[HN Gopher] Apple passwords deserve an app
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Apple passwords deserve an app
        
       Author : ttepasse
       Score  : 1197 points
       Date   : 2023-03-27 17:55 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (cabel.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (cabel.com)
        
       | tap-snap-or-nap wrote:
       | At this point, the whole password based infrastructure needs a
       | revamp.
        
       | aquanext wrote:
       | My best guess is that Apple won't do it because their plan is to
       | phase out passwords entirely. That's what that whole FIDO
       | Alliance (https://fidoalliance.org) is all about.
       | 
       | And 1Password is part of that too:
       | https://blog.1password.com/1password-is-joining-the-fido-all...
       | 
       | I think that ultimately a password tool needs to be available on
       | multiple platforms, like 1Password. Having it just be on Apple
       | stuff just isn't gonna work for the many Windows and Linux
       | machines I begrudgingly have to interact with.
        
         | ttul wrote:
         | 1Password knows that it will take centuries for passwords to
         | disappear even if a password-less future is already here.
        
           | Hamuko wrote:
           | Passwordless future definitely wasn't here just 1-2 years
           | ago. The management of WebAuthn Discoverable Credentials /
           | Resident Keys was so fucking awful on every platform I tested
           | them on.
           | 
           | You want to clear your Resident Key for a website on Windows?
           | Command-line.
        
           | judge2020 wrote:
           | 1Password has embraced it:
           | https://blog.1password.com/passkeys-are-coming-to-1password/
           | 
           | While I'm not sure how they've integrated it so far, I
           | imagine browsers will either implement a plugin API for
           | extensions to handle passkeys, or 1p can override the
           | webauthn api and fallback to the browser when a website is
           | authenticating.
        
       | CryptoBanker wrote:
       | Oh god please no
        
       | tikkun wrote:
       | While we're on the subject, other Apple things that deserve an
       | app:
       | 
       | Dashboard/status
       | 
       | - I have a smart lock, and they have their own app, where all it
       | really does is show the current status of the lock and let me
       | toggle it. There are quite a few apps like this. It'd be nice if
       | they could all be condensed into a dashboard/status app that
       | could just tweak values and show current status. Apple Home
       | attempts to do some of this.
       | 
       | Notifications
       | 
       | - It'd be nice if there was a notifications app, and I could set
       | most of my apps to deliver their notifications to that app,
       | instead of me directly. This would reduce notification overload
       | and distraction.
        
         | WorldMaker wrote:
         | Have you tried Notification Summaries yet? That's sort of like
         | a "deliver notifications to a separate app".
         | 
         | In the notifications settings you create at least one Scheduled
         | Notification Summary. I've currently got ones setup roughly
         | every four hours during "core daylight hours" for me, plus I
         | enable the "preview option" to read the next summary early if I
         | need to. Then you add as many apps as you want to the
         | Notification Summaries. All of the notifications for those apps
         | during each time period get rolled up into a single Summary
         | object in your notifications, only give a notification alert
         | once for the entire group of them (at the scheduled time), and
         | don't cause Watch notifications (if that's a
         | distraction/overload you especially juggle as I do).
         | 
         | At this point I've even got all my email notifications going
         | into Summaries (which is why I turned on the preview for the
         | next summary if I feel like I need a quick glance at recent
         | email subject lines without opening my email app up).
         | 
         | It is such a useful tool and not a lot of iOS users discover it
         | in the settings. May also be an indicator that it could use its
         | own app because discovery in the Settings app itself is hard.
         | Maybe the Settings app is just doing too many things now and
         | needs some sort of reorg or something.
        
         | Spivak wrote:
         | Isn't that first one Home/iHome/HomeKit whatever you wanna call
         | it? If your lock doesn't support HomeKit there's a good chance
         | Homebridge does.
        
       | mirkodrummer wrote:
       | I did a new mac setup recently and just discovered, after many
       | years of use, that I cannot use 1 Password 7 anymore :( The app
       | works it's just they're phasing out the browser "classic"
       | extension with the excuse(?) it won't work with the new manifest
       | v3, so a migration to 1 password 8 is required. I hate their
       | subscription model and I think I'll self host bitwarden, but was
       | also considering the system password manager, or the one builtin
       | into Firefox. Problem is passwords won't leave the browser
       | ecosystem in this way and it's more often than not that today you
       | need to move password cross platform and cross device. So I don't
       | see an apple password manager as the best solution, they usually
       | stay inside their walled garden
        
         | Jolter wrote:
         | For your preferences, I'd propose Keepass. Maybe you've already
         | looked into it.
        
       | alana314 wrote:
       | They don't make it clear on iOS which password manager you're
       | using, which hurts both them and other password managers I think.
       | The worst experience is not knowing where your password is or
       | which account it's using. I had to turn off all apple password
       | management in preferences, I've thought about going all-in on
       | apple passwords but don't think it has all the features I want.
        
       | stalfosknight wrote:
       | That app is called Keychain Access on macOS.
        
       | kup0 wrote:
       | Not sure we want to ask Apple to build more software when they
       | can't even get the quality of their existing software up to par.
       | I would be strongly inclined to stick with something less tied to
       | the platform/ecosystem, like 1Password
        
       | TheRealDunkirk wrote:
       | Regardless of how great they might make an interface for it,
       | passwords are the _last_ thing I haven 't given to Apple. If I
       | lost control of my Apple ID, it would be a disaster, but at least
       | it wouldn't expose _everything else_ as well. I have a hard time
       | getting over this mental hurdle, so it 's 1Password for the
       | foreseeable future for me, no matter what they do here.
        
       | theden wrote:
       | I recommend https://strongboxsafe.com/ as a better open source
       | alternative
       | 
       | Works with touchID on my MacBook, uses KeePass so it's easy to
       | migrate if needed, and the killer feature for me was being able
       | to sync it to iCloud so you can use it across devices. Even
       | better if you enable E2E encryption on your iCloud
       | https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT212520
        
         | faeriechangling wrote:
         | It's a good piece of software for what it is, but the tool is
         | .kbdx based and like all such solutions tends to handle shared
         | secrets rather poorly. It also handles adding new secrets for
         | new accounts less elegantly than Apple's own built-in password
         | manager which has a nice flow for adding anonymous forwarding
         | email addresses and contact details for new accounts so long as
         | you commit to the cult of iCloud.
         | 
         | Still if you need a multi-platform password manager that
         | performs well on Apple devices there's nothing I can recommend
         | since you can just use .kdbx tools on other platforms and
         | strongbox itself has highly reliable multi-cloud sync,
         | extremely fast input of secrets, a better security model than
         | keychain itself has, and even has MacOS Chrome support (abliet
         | hacky support) if you feel like trusting the plugin. It makes
         | Bitwarden and other Keepass clients feel clunky in comparison.
        
       | altitudinous wrote:
       | I agree (and its not often I agree with folk on Hacker News),
       | Apple provide a far superior password service inside a far
       | inferior UI. The handling of authentication codes is particularly
       | great in the Apple ecosystem, but very poorly promoted.
       | 
       | For a company that markets itself as secure these are retrograde
       | steps.
        
       | Anechoic wrote:
       | _Keep a "Notes" field where you can add extra data, like 2FA
       | backup codes, for each password!_
       | 
       | I'm not sure if the reference here is to Keychain's "Secure
       | Notes" or the "comments" field associated with password items. If
       | the latter, I've found (at least on older versions of OS X/macOS)
       | that when Safari updates the value of a changed password, it
       | _deletes_ the comments! I used the comment field to add the
       | (random) answers to security questions, and got burned on a
       | couple of sites when I 've needed to do an account reset and lost
       | those answers.
        
         | shagie wrote:
         | > that when Safari updates the value of a changed password, it
         | deletes the comments!
         | 
         | It doesn't change a password, it creates a new one.
         | 
         | This means if you somehow mangle saving the password (you
         | thought you updated it, but didn't) the older password is still
         | in your keychain with the older note and it can still be
         | retrieved.
        
       | 404mm wrote:
       | One core feature that will keep lot of people from using Apple
       | Password manager is family setup. Anyone with Apple family knows
       | how bad it can be when you have dozens or hundreds of shared
       | passwords between you, your spouse and / or kids.
        
         | rootusrootus wrote:
         | Yep. 1Password has my business indefinitely because of this
         | requirement. Apple may be building a nice solution for single
         | people (and perhaps many non-parents), but it's useless for
         | family use.
        
       | kjto wrote:
       | what about https://authy.com/download? mobile/desktop/cloud sync,
       | free...
        
       | markkvdb wrote:
       | The password managers ("Passwords" and "Keychain Access") seem
       | deliberately limited. A few issues that I noticed:
       | 
       | The discrepancy between the "Passwords" and "Keychain Access"
       | app. Passwords manages 2FA codes whereas Keychain doesn't.
       | Keychain allows you to add another URL for a password whereas
       | Passwords doesn't. The latter issue often leads to headaches
       | dealing with passwords when the URL of the login page is not the
       | same as the URL for the second part of the 2FA.
       | 
       | An example that became unnecessarily frustrating. Heroku makes
       | you login to dashboard.heroku.com but the 2FA code needs to be
       | filled in at a salesforce URL. Since I can't add this salesforce
       | URL to the existing password (+ 2FA code) I have to manually copy
       | the code. The shortest routine I found for that is:
       | 
       | 1. CMD+Space. 2. Enter "passw". 3. Click on the search bar. 4.
       | Enter "Heroku". 5. Click on the password. 6. Go back to the web
       | page to enter the displayed code.
       | 
       | Simply having the option to add another URL (which was possible
       | in Keychain Access) would solve this entire issue...
        
