I don't like passkeys(hawksley.dev)
821 points by ethanhawksley 25 days ago | 787 comments
tl;dr: Passkeys solve phishing and breach risks well, making them ideal for enterprise use, but for individuals they introduce bigger day-to-day risks: permanent account lockout, device loss, and dependency on Apple/Google accounts that can be banned. Hardware keys don't allow backups and have credential limits, synced passkeys lock you into a platform, and third-party password manager integration is still clunky. The author recommends sticking with a password manager plus a separate TOTP app until the passkey ecosystem matures.
HN Discussion:
  • ↑Passkeys mainly protect careless users while creating multi-device complexity that forces password manager storage
  • ↑Third-party password manager integration for passkeys is broken and user-hostile with confusing overlapping prompts
  • ↑Passkeys are a vendor lock-in tool co-opted by Big Tech to trap users in their ecosystems
  • ↓Passkeys are actually a major quality-of-life improvement and lockout risks are overstated due to cloud sync
  • ~The article misses that passkeys fail to support fundamental needs like credential sharing/delegation