Question about storing passkey in iCloud keychain

I have a concern about this. I am currently on the 1Password Beta for Passkey login. I have the passkey for the test account stored in iCloud. However in order to be able to login to 1P I need iCloud Keychain for passwords enabled in IOS. However iCloud now wants to get involved in ALL password operations. Howe best to manage this?

Hi @cannfoddr

As of right now, selecting a credential manager in AutoFill like 1Password or iCloud Passwords will allow that provider to autofill usernames, passwords, and passkeys. Having iCloud Passwords turned on is required to unlock 1Password with a passkey and can lead to some conflicting results between 1Password and iCloud Passwords when trying to sign in to apps and websites.

There is no way to separate the two right now in iOS 17 but I agree that it'd be nice to see in a future iOS update. You can let Apple know of your feedback regarding this on their website: Product Feedback - Apple.

If your iCloud Passwords is empty, it will not offer to fill any username and password suggestions instead of 1Password so this can be a workaround for you in the meantime.

I think I have come up with a solution that works for me....

I am already using a YubiKey to control sign in to my main account. After doing some reading it seems that my Yubikey can store around 25 passkeys. As a test I signed in to my test 1P account ausing iCloud passkey and added a new passkey using the yubikey. I can now bypass iCloud entirely and just use 1P for the majority of account passkeys and the yubikey(s) (must get the backup one setup as well) to control sign in to 1P.

I'll try this with the Beta and see if its workable going forward.

@cannfoddr

Looks like you've discovered a recent update to the unlock with passkeys private beta where you can 1) add multiple passkeys to your account and 2) use a security key like a YubiKey instead of a passkey to unlock 1Password 😅 I'm glad to hear that this solution should work for you as you test out unlocking 1Password with a passkey and we'd love to hear any feedback you have as the team work on the feature through the beta period.

Do you have to use a Yubikey to store your passkey for logging into 1Password. Can't you just store your 1password passkey on a regular USB drive? I would think that when you create your passkey for 1password the Agilebits developers should be able to modify the Update or create new dialog box to ask you where you want to store your passkey?

@oUNderge

Thanks for the question. Can you clarify what you mean by "store your 1password passkey on a regular USB drive"? As far as I'm aware, this isn't possible and the various passkey APIs on different platforms wouldn't know how to read that kind of passkey even if you could figure out a way of saving it to a USB drive.

I look forward to hearing from you. 🙂

-Dave