1Password Previews Prospective Passkey Plans
From 1Password:
Imagine being able to get things done online without passwords getting in the way. Passkeys unlock a new, simpler approach to signing in that works wherever you do – across any device, anywhere in the world. Passkeys are coming to 1Password in early 2023, but we’re excited to share an early look with you today.
For those pining for passkeys—the promised proxy for passwords—1Password has published a page profiling plans for our passwordless future. The preview presents a peek at how you’ll be in a position to use passkeys in 1Password to create and log in to accounts, propped up with a pretend PassParcel demo that requires the 1Password Chrome extension. 1Password pledges to proceed past particular platforms with support for multiple devices, multiple platforms, cross-platform sync, passkey sharing, and data portability. Potentially persuasive, but the proof will be in the pudding once more publishers put passkeys into practice.
Enough with the Alliteration, Adam
Pure powerful pontificating! POW!
Positively pterrible!
Does anyone know what happens if you use 1Password to create your passkeys then decide to switch to another password manager?
Ah, so you ponder passkey portability?
The answer is that passkeys are designed to sync across systems by their very nature. Further, 1Password has always allowed export of your data even with an unpaid version.
I think that’s not right. I know that Apple has a way to sync using iCloud Keychain among devices on their OSes, but there is not supposed to be a way to sync passkeys among disparate systems. (Though 1Password says that their stored passkeys are cross-platform syncable.)
Fair. Perhaps a less confusing way to describe it would have been that 1Password would be like any other vendor of a platform. It could sync across the sync platform they support and if you want to switch platforms you will use the existing keys to generate new keys at each site. Because 1Password is not an OS, though, you have the advantage of not needing multiple devices to make that happen.
1Password has now announced that its own app will be moving to passkeys this summer. We’ll see if they rename it to NoPassword.
We’re all going to die. Some of us will become unable to manage our lives beforehand. Passwords can be transferred to executors and those with power of attorney. How will passkey credentials be managed for these inevitabilities?
It’s a good question, but I believe the answer would be that the passkeys are stored on your device so you would just have to make sure that access to your device was available to the executor of your estate, much like you’d have to make sure to convey a key to a safe deposit box.
What is unfortunate is that Apple has the legacy contact feature (see also the security overview), but one thing missing to a legacy contact are the items in the iCloud Keychain, including passwords and passkeys. Personally I hope that Apple gives that one a re-think.
I use 1Password and likely will continue, though I’ll have to look into whether passkeys stored in 1P can be accessed by somebody else on another machine if they have my master password and secret key.