       | aaronharnly wrote:
       | I follow Ricky Mondello, who works on the Apple password keeper
       | functionality -- they post interesting tidbits pretty regularly.
       | 
       | https://twitter.com/rmondello
       | 
       | https://hachyderm.io/@rmondello
        
         | filmgirlcw wrote:
         | +1 Ricky is the best. They also made a very useful Shortcut [1]
         | that offers quick access to the Passwords on your Home Screen
         | or Mac menubar.
         | 
         | [1]: https://rmondello.com/passwords-shortcut/
        
           | shikshake wrote:
           | clicking this link throws a bunch of warnings in my browser,
           | and my university internet blocks me from seeing the actual
           | website :(
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | testfrequency wrote:
             | https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/cd5b0ec116ee4d1d8654823839
             | 4...
        
               | filmgirlcw wrote:
               | Thanks for that! My work machine blocks this too
               | ironically, which is weird since Ricky is my friend and I
               | know they are trustworthy. I'll let them know.
        
         | sacnoradhq wrote:
         | That iOS supports multiple password sources from other apps
         | already largely solves the case of using a cross-platform app
         | to provide or store passwords.
        
         | selykg wrote:
         | I met Ricky at a WWDC years ago when I was in the password
         | manager field. What a wonderfully intelligent person. Actually,
         | several members of the Safari team were present at that meeting
         | and it was such a great set of people. I kind of miss that part
         | of that job...
        
       | WorldMaker wrote:
       | It took effort but I finally got my dad to use 1Password
       | regularly, but my mom would be a lot easier to convince if Apple
       | just made its own password tools easier to use, especially cross-
       | platform, including maybe putting a nice app face on it.
       | 
       | > PPS: I dream of a future where Passkeys could make the password
       | manager extinct. But it'll take time...
       | 
       | Passkeys even more so need more of a "curated app experience" to
       | work right, cross platform. Ironically, it is my impression that
       | preparing for Passkeys is why Apple finally added that password
       | explorer to Windows' weird iCloud "control panel". (For a long
       | time, the only way to use iCloud passwords on Windows was the
       | awful Edge/Chrome integration.)
        
       | w-m wrote:
       | Tangentially related, something that has slightly inconvenienced
       | me a few times: Can someone point me to a setting to get Siri to
       | show me my passwords again, on iOS 16?
       | 
       | Before, I could ask on an unlocked phone to "show me my password
       | for GitHub" and Siri would open the settings app with the
       | password list and show the GH credentials. Now (since iOS 16?)
       | Siri just refuses to do any request that contains 'password'.
        
         | selykg wrote:
         | You mean Shortcuts? You can have it open this URL:
         | 
         | prefs:root=PASSWORDS
         | 
         | You'll want to set up Siri separately as part of it, but you
         | can definitely do that with Shortcuts.
        
           | w-m wrote:
           | Interesting, thanks!
           | 
           | What I described didn't need a shortcut before. It was a
           | vanilla iOS feature. I assume it went away for privacy
           | reasons with one of the OS updates. And hoped there'd be a
           | setting to get it back.
        
       | gumby wrote:
       | The nice thing is: the way they implemented this it looks like
       | you could pretty easily write a 1passwordish mac client as an
       | interface to the system infrastructure. I say "1passwordish"
       | because one of the tedious part of a program like that is the
       | browser parsing to handle all the weird authentication cases devs
       | write.
       | 
       | Unfortunately I'm not an ios dev and wonder if it might even be
       | possible to do the same on ios? I believe there is an API so you
       | can write _a_ password manager (1password et al use that) but can
       | you get to the secure system services?
       | 
       | Edit: I now see who wrote this blog post. Were it straightforward
       | on ios he probably would have said so.
        
         | frutiger wrote:
         | I am not an expert macOS/iOS developer but I unsuccessfully
         | played around with the API a couple of times.
         | 
         | You can't access passwords stored by another app (app
         | identifiers appeared to be globally unique, e.g.
         | com.apple.Safari). There was an additional hurdle to
         | access/store items in the iCloud keychain, though I forget what
         | exactly.
         | 
         | This restriction makes sense.
        
       | imchillyb wrote:
       | Until Apple's keychain works reliably across all platforms, I'll
       | continue to use Dashlane Password manager.
        
       | kylehotchkiss wrote:
       | internally, apple used to have a pretty big 1Password contract -
       | https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/07/10/apple-looking-to-...
       | 
       | Maybe they don't want to promote their own too heavily, to allow
       | 1Password to take on the organizational risk of running a
       | password manager? (For context, think about your current view of
       | lastpass vs how you felt about it a year before their leak).
       | Maybe the internal password management functionality is better
       | suited to orgs which restrict third party apps?
        
         | arghnoname wrote:
         | 1password has features that are useful in a large corporation
         | that keychain does not have, particularly around sharing
         | passwords and password vaults.
         | 
         | I haven't noticed even minimal credential sharing facilities in
         | keychain.
        
           | dwaite wrote:
           | WRT credential sharing, you can airdrop credentials to people
           | on your contacts list.
           | 
           | But multiple vaults and vault sharing - no such luck. I don't
           | think they want to deal with the UX confusion of it,
           | especially since that confusion could lead to someone getting
           | locked out of things.
        
       | immdischt wrote:
       | The article is informative but failed to describe where to find
       | Apples password settings / feature while complaining about how
       | hard is is to find...
        
       | cjdoc29 wrote:
       | I really like Apple's implementation of passwords, passkeys, etc.
       | But...I had a hard time explaining this to my mom.
       | 
       | She uses it to generate her passwords and fill-in within Safari
       | which is great!
       | 
       | But there's no "Passwords" app, and she didn't know to go into
       | Settings to reference a password when Safari doesn't recognize a
       | password field (probably the website's fault).
       | 
       | 2FA is also a confusing experience, but 2FA is also just
       | confusing enough for her where Apple isn't really the problem
       | here.
        
         | reaperducer wrote:
         | _But there 's no "Passwords" app_
         | 
         | It's called Keychain Access.
        
           | cjdoc29 wrote:
           | iOS does not have "Keychain Access" as a named setting or
           | app.
           | 
           | MacOS has both Keychain Access as a standalone app, and
           | Passwords as a section in your settings. The latter is
           | dedicated to purely passwords that you, as the user, make.
           | Keychain Access also contains passwords for Wi-Fi and other
           | systems.
        
           | cj wrote:
           | The problem is Keychain Access doesn't pass the "mom test"
           | (would you average consumer - e.g. your mom - actually use
           | it)
        
             | Hamuko wrote:
             | No password manager passes that as far as I'm concerned.
        
             | waynecochran wrote:
             | Keychain Access doesn't pass the "me" test and I have a PhD
             | in CS.
        
             | airstrike wrote:
             | They don't even know why it's called that
        
               | shagie wrote:
               | Because you can store non-passwords in there too.
               | 
               | Secure notes, your own signing certificates, keys, root
               | CAs, and specific self signed certs you've accepted for
               | SSL.
        
               | airstrike wrote:
               | Still, none of that means anything to the average user.
               | Searching for "passwords" in Spotlight should also take
               | you to your passwords
        
               | shagie wrote:
               | Make an alias to Keychain access. Name it "Passwords" and
               | have that a directory that is indexed by Spotlight (the
               | Utilities directory under Applications where Keychain
               | Access is found works fine).
               | 
               | This will then show up in the launchpad.
               | https://i.imgur.com/IRPOMC5.png
               | 
               | Searching for 'pass' in Spotlight does bring up Keychain
               | access - as that's in the apps list of Keywords...
               | _however_ the list of apps is _way_ down on the scrolling
               | https://i.imgur.com/KFUC0G0.png - it found 'password' as
               | a string in 100 python files that I had to scroll through
               | first.
        
               | airstrike wrote:
               | > Make an alias to Keychain access.
               | 
               | Sorry, but that also doesn't mean anything to the average
               | user. If anything it's made it more complicated for them
               | --they will remember to type in "key" before they learn
               | how to make an alias
               | 
               | That _I_ don 't have an issue with the word "keychain"
               | doesn't mean it's not bad UX for the average Mac OS user
        
               | shagie wrote:
               | Specifically, what functionality would you like?
               | 
               | If you do control-space (to bring up spotlight) and type
               | in password, what do you want it to do and what is
               | missing?
        
             | shagie wrote:
             | Since I use it quite a bit for secure notes, I've got it
             | pinned in my toolbar. From the top down I've got Finder,
             | System settings, Keychain Access, HomeKit, Launchpad,
             | Safari... and then other things.
             | 
             | The thing is, its the 3rd one down.
        
           | squeaky-clean wrote:
           | Isn't Keychain Access MacOS only? It's not available on
           | iPhone.
        
           | HeavyFeather wrote:
           | Are you talking about that utility that looks straight out of
           | Windows 98? Surely it could use some love in 2023. I don't
           | think I've ever seen it updated, it's not an acceptable UI
           | for consumers.
        
         | HnUser12 wrote:
         | Someone linked this on the top
         | 
         | https://rmondello.com/passwords-shortcut/
         | 
         | You should be add this to home-screen like an app. Should make
         | it a bit easier open passwords.
        
       | pharos92 wrote:
       | 100% - the current method of access (via settings) is so nu-
       | intuitve. A real sign of the state of Apple over the last few
       | years. Customer UX needs to become front-and-centre again.
        
       | permo-w wrote:
       | my issue with apple passwords is that you literally cannot put a
       | password on them. iPhone forces you to use biometrics as your key
       | for them. whatever you think about passwords vs biometrics, the
       | fact that I literally cannot choose is ridiculous and a massive
       | oversight
        
         | r00fus wrote:
         | Biometrics or your device passcode. My mom has a touchid phone
         | (won't get the faceid due to paranoia) and she gives up on it
         | during winter when her fingers get cracked due to the heating.
         | 
         | So when she logs into the device it always falls back to device
         | passcode.
         | 
         | I am frustrated they won't allow you to do both bio+code,
         | because that would prevent my kids from flashing my pilfered
         | phone in my face to get it to unlock then running away.
        
