FIDO2 Authentication Begins to Reach Firefox Users on Windows 10

“The updated authentication mechanism will be based on Windows Hello, the biometric security platform built into Windows 10, allowing users to authenticate via facial recognition or fingerprint scan where supported.”

FIDO2-based biometric authentication on the web has now officially gone live on the Mozilla Firefox browser.

In a new post on the Mozilla Security Blog, Firefox Cryptography Engineering lead J.C. Jones announced that this week, Firefox 66 will bring the functionality to Windows 10 users on the Windows Insider Program’s fast ring. The updated authentication mechanism will be based on Windows Hello, the biometric security platform built into Windows 10, allowing users to authenticate via facial recognition or fingerprint scan where supported.

The updated browser will also support authentication via FIDO2 security keys adhering to the CTAP2 protocol.

The news comes after December’s announcement from the FIDO Alliance that all major web browsers, including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and even Apple’s Safari, had enabled support for FIDO2 web authentication in some form. In Mozilla’s case, this support is now available for anyone who is subscribed to the fast ring of Microsoft’s Windows Insider Program, a software testing program in which new software is made available early to those willing to act as de facto product testers.

FIDO2 support is in the pipeline for Firefox users who aren’t in the Windows Insider Program, of course, with Jones promising that an “upcoming update this spring will enable this automatically” for Windows 10 users.

Source: Mozilla Security Blog

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March 20, 2019 – by Alex Perala