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the_mitsuhiko • today at 4:04 PM • 1 reply • view on HN

> When it is present, WebAuthn attestation tells the site the make and model of the authenticator, identified by its AAGUID, with a certificate chain from the vendor to back it up. It says nothing about your OS, your browser, your extensions, whether your phone is rooted or jailbroken, your firmware version, or even what colour it is.

Practical experience from Austria where attestation is used to limit which hardware tokens can be used for the EU digital identity: it sucks. You're limited to a very limited number of keys: https://www.id-austria.gv.at/de/hilfe/hilfe-zu-ida/authentif...

Now: will more people do this? I don't know. But I fault the standard for enabling it in the first place.


Replies

msdz • today at 4:20 PM

> it sucks

Exactly. From the page about the requirements for the app under 1) in your link:

> System requirements

> Android 12 or iOS 16

So one of four methods is, by default, already completely dependent on having an account with $american_megacorp.

4) is another app where it doesn’t outright say, but I’m guessing the requirements are also a mainstream OS, mobile at that as well since they seem to use biometrics.

That leaves 2) dedicated hardware and 3) dedicated hardware. Great. (see the “my house burned down” article/thought experiment as to why I’m against that.)