       | great_psy wrote:
       | I have been using the Apple manager since LastPass got hacked
       | recently.
       | 
       | Hot take , but ... I like the lack of integration in other
       | operating systems/ browsers.
       | 
       | I see my phone as a Secure Enclave, and my passwords should be
       | disconnected from potentially insecure systems. I see the phone
       | as those keychain one time passwords where you have to press a
       | physical button to get a key.
       | 
       | Is it inconvenient to get a password, yes. But it offers the
       | piece of mind that I only have to worry about iPhone/Apple
       | exploits, instead of chrome+firefox+windows+Linux+Apple+iphone.
       | 
       | I don't think in this case Apple is not doing the integration
       | because of this security feature, but I think it is a feature non
       | the less. Of course you can always choose not to install the
       | extensions even if they existed, but the point is that if they
       | existed it would lower security.
        
         | imwithstoopid wrote:
         | don't lose or break your phone....
        
           | great_psy wrote:
           | I have my old iPhone with no sim that I mostly take to the
           | gym to protect the new one.
        
             | InCityDreams wrote:
             | >I have my old iPhone with no sim that I mostly take to the
             | gym to protect the new one.
             | 
             | What is the other one doing in the gym, unprotected?
        
               | great_psy wrote:
               | One at home, one with me for Spotify in my pocket.
        
             | efdee wrote:
             | How do you access your passwords on your new iPhone from
             | your old iPhone?
             | 
             | Oh, they're stored online? There goes your entire "secure
             | enclave" argument ;-)
        
           | MBCook wrote:
           | iCloud solves that.
        
             | whitewingjek wrote:
             | Unless Apple ever starts following Google's lead to ban
             | accounts for any infraction and you don't store backups...
             | 
             | Not saying Apple is doing that now, but I imagine it's not
             | outside the realm of possibility.
        
               | great_psy wrote:
               | We can use the same argument for any other cloud password
               | manager. If google/Apple blocks my access, well it's
               | those services I am trying to log into in the first place
               | so the point is moot.
               | 
               | Also I have recovery keys for the more important accounts
               | printed and stored in a safe box.
        
               | whitewingjek wrote:
               | I agree, perhaps I should have emphasized that my point
               | of view is that anyone should back up anything stored on
               | the cloud.
               | 
               | Which I'm glad to know you can at least do with Keychain
               | [1], although I use Bitwarden myself.
               | 
               | [1] https://support.apple.com/guide/keychain-
               | access/import-and-e...
        
               | rpgbr wrote:
               | Except password managers that YOU need to take care your
               | vault, like KeePassXC.
        
               | great_psy wrote:
               | I used keePass before LastPass, but the issue was with
               | keeping the file synced. I had it in Dropbox and I was
               | able to open it no problem from the phone, but making
               | updates from phone was a challenge. Maybe I was not using
               | a good app but it was a hassle to keep it synchronized.
               | 
               | But anyway, somebody could cut off your access to
               | Dropbox, but it's less of an issues since you have a
               | backup.
        
               | rpgbr wrote:
               | I simply don't sync my vault. I don't add or change
               | passwords very often, so I treat the vault in my computer
               | as a "main copy" and once a week, during my backup
               | routine, I copy the current vault to my phone. Never had
               | an issue.
        
             | ex3ndr wrote:
             | Not really, you need another device to share icloud
             | keychain
        
               | MBCook wrote:
               | Nope. Buy a new iPhone, sign in, it's all back.
               | 
               | It's useful even in non-multi-device scenarios.
        
         | makeitdouble wrote:
         | Thing is, even within these constraints it has rough edges.
         | 
         | If you have two accounts (let's say a personal one and
         | work/family/org one), getting passwords for the second account
         | will just be a PITA.
         | 
         | Same issue of course if you need someone else's password (e.g.
         | your spouse's hotel reservation account's password)
         | 
         | Trying to work this around means you'll either be asking
         | people's passwords other the phone or other means, or you'll
         | often switch between accounts and will want lower security on
         | the account themselves as the identification process get old
         | very quick. Basically, these limitations are not without impact
         | on security and how people will deal with them.
        
         | rpgbr wrote:
         | This was precisely what drove me off Apple password manager. If
         | your iPhone were compromised, such as in those iPhone unlocking
         | scams[1] (something quite common here in Brazil at least since
         | 2021), it's game over for your entire password database.
         | 
         | I've been using KeePass apps (MacPass on macOS, KeePassium no
         | iOS), with a different, unique master password, unlogged by
         | default on iPhone, plus DB locks automatically after 10 minutes
         | of inactivity.
         | 
         | Maybe I'm way off, but it seems safer to me.
         | 
         | [1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-iphone-security-theft-
         | pas...
        
           | lxgr wrote:
           | Absolutely. Given these reports, Apple's security model isn't
           | close to being sophisticated enough to warrant trusting them
           | with passwords or (even more critically, arguably) WebAuthN
           | passkeys.
           | 
           | I recently saw it with my own eyes as a family member was
           | able to reset their iCloud password and gain full access to
           | their account on a new device, including iCloud Keychain,
           | using _nothing but their iPad and the corresponding unlocking
           | code_. No iCloud password, no SMS-2FA (not that it would help
           | much in the case of a stolen iPhone), nothing else.
        
             | great_psy wrote:
             | Can you explain how this hack would work ?
             | 
             | Would someone need to steal two of your devices ?
             | 
             | I was under the assumption that you need to be logged in
             | with touchid/faceid/pin code to get the unlock code
        
               | lxgr wrote:
               | The attack in this case would be somebody shoulder-
               | surfing your PIN and grabbing your device.
               | 
               | They then have everything they need to take over your
               | iCloud account (kicking you out of it in the process by
               | resetting all other devices capable of resetting it) and
               | can see all your passwords stored in it, as well as use
               | all of your WebAuthN passkeys.
               | 
               | I'm not sure if having a recovery code would improve that
               | situation, but I'd guess that many people don't.
        
               | great_psy wrote:
               | Ah ok, yes the shoulder surfing is definitely a problem.
               | 
               | Hard to mitigate somebody looking over your shoulder,
               | this is the case with most password managers, but I
               | understand why this is a more likely scenario.
        
               | lxgr wrote:
               | In a semi-safe situation (e.g. on busy public transit or
               | in a crowded place with people behind me), I do sometimes
               | unlock my password manager using Face ID to access a
               | website, but I'd never enter my passphrase if the
               | biometric unlock fails.
               | 
               | If somebody watches me enter my passcode and then rips
               | the device out of my hands and runs off with it (assuming
               | the password manager is not open), they now have access
               | to most of the content on my phone, but importantly not
               | the parts protected by Face ID, which includes the
               | password manager.
               | 
               | If I had used Apple's password manager instead, they'd be
               | able to recover _all_ passwords (using the tactics
               | described above or simply enrolling their own face in
               | Face ID, which is possible using only the passcode).
        
               | joshvm wrote:
               | I have an iPhone and while I understand that Face ID
               | probably has fewer false positives than fingerprint
               | recognition, I really miss the physical rear sensor on my
               | Pixel 2. I don't know what the collision rate is, or how
               | easy it would be to break if someone stole the phone, but
               | it was a really great user experience: haptic feedback is
               | good, it was/is incredibly reliable at unlocking and it
               | was useful because you could pass your phone to a
               | partner/passenger in a car and unlock without looking
               | (i.e. no more unsafe than changing the cabin temp) and no
               | need to share your pin if with a stranger. I think the
               | only time it failed was after climbing with chalky
               | fingers.
        
               | balderdash wrote:
               | If you reset/create an alternate appearance for faceid
               | does that force a manual login for the services that use
               | it? Because your device passcode lets you change all the
               | faceid stuff... too lazy to mess around with it myself
        
               | lxgr wrote:
               | Apps can choose [1] to tie have keys to the current set
               | of enrolled biometric credentials (i.e. faces or
               | fingers), and at least my password manager does that, as
               | far as I remember from some testing.
               | 
               | Some apps don't, and some even react really poorly to a
               | change of the biometric set (i.e. crashing at every Face
               | ID use with no way to reset other than reinstalling), so
               | I'm also not too keen on testing this on my main device.
               | 
               | One thing that surprised me during my limited testing was
               | that Apple apparently doesn't make use of this capability
               | for storing the "encrypted notes" passphrase, which
               | effectively also reduces the security of that to that of
               | the device passcode.
               | 
               | [1] https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/se
               | caccess...
        
               | tokamak-teapot wrote:
               | I saw advice here a while back about using Screen Time to
               | block PIN and Account updates. This gives you a separate
               | PIN to protect those, so theoretically if someone
               | shoulder surfs your phone PIN they can't take over your
               | iCloud account.
        
               | rpgbr wrote:
               | I use this trick. It's an added layer of security,
               | although a weak one -- Screen Time PIN is four digit-
               | mandatory -- and a workaround -- as in: not made for
               | security purposes.
        
             | __david__ wrote:
             | Incidentally this is the method my 6 year old nephew used
             | to reset his mom's Apple ID password so he could make in-
             | app purchases. He figured it out on his own and then spent
             | $3000 in a couple days. His mom had been very careful with
             | her password but when he wanted a code on his iPad she
             | thought it was harmless--she certainly never expected that
             | he could get all the way to changing her password with
             | nothing more than the lock code! Took her months to sort it
             | out.
        
       | isoprophlex wrote:
       | What the actual flying fuck, the apple password thing supports
       | TOTP! That's great! (And a sad testament to how poorly the
       | discoverability is on some ios features)
        
         | dwaite wrote:
         | Not just that, they will detect QR code images to work around
         | sites which assume that TOTP is only available by scanning your
         | desktop screen from your phone.
        
           | matt-attack wrote:
           | Can you provide an example website that uses this technology?
           | Not sure I've ever encountered one.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | Gigachad wrote:
             | Uh, basically all of them? They all show a QR code and
             | never show you the secret which you could copy in to your
             | password manager.
        
