also a fido standard so it isn’t really a Google thing, Apple started using them before Google even.
I didn’t mean after you logged in… I meant as the default login option to a new Linux box. Passkeys are strong because they are asymmetric, but we currently fall back on symmetric passwords to manage access to those inconveniently-large private keys. How will you reset your Google access if your computer hard disk dies or your phone drops into the ocean if Google will no longer allow passwords? I figure that independence from big brother and fault tolerance to hardware failures would be appropriately-robust if this great new approach could work offline bootstrapping the security of a new computer.
Ah ok. I misunderstood.
As to the other bit, Google hasn’t disallowed passwords and I don’t think we’re at a point where they would.
But I mean ideally you have multiple PassKeys so if you lose one or you computer/phone dies you have a backup.
I keep a hardware key in a safe that can be used as a backup key to my accounts
Dude, that’s the first place they’re going to look for it!
But where is the safe huh?
See? Gottem