Apple engineer, Garrett Davidson, revealed that the company
is working on a new passkey feature called Passkeys in iCloud Keychain, that
will let users authenticate their account based on Face ID and Touch ID in place of a password.
With Passkeys in iCloud Keychain, users will not be required
to create a password when creating an account. They can simply access their
accounts using a one-tap login with Touch ID or Face ID.
The Apple device will handle the generation and storage of the unique passkey used for the site, hence eliminating the need for a password. The Passkeys will be end-to-end encrypted and synced across all of a user's Apple devices, as a result of iCloud Keychain. Therefore, all their credentials will be preserved in case their device is lost or stolen.
This new authentication feature is more secure as compared
to most password and two-factor authentication solutions. Apple is also
considering expanding the feature to devices other than its own, by discussing
the matter with its partners at FIDO and the World Wide Web
Consortium.
The feature is making appearance in iOS 15 and macOS
Monterey, but is solely designed for the purpose of testing and therefore, it is not
for production accounts. Developers will be allowed to test these passkeys to
replace passwords.
Apple's full WWDC session "Move beyond passwords"
has all the details about the company’s newly designed feature.