           | kitsunesoba wrote:
           | Step Two[1] also does this, which is one of the reasons I've
           | been using it for TOTP for the past few years. Nice to see
           | that the built-in TOTP support can do that now too.
           | 
           | [1]: https://steptwo.app
        
         | brycedriesenga wrote:
         | Isn't it considered not great to do TOTP and password storage
         | in the same place?
        
       | izolate wrote:
       | I switched to Apple's password manager after being burned by
       | Twilio Authy's inability to retrieve the 2FA setup codes. I wish
       | they had made this lock-in more clear.
       | 
       | Overall I'm happy with my decision. I'm now even using Safari
       | over Chrome full-time because it has the benefits 2FA autofill.
       | 
       | Only thing missing is a dedicated app, but I have Apple Shortcut
       | that works well enough in the meantime.
        
       | mperham wrote:
       | It seems apparent that Apple are investing in Passkeys as the
       | future and passwords are legacy infrastructure in a sense.
       | 
       | https://developer.apple.com/documentation/authenticationserv...
        
       | yomyogd wrote:
       | There's bitwarden that does it all, cross-platform and completely
       | free.
        
       | hnrodey wrote:
       | I tried going all-in on using iCloud Keychain (correct term?) for
       | my passwords from having previously used LastPass.
       | 
       | In short.
       | 
       | 1. The experience on Windows is terrible. They can claim it's
       | cross-platform but it's truly a sub-par product.
       | 
       | 2. On Mac it's tied specifically to Safari. I use Safari a lot
       | but if I'm in a different browser then my passwords are
       | unavailable.
       | 
       | 3. The GUI is buried in System Settings. Heaven forbid you need
       | search it's only a simple 37 clicks away!
       | 
       | I think those were my big complaints. If you are 100% Mac then
       | it's a good product. Going outside of the walled Apple garden
       | leaves a lot to be desired.
        
         | chakintosh wrote:
         | > 1. The experience on Windows is terrible. They can claim it's
         | cross-platform but it's truly a sub-par product.
         | 
         | Ditto. Why do I have to replace my Windows login password with
         | a "PIN" code that's the same as the iCloud Keychain PIN !?
         | That's super weird!
        
         | grammers wrote:
         | Sounds like vendor lockin is the aim here, not being fully
         | cross-platform without any hassle.
        
         | baby wrote:
         | I use chrome to manage passwords on all my devices, it works
         | well except for apps. When I'm trying to get a password for an
         | app in iOS, I just switch to chrome to get the password. Same
         | if my password was from registering from an app and I'm in
         | Chrome. Rinse and repeat and now my passwords are in both
         | password managers.
         | 
         | As for TOTP, if I lose my phone I don't know what will happen.
        
           | manigandham wrote:
           | Settings > Passwords > Password Options > AutoFill Passwords
           | + Allow Filling From Chrome
           | 
           | Most apps can use passwords from Chrome just fine, and you
           | can also quickly open the native passwords window when
           | encountering a password field using the key icon.
           | 
           | For TOTP, use apps like Authy which can be installed and used
           | from multiple devices.
        
             | gameshot911 wrote:
             | Awesome - thanks for sharing!
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | notlukesky wrote:
           | [dead]
        
         | mcculley wrote:
         | > 3. The GUI is buried in System Settings. Heaven forbid you
         | need search it's only a simple 37 clicks away!
         | 
         | I just learned that this GUI exists. I have been using
         | /System/Applications/Utilities/Keychain Access.app for years to
         | deal with passwords.
        
           | alexjm wrote:
           | Same. And now I'm trying to figure out if there's any
           | advantage to using the UI in System Settings instead of the
           | app I already know.
        
           | Mandatum wrote:
           | Me too. Now to try and figure out if I can create a Macro to
           | launch this.
        
         | waboremo wrote:
         | Funny situation, there's another thread I was replying to
         | someone who wanted to shift back to native apps instead of
         | cross plat electron apps (for performance reasons).
         | 
         | Well, Apple Passwords on Windows is a good example of how that
         | turns out in reality. I believe it's using WinUI. While the
         | performance is nice, the experience is entirely unlike what you
         | get on Mac and winds up making you wish you were using another
         | service entirely.
        
           | steve1977 wrote:
           | Apple had (has?) Cocoa ported on Windows actually, so
           | whatever they could so on macOS, they could do on Windows as
           | well. Cocoa as such _is_ cross-platform.
        
             | marvel_boy wrote:
             | Any link to the port of Cooca to Windows?
        
               | PlutoIsAPlanet wrote:
               | Looking at the Apple Music app for Windows quickly, it
               | does appear Apple has done some porting of their APIs to
               | Windows.
               | 
               | https://i.imgur.com/tdr6XTO.png
        
               | simongray wrote:
               | https://forum.winworldpc.com/uploads/editor/82/fnzv4nysse
               | mk....
        
               | steve1977 wrote:
               | Apart from the already mentioned OPENSTEP for Enterprise,
               | see also here:
               | 
               | https://www.stone.com/dev/StonesThrow2/OneFoxTwoFox.html
               | 
               | Basically, it was called Yellowbox, but it didn't
               | officially survive the release of Mac OS X IIRC. But
               | Apple was at least still using parts of it for some
               | Windows ports back then I believe.
        
             | mattl wrote:
             | It was a product briefly. OPENSTEP Enterprise. There was
             | talk of selling licenses to distribute but that never
             | happened
        
           | Karellen wrote:
           | > Apple Passwords on Windows is a good example [...] the
           | experience is entirely unlike what you get on Mac
           | 
           | If you were a Windows user, why would you want an app that
           | acts like a Mac app? Surely the benefit of having a dedicated
           | Windows app is that the experience should be like other
           | _Windows_ apps.
        
             | waboremo wrote:
             | You're not really thinking about it as a "mac app", but
             | rather "the service". You expect it to act like the service
             | you use on other platforms with all the features you rely
             | on.
             | 
             | If I'm using Spotify, I don't think "oh this doesn't use
             | windows navigation component from winUI", I immediately
             | know where the genre categories are because I've already
             | used it on android or linux and expect it to be there. I
             | know exactly how to add a song to my library, to shift
             | around playlists, to manage folders, everything is as I
             | learned it on [other platform].
             | 
             | Design development becomes this duplicated burden where
             | every feature now has to go through the ringer twice (or
             | more) to fit native components for their respective
             | platforms. When you hit limitations on those native
             | components, you're now having to make the decision to
             | either hold back the feature entirely, or create fragile
             | workarounds.
             | 
             | In an alternate timeline native components would have had
             | far greater appeal, where people actually hate and boycott
             | apps designed otherwise. But we don't. Even on iOS or mac,
             | people regularly rely on apps that only vaguely interpret
             | their native components. The situation is even worse on
             | windows past 7, where the idea of a "windows app" is so
             | jumbled there is nothing to "expect" from the experience -
             | which is actually part of why I think these unified app
             | designs have really taken off.
        
               | oneeyedpigeon wrote:
               | > If I'm using Spotify, I don't think "oh this doesn't
               | use windows navigation component from winUI"
               | 
               | We're either very different people or we have different
               | use cases :) It _immediately_ feels jarring to me to be
               | using macOS and suddenly presented with a non-native UI.
               | But I only ever use macOS on the desktop, so I don 't
               | have this cross-platform issue. What I find strange is, I
               | would have thought that was the 99% common case -- it
               | seems strange to me to optimise for individuals using
               | multiple OSes rather than multiple apps on one OS.
               | 
               | > Design development becomes this duplicated burden
               | 
               | That sounds like an OS flaw if true. Of course, I accept
               | that _some_ design will be necessary, even with the
               | finest SDKs available to humanity, but it should be _so_
               | burdensome that going non-native is seen as the solution.
               | 
               | > Even on iOS or mac, people regularly rely on apps that
               | only vaguely interpret their native components.
               | 
               | You're totally right. Every now and again, I say to
               | myself "I really must use Safari for the 'more native'
               | experience", but I always come running straight back to
               | Chrome again.
               | 
               | > The situation is even worse on windows
               | 
               | This was one of the things I liked best about macOS when
               | I first migrated -- everything was so consistent, things
               | didn't visually clash, etc. I still get the impression
               | it's better on macOS, but heck, it's definitely not as
               | good as it used to be.
        
               | brycedriesenga wrote:
               | >I say to myself "I really must use Safari for the 'more
               | native' experience", but I always come running straight
               | back to Chrome again.
               | 
               | Have you given Arc Browser a shot yet? It feels pretty
               | great. Feels designed for Mac and has its own design
               | language at the same time.
        
               | tehnub wrote:
               | Not that I disagree with you, but have you seen the new
               | Windows app for Apple Music? It definitely feels Windows
               | 11-ey, with the animations you'd expect. A notable
               | departure from the Mac design, in favor of Windows
               | design, is the placement of the back button at the top
               | left corner of the window, instead of slightly to the
               | right of the top left on Mac.
        
           | porcoda wrote:
           | This has been the story of Apple apps outside MacOS forever:
           | they appear to always do the absolute minimum to claim
           | support, and you end up with a super clunky windows app that
           | is terrible.
           | 
           | I doubt they'd do much better using electron: I think their
           | development model is that if it isn't on one of their
           | platforms, they pump out a minimum-effort, low quality app.
           | I'd guess that electron ones would be just as clunky, except
           | with a significantly higher memory and CPU footprint.
        
