• jdnewmil@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Is anyone working on bootstrapping passkey access to fresh Linux boxen? Until that is practical, I will probably be skeptical on this. That is, I know how to compartmentalize my passwords, but I don’t know how to compartmentalize Google’s control over my access to things.

    This is an alternate expression of the “how do I recover when I lose my phone?” question that has always so far lead back to using symmetric passwords to protect private keys… which isn’t ideal but is at least practical.

    • Rootiest@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • jdnewmil@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        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.

        • Rootiest@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          I didn’t mean after you logged in… I meant as the default login option to a new Linux box.

          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