What are passkeys and how do they work with password managers?
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Passwords have been around for more than 60 years. And they’ve caused major security headaches for MSPs and IT pros for just as long.
Users forget them. Hackers steal them. And your team spends half their day resetting them.
Passkeys change that. They replace passwords with a faster, more secure login method that verifies who’s signing in without ever sending a password across the web.
Instead of typing in a string of characters, users authenticate their identity with their face, fingerprint, or a device PIN. It sounds simple, but behind the scenes, passkeys are doing some of the most advanced identity work on the web.
Here’s everything you need to know about passkeys: what they are, how they work, and how a password manager helps you manage them at scale.
What are passkeys? And how do they work?
When a user creates a passkey, their device generates two cryptographic keys that work together to confirm their identity:
- A public key that’s stored with the service they’re logging into
- A private key that’s stored securely on the user’s device
Each time a user signs in to a service like Microsoft 365 or Salesforce, the site asks their device to confirm it’s really them. The device sends back a short, secure response that proves the user’s identity without exposing the private key.
That means no passwords to steal and no credentials to phish. It’s part of the fundamental shift towards passwordless authentication, which helps improve security without making life harder for users.
Why passkeys are more secure than traditional passwords
Passkeys are more secure than traditional passwords because they’re built on two open standards designed to stop phishing and credential theft: WebAuthn and FIDO2.
WebAuthn defines how browsers and websites communicate with a user’s device to create or verify a credential. FIDO2 defines how those credentials are generated and protected using secure hardware to keep them safe.
FIDO2 and WebAuthn address the biggest security weaknesses that come with passwords. There’s no secret for attackers to trick users into sharing, and no static credential sitting on a server waiting to be compromised.
These standards are baked into core products from Apple, Google, and Microsoft, as well as Safari, Chrome, and Edge, which allows passkeys to work reliably across browsers and operating systems.
What’s missing? The ability to manage passkeys at scale.
As awesome as passkeys are, they aren’t simple to manage at scale.
Each passkey is stored locally on the device that created it. That works fine for individual users, but for MSPs and IT teams managing hundreds of endpoints, it creates real challenges.
If a laptop breaks or a phone is lost, those passkeys are gone. Shared devices, role changes, or offboardings complicate things even further. That’s why IT pros still need a central way to manage authentication across all users and systems.
Enter password managers.
How password managers make passkeys easier to manage at scale
Password managers let MSPs and IT teams control where passkeys and login information is stored, how credentials are shared, and how they’re recovered when something goes wrong.
Instead of relying on users to manage their own device-bound credentials, the password manager serves as the single source of truth.
Credentials like passkeys can be backed up, restored, and shared securely between authorized users, using the same encryption, access policies, and audit controls that protect everything else you manage.
For MSPs and IT teams, that means fewer tickets, faster recovery, and less risk of users creating isolated credentials you can’t control.
What makes CyberFOX’s Password Boss different
CyberFOX built Password Boss for the realities of managed environments. Every credential, whether it’s a password or passkey, is protected with zero-knowledge encryption. This creates a secure vault that keeps credentials safe and under your team’s control.
Administrators get a unified dashboard where they can oversee access across clients, departments, and devices. Now you can manage credentials like passkeys across operating systems and devices, maintaining consistent oversight wherever users sign in.
Whether your clients use Windows, macOS, iOS, or Android, Password Boss delivers the same level of control and visibility everywhere.
This cross-platform flexibility brings the convenience of passkeys into the real world of mixed operating systems, shared workstations, and increasing password compliance requirements.
For setup and use cases, check out the support resources below:
Moving towards a passwordless future
Passkeys make authentication faster and safer for users. Password Boss makes passkeys easy for MSPs and IT teams to manage.
Together, they bridge the gap between password-based security and the passwordless future that’s quickly approaching.
Ready to see how Password Boss makes managing passkeys simple, secure, and scalable? Book a demo to get started.