             | waboremo wrote:
             | That hasn't really been true. Apple supported iTunes and
             | Safari which were great options on Windows. Not just "I'm
             | already an Apple fan so I have to use it", but actively
             | deciding to use them.
             | 
             | The root of the problem for Apple is that they cannot get
             | away with doing what they used to in the past, they already
             | have a plethora of platforms within their own umbrella to
             | support, adding Windows native to the mix seems to result
             | in maybe a handful of developers taking on enormous burdens
             | by trying to catch up to their expected Mac apps.
             | 
             | If Apple were to seriously put its weight behind a cross-
             | platform toolkit, this might change, especially as they
             | want their services to grow. It's the very reason why their
             | main service competitors can even compete.
             | 
             | But I agree that if they were to suddenly switch to
             | Electron without a care it wouldn't turn out well, but
             | likely have a better end user experience than their current
             | reveals.
        
               | paulryanrogers wrote:
               | So SwiftUI for Windows?
        
               | waboremo wrote:
               | Would be very interesting!
        
               | kalleboo wrote:
               | For QuickTime for Windows they ported a portion of the
               | Classic Mac Toolbox to Windows to make it work.
               | 
               | For Safari Windows they ported a portion of Cocoa.
               | 
               | Having an internal Windows version of SwiftUI would not
               | be unthinkable!
        
               | lmm wrote:
               | > Apple supported iTunes and Safari which were great
               | options on Windows. Not just "I'm already an Apple fan so
               | I have to use it", but actively deciding to use them.
               | 
               | No they weren't. They were notoriously awful. Apple
               | resorted to bundling Safari with QuickTime to try to get
               | you to use it but everyone still hated it.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | emsixteen wrote:
               | Nonsense, iTunes was great and got stick just for being
               | iTunes.
               | 
               | 300GB library around that time with no issue at all.
               | Smart Playlists made all other players obsolete for me.
        
         | darzu wrote:
         | My biggest complaint is that it doesn't keep a history! One
         | misclicked "remember password" at the wrong moment (safari
         | plugin often guesses password fields wrong) and you've just
         | locked yourself out of your bank account. Literally happened to
         | me.
        
         | tiffanyh wrote:
         | Apple has to tread lightly on not have too robust of
         | capabilities, especially for non-Apple ecosystem, since it
         | might be consider anti-competitive.
         | 
         | (e.g. Netscape vs Microsoft Internet Explorer)
         | 
         | EDIT: why the downvotes without a reply? If you don't agree,
         | why not just respond why so that a health dialogue can occur.
        
           | sbuk wrote:
           | As stated by another poster, Netscape vs MSFT was about
           | coercing OEMs not to include competing browsers to be pre-
           | installed on new systems. Apple could create and give away a
           | cross platform password manager without much fear of
           | ramifications, unless they exclude _all other_ password
           | managers.
        
         | kolanos wrote:
         | > 3. The GUI is buried in System Settings. Heaven forbid you
         | need search it's only a simple 37 clicks away!
         | 
         | Safari > Preferences > Passwords
         | 
         | Would love to have iCloud Keychain in other browsers, though.
        
         | reaperducer wrote:
         | _I use Safari a lot but if I 'm in a different browser then my
         | passwords are unavailable._
         | 
         | No, it's not. I alternate between Safari, Firefox, and Duck. If
         | a password I use in Safari isn't stored in Firefox, I copy it
         | from the Keychain program and paste it into Firefox. Firefox
         | then asks to save it. No problem.
         | 
         |  _The GUI is buried in System Settings._
         | 
         | It has its own program. /Applications/Utilities/Keychain Access
        
           | howinteresting wrote:
           | Your workflow is significantly worse than the experience I
           | get with 1password.
        
           | NavinF wrote:
           | > I copy it from the Keychain program and paste it into
           | Firefox
           | 
           | Woah that's the same way I used password managers 10 years
           | ago. Even back then it was considered barbaric. I had no idea
           | people still lived like that.
        
             | reaperducer wrote:
             | I never stated that it was good.
             | 
             | The previous commenter said passwords were "unavailable"
             | outside of Safari. I merely demonstrated that his statement
             | was false.
        
         | JustSomeNobody wrote:
         | That's all by design. They want you 100% on Apple products to
         | get the full experience.
        
           | wkat4242 wrote:
           | The full experience for their shareholders you mean :P
        
         | yamtaddle wrote:
         | > 1. The experience on Windows is terrible. They can claim it's
         | cross-platform but it's truly a sub-par product.
         | 
         | Like a lot of other Apple stuff, I'm only able to use it
         | because I don't use anything non-Apple for anything "serious"
         | that involves a GUI. Windows is for gaming, Linux is my file
         | storage and docker-service-running server that I only interact
         | with over SSH and Web. Ditto Notes, all their Office-type
         | programs, et c. I'd probably be on a lot more Google shit if I
         | needed more cross-platform access to that stuff.
         | 
         | > 2. On Mac it's tied specifically to Safari. I use Safari a
         | lot but if I'm in a different browser then my passwords are
         | unavailable.
         | 
         | Yeah, this is super fucking weird. You'd think this would be
         | connected in some fashion to "keychain", but nope.
         | 
         | > 3. The GUI is buried in System Settings. Heaven forbid you
         | need search it's only a simple 37 clicks away!
         | 
         | IDGAF about clicks because I search my way to everything in
         | Apple's settings--what does bother me is that they've made
         | search worse in the last couple versions of iOS, and that if I
         | type "pass" in search, "Passwords" _isn 't even visible on the
         | list_ yet. I can get all the way to "password" and it's still
         | the _fourth_ entry. The fucking _name of the screen_ is
         | "passwords"! I shouldn't have to get farther than "pas" for it
         | to be the first entry on the list, "pass" in the worst-case!
         | Even fully typing "passwords" still leaves it as the _second_
         | entry (of three) on my device. WTF.
        
           | johnwalkr wrote:
           | I use windows almost only for gaming (and CAD) too, and I've
           | found that recently that the webapps, especially music and
           | notes are good enough, and icloud drive and photos
           | integration to windows actually work well.
           | 
           | But yes, passwords is annoying. You can use them on chrome on
           | windows but not on MacOS, and on Windows it doesn't work on
           | anything but chrome. Speaking of gaming, game launchers on
           | windows can't get passwords from Apple and also seem to log
           | me out all the time, so I have to revert to using my phone to
           | see my password and manually type it in.
        
           | klodolph wrote:
           | > Yeah, this is super fucking weird. You'd think this would
           | be connected in some fashion to "keychain", but nope.
           | 
           | Other browsers used to be able to use it. I do think it's a
           | really thorny issue--"allow this application to access all
           | saved passwords?" is a pretty damn scary permission to
           | include. Up there with the "allow this application to control
           | your computer" permission that is used for accessibility apps
           | (which apps can abuse to read passwords, if I understand
           | correctly).
           | 
           | Apple's tradition. Make the platform more secure, add an
           | exception for first-party apps, and let the other browsers
           | fuck off.
        
             | paulddraper wrote:
             | Obviously the browser doesn't need to have unfettered
             | access.
             | 
             | It just needs to tell the password "hey there's a password
             | on wellsfargo.com" and then the password manager asks the
             | user if they want to use the password. And maybe give
             | access to all passwords.
             | 
             | IDK, what does safari do?
        
               | fwlr wrote:
               | Safari pops up a little box attached to the login text
               | field asking you if you want to use the password for
               | wellsfargo, so it seems like it's asking keychain "do you
               | have a password associated with this url?". At least on
               | modern MacBooks they also figured out a good UX flow,
               | when that box is on screen you put your finger on the
               | Touch ID button and it authenticates you, puts in the
               | password, and goes to the next field or hits submit.
        
             | shipp02 wrote:
             | Isn't this the exact thing that got MS in trouble with
             | anti-trust for Explorer? How is apple getting away with it?
        
               | dagmx wrote:
               | No. Microsoft got in trouble because they were coercing
               | OEMs to not include competing browsers.
               | 
               | Apple has no such problem since they don't have other
               | OEMs.
               | 
               | Same deal with why Google got in trouble with the play
               | store.
        
             | tim333 wrote:
             | Something could pop up saying "Fill password for HSBC
             | Bank?" or similar and you click one button.
        
             | musicale wrote:
             | > allow this application to access all saved passwords
             | 
             | I'd like to see finer granularity, perhaps multiple web
             | password vaults and a mechanism to allow certain browsers
             | to use certain vaults.
             | 
             | It might also be nice to specify which passwords could be
             | accessed with which kind of authentication. Unfortunately
             | the current system password dialog is easily spoofable - it
             | really looks like a questionable javascript popup.
        
               | imoverclocked wrote:
               | What would that look like? Do you expect a prompt for
               | every website you visit (Would you like to allow
               | permission for Firefox/Chrome/whatever to view/store your
               | password for "abcd.example.com"?) Would the permission be
               | tied to the name of the app or the hash of the app? How
               | do you securely identify the browser? Signed apps? Signed
               | via a developer key -- trust the developer so that you
               | can use Chrome as well as Chrome Beta?
               | 
               | The above is not a critique but certainly a list of
               | things that lead to the possibility of a repeat of the
               | infamous Windows popup for every single action you want
               | to do out of the box. This leads to either decision
               | fatigue or a pre-programmed "yes, just do it" response
               | from the vast majority of users.
               | 
               | I personally think it should be an all-or-nothing type of
               | allowance for this reason. Maybe the better way would be
               | tracking access to passwords in Keychain. ie:
               | Chrome+Safari+Firefox have all accessed your credentials
               | for google.com but only Safari has seen your iCloud
               | credentials and only Chrome has seen your HN credentials.
        
