
To sign-in, users use the authenticator on their device to authenticate using their private key locally on the device. The public key is then sent to the website or app, while the private key remains on the device it was generated on. The authenticator generates a unique public and private key pair for the site in question locally on the device.

The website or app then asks the user to confirm the authenticator, which can be any device or app that supports passkey generation. When a user visits a site or opens an app that supports passkeys, the following happens: the user selects to create an account on the site and picks the passkeys option. The majority of Internet sites and apps do not support passkeys at this stage, but support will increase in the coming years.

This also means that certain types of malicious attacks, including phishing attacks, have no effect on passkey authentication.

What makes the system more secure than traditional password systems is that sites and apps do not have access to the private key. Using the private key, it is possible to decrypt data that is encrypted with the paired public key. The public key may be shared with sites and services, whereas the private key needs to be kept secure and a secret. It would go too far to explain the technical details of the authentication technology, but at its core, it is based on public and private key pairs. Passkeys use public-key cryptography instead. Unlike current biometric systems, passkeys eliminate the underlying passwords. a smartphone or PC, to authenticate using the same biometric authentication options. Instead, they use functionality provided on the device, e.g. Users do not have to select passwords during setup of accounts or type passwords when they sign-in. Passkeys work similarly to biometric authentication systems for the user. While 1Password users may already sign-in to the service using biometric authentication systems, these systems, including Windows Hello, Face ID, or Android Fingerprint, still rely on passwords in the background.
