Proton Pass is a password manager that offers the ability to securely store credentials, notes, credit card information, and other sensitive information. Made available to everyone in June 2023, Proton Pass can also be used to share passwords securely.
The new feature, just announced, consists of support for passkeyboth in the paid and fully paid versions free.
Proton Pass embraces the use of passkeys
Passkeys are a new tool for securely accessing your online accounts. Unlike traditional passwords, passkeys use cryptographic keys to authenticate users. For Google, passkeys have become the default login mechanism.
Thanks to passkeys, the need to memorize passwords and use two-factor authentication (2FA) systems is eliminated.
Instead of manually entering the login credentials (usually a username and password), passkeys replace this with an automated authentication process.
When you create an account on a service that supports passkeys, as is now the case with Proton Pass, the password manager generates a set of cryptographic keys used to authenticate the user without requiring the entry of any password.
Public key stored on Proton servers
Passkeys are based on the principle of asymmetric or public key cryptography. When you create a passkey, the password manager generates two mathematically related keys: one public and one private. There public key it is stored on the service for which you registered; the user instead holds the private key.
During the process of logging into the service, as in the case of Proton Pass, the public key sends a challenge (challenge) to the user’s device. It can only be resolved correctly by using the private key, thus authenticating the user.
Proton Pass supports passkeys on all devices
To use passkeys, you must use a program that can send and receive cryptographic keys.
Currently, not all password managers support passkeys on various devices: Proton Pass, however, allows it.
Proton Pass uses the crittografia end-to-end to ensure that passkeys are always stored securely on Proton servers, thus preventing unauthorized access. The application is in turn compatible with any site that supports passkeys, on any device.
It is currently not possible to access Proton Pass using passkey
For the moment, despite having acquired support for the use of passkeys, it is not possible to use them to access Proton Pass.
The use of Proton Pass requires the user to use passwords, passphrases or biometric tools.
The opening image is taken from the official post that appeared on the Proton blog.