               | eyelidlessness wrote:
               | > Do you expect a prompt for every website you visit
               | (Would you like to allow permission for
               | Firefox/Chrome/whatever to view/store your password for
               | "abcd.example.com"?)
               | 
               | This is pretty much exactly how macOS Safari prompts, and
               | has for several years, at least in Touch ID scenarios. It
               | shows a suggested username/identity with a Touch ID icon
               | next to it, presented just like a normal autofill
               | suggestion otherwise.
               | 
               | The per-site prompt and the inclusion of
               | username/identity are really good signals, and feel like
               | they reinforce the opposite of Windows UAC. They
               | definitely gate access in a similarly repetitive way
               | which encourages repetitive acceptance. But they
               | demonstrate prior authorization that would have to be
               | manual at least once at some point before the prompt, and
               | you won't be promoted the same way for sites you didn't
               | manually authorize first.
               | 
               | It's a good enough signal that I generally use it as my
               | first line of defense against phishing/domain spoofing.
               | If I don't get promoted for credentials for a service I
               | expect to have an account with, I'm immediately
               | suspicious. That doesn't mean I automatically trust or
               | distrust on that alone, but it's a pretty decent sniff
               | test.
        
               | coldtea wrote:
               | > _What would that look like? Do you expect a prompt for
               | every website you visit_
               | 
               | Why not? It works fine for Little Snitch.
               | 
               | And here it would be even less prompts, as it would just
               | be every website I visit && have an login account at.
        
               | otterley wrote:
               | It's not unheard of - iOS already provides granular
               | permission capabilities for photos. You don't have to
               | give all-or-nothing permission to apps to access photos
               | anymore; you can now choose precisely which photos the
               | app has access to.
               | 
               | I'm looking forward to iOS doing the same for contacts;
               | there's no reason why WhatsApp/Telegram/etc need access
               | to my entire address book if I just want to call Steve.
        
             | varenc wrote:
             | Safari Passwords and 3rd party apps can and do use the
             | Apple Keychain on macOS/iOS to store sensitive data. Though
             | 3rd parties can't integrate with Safari's password manager.
             | 
             | If you use Chrome Sync with passwords on macOS, Chrome
             | actually stores the decryption key in the macOS keychain.
             | Just open Keychain.app (/Applications/Utilities/Keychain
             | Access.app) and search for "Chrome Safe Storage" to find
             | it. That's the decryption key for the actual encrypted
             | password/sync data stored elsewhere. (So not possible to
             | access Chrome passwords from the Keychain directly)
             | 
             | Safari Passwords (Apple's password manager) also stores
             | passwords in the Keychain as individual entries and you can
             | access them via Keychain.app. Unfortunately, since they're
             | part of the iCloud Keychain not the local login Keychain,
             | they appear to be inaccessible with the `security` CLI tool
             | which fails in an obtuse way.
        
             | OsintOtter69 wrote:
             | [flagged]
        
             | dan-robertson wrote:
             | Yeah, I a think other browsers want to be able to test
             | whether there is a saved password or not, and get the
             | corresponding username, which is quite a big permission to
             | give away. For actually filling in the password they could
             | maybe offer a pop up where the user must authorise the app
             | using biometrics or some other OS-level action. That's
             | already the experience with safari.
        
           | coldtea wrote:
           | > _Yeah, this is super fucking weird. You 'd think this would
           | be connected in some fashion to "keychain", but nope._
           | 
           | It probably very much is. But Google would never add Keychain
           | integration when they want to push you to their own password
           | manager within Chrome
        
           | birdyrooster wrote:
           | I can never tell if Apple is trying to kill macOS, but it's
           | things like this that make me wonder.
        
           | keyle wrote:
           | >> 2. On Mac it's tied specifically to Safari. I use Safari a
           | lot but if I'm in a different browser then my passwords are
           | unavailable.
           | 
           | > Yeah, this is super fucking weird. You'd think this would
           | be connected in some fashion to "keychain", but nope
           | 
           | No it's not. I don't want some exotic product connect to a
           | domain I have passwords in and prompting me for access. The
           | password should be tied to the product you used to login
           | with.
           | 
           | This is a misunderstanding of keychain vs. lastpass. One is
           | designed to remember "safari passwords" or any swift/cocoa
           | application implementing keychain. One key feature is: once
           | stored in Keychain this information is only available to your
           | app, other apps can't see it.
           | 
           | Lastpass and other similar products are designed as a data
           | warehouse / vault for you security items. From there, plugins
           | in browsers etc. can take over.
           | 
           | I will totally agree with the fact that the GUI is
           | frustrating at best.
        
             | Thlom wrote:
             | But on iOS I can use keychain from apps to find login
             | information that is stored from Safari?
        
           | knodi123 wrote:
           | > The fucking name of the screen is "passwords"! I shouldn't
           | have to get farther than "pas" for it to be the first entry
           | on the list, "pass" in the worst-case!
           | 
           | Weird. "pas" and it was top of the list for me.
        
             | zimpenfish wrote:
             | Anecdata: `pas` worked for me in Spotlight, Settings (both
             | 13.3 Beta (22E5246b)) and Alfred (4.8 [1312]).
        
             | ulfw wrote:
             | When I type just "p" it's the second top most result. When
             | I type "pa" it's already the first result.
        
               | yamtaddle wrote:
               | Bizarre. That's on iOS for me, searching in the settings
               | app itself. I have to type most of "passwords" just to
               | get it to show up at all, and some of the ones that are
               | showing up instead have only the most tenuous connection
               | to the search term "password".
               | 
               | It _used to_ show up for me after a couple letters, in
               | the settings app, until a few iOS versions ago, IIRC.
        
               | mh- wrote:
               | It "learns" from previous searches.
               | 
               | Which is unfortunate, because it's not very good at it.
        
             | amluto wrote:
             | In Spotlight, I need "passw" to see it. In the actual
             | Settings search, I also need "passw", and that only gets it
             | to #5 in the list.
             | 
             | Also, Spotlight is bizarrely slow finding even local apps
             | and things like Passwords. WTF
        
               | eastbound wrote:
               | Did you tell it to ignore most local files?
        
               | rrsmtz wrote:
               | Wow! Just discovered the Spotlight customization and it
               | is so much faster and more useful when you remove certain
               | locations and turn off definitions and Siri suggestions.
        
               | amluto wrote:
               | That sounds delightful. Sadly, while Apple _documents_
               | "Suggestions in Search", and I can even see that option
               | when I search Settings for Siri, the option itself is
               | missing from the Siri  & Search page.
        
             | lttlrck wrote:
             | I get the same result as the parent. Search in Settings has
             | gotten a lot worse with time.
        
           | hnrodey wrote:
           | Yeah, I'm also a heavy user Spotlight Search and it's still
           | impossible to get to Keychain settings. I suppose my higher
           | level point was that it's damn near impossible to efficiently
           | get to the keychain settings.
        
             | ideamotor wrote:
             | Alfred?
        
             | metafunctor wrote:
             | Not impossible at all. For me, [?]-space, then typing pass
             | is enough for Spotlight Search to suggest the Passwords
             | section in System Settings.
        
           | AdamN wrote:
           | Step 63 of Mac setup is optimizing Spotlight by excluding a
           | bunch of stuff from being indexed - kind of annoying but
           | that's the solution
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | thih9 wrote:
         | > The GUI is buried in System Settings. Heaven forbid you need
         | search it's only a simple 37 clicks away!
         | 
         | I do: Cmd+space > "keychain" > Enter. Still not ideal but it's
         | the fastest method I know. What do you mean, i.e. how do you
         | access the GUI from the system settings? I tried finding
         | keychain there but couldn't figure out where it is.
        
           | aequitas wrote:
           | It's available as "Passwords" in the system settings. I think
           | they added it recently to align it with iOS and iPadOS, where
           | there is no mention of it being Keychain at all.
        
         | ajmurmann wrote:
         | "If you are 100% Mac then it's a good product."
         | 
         | I use 100% ma except for gaming. However, I use other browsers
         | as well, so the coupling to Safari is a deal breaker.
        
         | divan wrote:
         | > > 3. The GUI is buried in System Settings. Heaven forbid you
         | need search it's only a simple 37 clicks away!
         | 
         | On iOS you can ask Siri "show my passwords". Doesn't seem to
         | work on MacOS though.
        
         | zitterbewegung wrote:
         | You can make a shortcut that opens passwords.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | spullara wrote:
         | You just run the Keychain Access app on a Mac.
        
         | howinteresting wrote:
         | It's not just a good product if you're 100% Apple, it's only a
         | good product if you're 100% Apple _and are willing to accept a
         | great deal of friction if Apple 's direction no longer suits
         | you in the future_. It's a version of what some people call
         | "high time preference".
         | 
         | Personally, I was taught to care about the future.
        
           | dwaite wrote:
           | They have an export-to-CSV feature. That takes a lot of the
           | worry out of hypothetical futures.
        
             | howinteresting wrote:
             | Still adds a great deal of friction and makes it harder to,
             | say, experiment with an Android phone or a Linux desktop
             | for a month. Compare that to 1password which just works.
        
         | jrochkind1 wrote:
         | OP is suggesting it's a terrible UI on iOS and Mac too, and one
         | of their principle complaints is your #3.
         | 
         | So OP disagree that it's even a good product if you are 100%
         | Mac, but are suggesting the functionality is all there, it just
         | needs an actually designed UI/UX.
         | 
         | And/But your #2 sounds pretty terrible to me too!
         | 
         | It does not sound like a good product at all.
        
         | maliker wrote:
         | I ended up writing an AppleScript to open the Safari passwords
         | dialog because I got sick of hunting for the proper dialog. If
         | you save it as passwords.command and make it executable it'll
         | open the window right up. But yeah, it's a kludge.
         | #!/usr/bin/osascript       tell application "Safari"
         | activate       end tell       tell application "System Events"
         | keystroke "," using {command down}         set pass_button to
         | (button "Passwords" of toolbar 1 of window 1 of application
         | process "Safari")         click pass_button       end tell
        
         | ikura wrote:
         | Don't use System Settings to find passwords, open Keychain
         | Access instead, it's much more direct for searching.
        
