“Apple’s latest preview version of Safari features support for the WebAuthentication (WebAuthn) API that lets users login using USB security sticks, according to the release notes,” Steve Dent reports for Engadget.
“Users can enable a feature that allows them to log in using USB-based CTAP2 sticks, which offer a higher level of protection than regular text-based passwords,” Dent reports. “The hardware devices are typically used in conjunction with passwords, a one-two protection punch that makes hacking and phishing exponentially more difficult.”
“That’s not to say that they’re problem free. You might be in a world of hurt if you lose the key, though the same logic can apply to passwords and other systems. It also requires carrying an extra device,” Dent reports. “If you’re curious to try it out, however, Safari Preview release 71 is now available for download — though there’s no guarantee, of course, that the feature will be released widely.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Nice to see that WebAuthn with support for USB-based security sticks looks to come to Safari (Firefox, Chrome, Twitter and others already offer support).
This is interesting. I’ve heard of banks implementing this, but are there any other use cases?
Good luck finding a spare USB port on your Apple device!
🤣
Virtually every Mac since the iMac has had one or more USB Type A ports or, more recently, one or more USB Type C ports.
Unfortunately, these keys seem to be only USB Type A only. Hopefully, Apple can get these providers to move to USB Type C.
But, more to your point… Apple has been extremely stingy with ports in general as of late. The extreme has been the MacBook with only one USB Type C port. A dongle is necessary if you want to do anything else while you’re charging it — in my opinion, a truly stupid move by Apple. Everyone who had any approval authority on that idiocy was mentally out to lunch when they signed off on that.