Elixir Mentor Owen Bickford on Passwordless auth
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Nov 23, 2024 Owen Bickford, a Software Engineer at SmartLogic and creator of the WebAuthn Components library, shares his journey into passwordless authentication. He discusses the benefits of WebAuthn over traditional methods and the technical challenges of secure login flows. Owen highlights common pitfalls in implementation and best practices for production. Their conversation covers the evolution of authentication, innovations like magic links and QR codes, and the importance of community-validated packages for enhancing security in web applications.
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Security Interest Sparked By Snowden Era
- Owen shifted toward security after reading and listening to post‑Snowden materials.
- That curiosity led him to experiment with WebAuthn on a side project and later build webauthn_components.
Device Tie With Cloud Portability
- Passkeys tie credentials to devices but cloud-syncing (iCloud, 1Password) makes them portable.
- The cloud account effectively becomes the device enabling cross-device access.
Support Adding Secondary Devices
- Allow adding secondary credentials from an authenticated session so users can register other devices.
- Provide an account UI to list and add passkeys for backups or cross‑platform devices.