         | robotresearcher wrote:
         | > 3. The GUI is buried in System Settings. Heaven forbid you
         | need search it's only a simple 37 clicks away!
         | 
         | On Mac, at any time, type: command-space passw <return>
         | 
         | On iOS tap <search> on any home screen, type passw, tap
         | suggested result
        
           | mitemte wrote:
           | Better yet, using the Shortcuts app for iOS, create a
           | shortcut that opens a URL with `prefs:root=PASSWORDS` in
           | Safari.
           | 
           | For macOS, you can make the same shortcut open `/Library/Appl
           | e/System/Library/CoreServices/SafariSupport.bundle/Contents/P
           | referencePanes/Passwords.prefPane`.
           | 
           | A single shortcut can be used to accomplish this, using the
           | OS check and an `if` condition.
           | 
           | Then add the shortcut to the home screen as an icon and it'll
           | also show up in Spotlight search.
        
             | hnrodey wrote:
             | I mean, thank you. Buttttttttt this is an asinine level of
             | effort to achieve a workaround for a stock feature on the
             | Apple platform. I'd just assume not use it before
             | implementing this.
        
           | voytec wrote:
           | _Rebuilding Spotlight index..._
        
           | bonestamp2 wrote:
           | These are great tips for power users, I love it!
           | 
           | That said, this also proves that for non-power users: it
           | needs an app and it needs integration with other browsers if
           | it wants to be as easy to use (for most people) as the
           | popular password managers.
        
           | yamtaddle wrote:
           | On iOS, my _only_ password manager I 've _ever_ used is the
           | built-in Apple one.
           | 
           | I just tapped the "search" field on the home screen, and
           | typed "passw".
           | 
           | "Top Hit": A store link to the LastPass password manager
           | (which I do not and have never used--the button has the text
           | "get", it's not installed and doesn't have the cloud-icon for
           | previously-installed apps)
           | 
           | From there, it's three suggested Siri web searches:
           | "passwords", "password manager", and "password generator"
           | 
           | Then two safari-iconed links (I assume these would search
           | with my default search engine in safari?): "passwords on
           | iphone" and "passew"
           | 
           | Searching inside the "settings" app is only marginally
           | better. It's all much, much worse than it was a few iOS
           | releases ago.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | snowe2010 wrote:
             | I learned from this thread that you can actually disable
             | all that. I did so and my spotlight searching sped up
             | 10-fold and now I only get app results. So much better.
        
           | arrrg wrote:
           | Is this you arguing that it's not buried?
           | 
           | Having to access something via a search incantation (or,
           | alternatively, a ton of clicks) is not at all easily
           | accessible. It's buried alright.
           | 
           | Obviously you can find pretty much anything on macOS and iOS
           | via search. That's how it's should be. But that doesn't make
           | things accessible or even just visible.
        
           | kenver wrote:
           | A shortcut helps
           | 
           | https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/71fea01c333341878e4355df52c.
           | ..
        
           | toxik wrote:
           | No results for "passw"
        
             | throwaway290 wrote:
             | I write "keychain" usually, it appears after "key" already.
        
               | shagie wrote:
               | I've pinned Keychain Access in my tool bar. Finder,
               | System settings, Keychain - right at the top.
        
         | dclowd9901 wrote:
         | I'm all in for personal web browsing. Safari is a great browser
         | basically 99% of the time and having free synced passwords (and
         | really any critical data!) between my desktop, phone and
         | tablet, I get tremendous value.
         | 
         | For work, I use chrome and chrome password management because
         | my company uses gmail.
        
         | AdmiralAsshat wrote:
         | > If you are 100% Mac then it's a good product. Going outside
         | of the walled Apple garden leaves a lot to be desired.
         | 
         | I think Apple would consider this "working as designed."
        
           | OsintOtter69 wrote:
           | [flagged]
        
           | asciii wrote:
           | > I think Apple would consider this "working as designed."
           | 
           |  _Incoming_ iTunes Password Manager, next event :P
        
           | lozenge wrote:
           | With passkeys, now every platform can enjoy this level of
           | lock in!
        
             | warning26 wrote:
             | Yeah, that's why I'd never touch passkeys. It feels like
             | you're basically locking yourself into a weird ecosystem
             | that you'll never be able to escape from.
        
               | stouset wrote:
               | This is kind of silly.
               | 
               | If you're using hardware 2FA, you should _absolutely_
               | have backups. I 've used YubiKeys for years and have one
               | in my laptop, one on a keychain, and one in a safety
               | deposit box.
               | 
               | Passkeys are _just another instance of this_. I have
               | added Passkeys to all of my accounts with 2FA and it 's
               | somewhat more convenient (significantly more convenient
               | for mobile devices). But every account _also_ has all my
               | YubiKeys attached as second factors.
               | 
               | There is no lock-in. And while it's inconvenient and
               | annoying to have to add multiple keys to every account,
               | that is _already_ the reality if you 're responsibly
               | using hardware second factors.
        
               | devman0 wrote:
               | This would be less annoying if we could get actual
               | federated identity that big players would actually
               | accept, as it stands having to fetch a key from a safe
               | deposit box every time I register a new account is a huge
               | amount of friction.
        
               | jve wrote:
               | Microsoft is a big player and here you go:
               | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-
               | server/identity/ad...
               | 
               | I currently have a Microsoft (Work) account that I'm SSO
               | logged on.
        
               | stouset wrote:
               | It absolutely is. But that's a separate problem entirely
               | from "will Passkeys lock me in to the Apple ecosystem",
               | to which the answer is an unqualified no.
        
             | rootusrootus wrote:
             | I hope not. I'm patiently waiting on 1Password to release
             | their implementation of passkeys so I can have it work on
             | all my devices, Apple or not.
        
               | stouset wrote:
               | Just use Passkeys. Any account that allows 2FA allows
               | multiple second factors. You should be setting up backup
               | second factors anyway if you don't want to risk getting
               | permanently locked out of all of your accounts.
               | 
               | Plus, putting second factors in the same location as your
               | first factor (e.g., 1Password) seems to pretty much
               | defeat the entire purpose of having a second factor. If
               | you're using strong passwords with 1Password, your second
               | factor is basically only defending against a leak of your
               | password database. If you're storing your second factor
               | in that same password database, what are you gaining?
        
               | cstrahan wrote:
               | Well, with the exception of AWS, unless something has
               | changed recently -- they notoriously only support one
               | second factor (i.e. if you use YubiKeys or similar, you
               | can only use one).
        
               | stouset wrote:
               | Yeah, AWS is the only exception I've encountered :)
               | 
               | But if you have backup second factors ( _you have backup
               | second factors, right?_ ) and you're worried about
               | Passkey lock-in for whatever reason... just use that
               | other second factor for AWS or any other account which
               | supports only one.
        
               | JimDabell wrote:
               | You can add multiple MFA devices since November of last
               | year:
               | 
               | > Now, you can add multiple MFA devices to AWS account
               | root users and AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)
               | users in your AWS accounts. This helps you to raise the
               | security bar in your accounts and limit access management
               | to highly privileged principals, such as root users.
               | Previously, you could only have one MFA device associated
               | with root users or IAM users, but now you can associate
               | up to eight MFA devices of the currently supported types
               | with root users and IAM users.
               | 
               | -- https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/you-can-now-
               | assign-mul...
        
               | withinboredom wrote:
               | passkeys isn't supported on linux desktop, at all. and if
               | you know how to make it work, please let me know. I have
               | to switch to a Windows machine to login with them.
        
               | jorvi wrote:
               | Isn't the whole point of Passkeys that you can't ever
               | lose them, since they're tied to your biometrics..
        
               | stouset wrote:
               | They're not tied to your biometrics. They're stored
               | inside the TPM of your device, which is _unlocked_ by
               | some form of biometrics.
               | 
               | But if you lose all the devices with your passkeys on
               | them, they are gone for good.
        
               | zarzavat wrote:
               | I'm super curious what a backup second factor is for the
               | average user who has only one device: a phone, that
               | sometimes gets lost or is stolen.
               | 
               | Feels like these things are designed by Californians with
               | no idea of how the world is.
        
               | stouset wrote:
               | If you're in this category, your alternative to Passkeys
               | _at all_ is SMS or no 2FA whatsoever. Enabling Passkeys
               | does at least ensure that you have a minimum of two
               | separate devices so you already do effectively have some
               | form of backup of your second factor.
               | 
               | My comment is targeted at someone who is savvy enough to:
               | a) care about having "real" 2FA, and b) is concerned
               | about lock-in, and c) is extremely sensitive to being
               | locked out. For someone like that, you're _already buying
               | YubiKeys_ or some equivalent. And if you don 't already
               | have some, you're never prevented from using them later.
        
               | crooked-v wrote:
               | Reminds of the occasional comment threads on here about
               | homeless people permanently locked out of new accounts
               | every few months because of stolen devices and the
               | growing corporate obsession with forced 2FA, and all the
               | replies that amount to "if they didn't want to fuck off
               | and die they shouldn't have been poor".
        
               | howinteresting wrote:
               | > Plus, putting second factors in the same location as
               | your first factor (e.g., 1Password) seems to pretty much
               | defeat the entire purpose of having a second factor.
               | 
               | Not quite! 1password itself counts as two factors:
               | something you know (the master password), and something
               | you have (the additional secret key).
               | 
               | Passkeys in 1password would eliminate phishing as a
               | problem.
        
               | stavros wrote:
               | Yep, same with BitWarden. That would be fantastic.
        
           | WWLink wrote:
           | > I think Apple would consider this "working as designed."
           | 
           | Punishing us geeks who like using multiple different kinds of
           | OS on their phones and computers. :(
        
         | michael1999 wrote:
         | A limited GUI is also available within Safari on desktop. It is
         | a tab under Preferences. It makes working in Chrome bearable.
         | 
         | Agree the UI is terrible in iOS.
        
         | Schiendelman wrote:
         | On 3, at least: Apple assumes you'll use search on device. If
         | so, it's: 1) Swipe down 2) Type "p" 3) tap autocomplete result
         | in "settings" group.
        
           | airstrike wrote:
           | But if you search on Mac using spotlight you need to type
           | "keychain" smfh my head
        
         | sagarkamat wrote:
         | Agree on most of this but Keychain Access IS a standalone app
         | on the mac so slightly confused about the comment about it
         | being buried in System settings. Its still a pain to go to the
         | app and copy a password for non-Safari browsers though.
        
           | arrrg wrote:
           | That app is not at all a password manager.
           | 
           | It's a view and editor for all kinds of stored keys. I don't
           | think its target audience ever were intended to be some
           | random macOS users. That's just not the target group. It's
           | about power users that need to access or store all kinds of
           | keys.
        
           | leesalminen wrote:
           | I just do cmd+space -> type "pass" -> Return -> fingerprint.
           | That gets me to my iCloud Keychain. I used to use Keychain
           | Access but like the UI of the Passwords tab of Settings more.
        
             | maccard wrote:
             | I use 1password. cmd + shift + space opens a spotlight-like
             | dialog for 1password. First access requires a fingerprint.
             | 
             | It also works on Windows!
        
         | wmeredith wrote:
         | > If you are 100% Mac then it's a good product. Going outside
         | of the walled Apple garden leaves a lot to be desired.
         | 
         | This has been the Apple way since the 1980's
        
         | OsintOtter69 wrote:
         | Last pass had a major incident recently iirc.
        
           | palata wrote:
           | I moved to Bitwarden right after it, and I can't believe how
           | much better it is in terms of UX \o/. I whish I had made the
           | move years earlier.
        
         | hot_gril wrote:
         | 4. New passwords overwrite old ones. Easy to accidentally lose
         | passwords in slightly odd situations like logging into an
         | account whose password you just reset.
         | 
         | But I like it overall. Even though I use multiple browsers, I
         | don't mind treating Keychain as the master DB and occasionally
         | copying passwords out of it. Part of this is because I use
         | Safari exclusively for the extra important things like my bank.
        
         | Euphorbium wrote:
         | 2. Dont know what you are talking about, I use brave and get my
         | passwords filled in from keychain. 3. Cmd-space keychain opens
         | up keychain
        
           | hnrodey wrote:
           | Thank you for sharing that. I was not aware. I will try this
           | tonight!
        
         | fitzroy wrote:
         | I use this Menubar short cut for Passwords, so it's only 2
         | clicks and fingerprint away.
         | 
         | https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/22133925f3e34579b22951d6593...
        
         | nailer wrote:
         | I was about to say the same thing: Apple has a password
         | manager? I'd consider Apple Passwords to be less than half a
         | password manager.
        
         | AdamN wrote:
         | Serious question but what do you use Windows for? I don't know
         | alot of people that use Windows anymore so just wondering is it
         | a work requirement?
        
           | andrewmutz wrote:
           | It's still widely used for gaming
        
           | makeitdouble wrote:
           | Went the other route, sold my iPad and went with a Surface
           | instead...
           | 
           | the short of it: It's inelegant, there's bugs, the UI is
           | half-assed and some aspects are straight hostile (default
           | widgets etc.). But it's an actual generic computer. Most task
           | you assume you could do with a computer, there will be a way
           | to do it.
           | 
           | It might take some efforts to get to a decent setup, but the
           | walled garden was also a PITA, so all in all, I felt my time
           | is better invested in making windows a nice place than the
           | endless fighting of Apple on iOS.
           | 
           | As a halo effect, I'm kinda thinking about moving to Windows
           | on my main computer as well on the next refresh cycle...not
           | fully decided, but that feels like a viable option.
        
         | ar9av wrote:
         | The main limitation of Apple's passwords implementation for me
         | is lack of sharing. For accounts that my wife and I both need
         | access to, we can have them in a shared location in bitwarden,
         | but there's no comparable feature with Apple's. I'll probably
         | even start paying for bitwarden so that I can share with more
         | than one other person when my kids are old enough to need
         | access to them
        
           | followben wrote:
           | Yeah, this is a bugbear. FWIW my wife and I "share" keychain
           | items by airdropping them to one another as required. It
           | works, but nowhere near as nice as having a common record we
           | can both maintain.
        
             | lampshades wrote:
             | My wife and I do the same and it actually works better than
             | sharing because my wife understands how to do it without me
             | trying to teach her.
        
           | Jnr wrote:
           | I'm using self hosted Vaultwarden (open source implementation
           | of the backend) and the password sharing feature is very nice
           | to have.
        
         | X-Istence wrote:
         | > I use Safari a lot but if I'm in a different browser then my
         | passwords are unavailable.
         | 
         | Chrome used to be tied into Keychain but they went their own
         | way a long time ago, which is a damn shame.
        
           | vanilla_nut wrote:
           | I believe Apple only lets you use certain APIs (like
           | Keychain) if you distribute only through the App Store.
           | 
           | That policy has really killed a lot of functionality on
           | macOS. I suspect it will cause fiction on iOS when the EU
           | forces them to allow alternative install sources.
           | 
           | Personally, it grates me when Apple cripples functionality
           | this way to try to keep us stuck in their platform. Can't use
           | Firefox with Keychain. You can only view your current Apple
           | Card balance on an iOS device -- not even a macOS device. At
           | the end of the day, I hate being manipulated so much that it
           | actually pushes me _away_ from the platform to see this
           | scummy behavior.
        
             | smileybarry wrote:
             | > You can only view your current Apple Card balance on an
             | iOS device -- not even a macOS device.
             | 
             | That sounds especially annoying. An iPad next to you can
             | auto-config itself as the umpteenth monitor of a Mac, but
             | macOS can't pull Apple Card balance from your nearby
             | iPhone?
        
             | someNameIG wrote:
             | Is there a reason Chrome, Edge, and Firefox aren't on the
             | Mac app store? I know the yearly dev account costs can be
             | an issue for small developers but Google, Microsoft, and
             | Mozilla are already paying that as they release apps on the
             | iOS App Store.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | bobbylarrybobby wrote:
               | If I had to guess, the review process would just be a
               | hindrance to them for nearly no benefit (is there
               | anything besides the keychain API that would entice
               | them?).
        
               | vanilla_nut wrote:
               | I assume it's annoying to jump through hoops and code
               | review for every release.
               | 
               | Most macOS users don't use the app store. So directing
               | folks there can be annoying for users, or even cause
               | problems if they aren't signed into iCloud.
               | 
               | They'd likely end up with either an old version on the
               | app store at all times, or with a massive, unpredictable
               | day-or-week-long delay waiting for Apple's reviews before
               | every release. Small wonder they don't bother.
        
             | JPws_Prntr_Fngr wrote:
             | I will always regret being _just slightly too late_ to
             | enjoy Apple 's golden era. When, yes, using an iPod meant
             | locking into iTunes, but at least you didn't have Tim Cook
             | nagging his captured audience into signing up for Apple
             | Music Subscription Plus - Now for Families!
        
           | smaccona wrote:
           | I guess they want compatibility/password sharing between
           | Chrome on Mac, Windows and Linux, which I can understand.
        
         | whstl wrote:
         | There seems to be a Google Chrome extension called "iCloud
         | Passwords" but it only has two stars, so I don't think you'll
         | be positively surprised.
         | 
         | Also, on iPhone it's ok-ish but on Mac the experience is a
         | subpar too: Keychain, the app you use to view your passwords,
         | feels like a 90s Visual Basic application. Plus you can't
         | organize your accounts, and even if you prefix them to "sort by
         | name", the special name you give is lost after using it.
         | 
         | On the other hand, I already have other Apple cloud stuff and
         | kinda trust them, so I suffer through it. And other password
         | managers aren't anything to write home about either to make me
         | change :/
        
           | notyourwork wrote:
           | +1 to subpar on Mac. iPhone is about the only surface where
           | its seamless/smooth. The rest leaves me constantly
           | frustrated.
        
           | deergomoo wrote:
           | > Keychain, the app you use to view your passwords
           | 
           | Huh, I never realised Keychain showed iCloud Passwords. I
           | always just use Safari (which is inconvenient in its own way
           | admittedly).
        
           | comex wrote:
           | Note that macOS now has _three_ "apps" to view your
           | passwords, three different UIs for the same database. There's
           | Keychain Access, there's the Passwords section of System
           | Settings, and there's the Passwords section of Safari
           | preferences (which is the same UI as the pre-Ventura System
           | Preferences app's Passwords section).
           | 
           | The other two have even less organization functionality than
           | Keychain Access, so this probably doesn't help you, but the
           | blog post was talking about the System Settings version so I
           | wanted to point it out.
        
           | kccqzy wrote:
           | What's wrong with Keychain Access? It hasn't changed its
           | appearance since more than a decade. That's a good thing for
           | familiarity. Early Mac OS X apps have incredibly good design
           | that doesn't waste space.
        
             | 9dev wrote:
             | Guess which app is ripe for a Swift UI redesign soon!
        
             | whstl wrote:
             | But it does waste a lot of space... there's a lot of
             | duplication of keys (which are deduplicated in the iPhone
             | app), and with other information (somehow I have hundreds
             | of "com.apple.cloudd.deviceIdentifier.Production" in
             | there). And I already mentioned organization fails. Plus
             | it's kinda insecure as it enumerates your accounts
             | exhaustively without asking for a password like
             | iPhone/Safari (granted, not a problem specific to this
             | app). And the interface to view the passwords is terrible.
             | Old and familiar is not synonyms with "good".
             | 
             | However now that comex pointed me to the Password in the
             | "System Settings" app, I at least can use it and it's fine
             | if Keychain is left as is.
        
         | taylorlapeyre wrote:
         | Apple makes a iCloud Passwords chrome extension:
         | https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/icloud-passwords/p...
        
           | hnrodey wrote:
           | Maybe this was it...IIRC the user must also have iCloud For
           | Windows installed? It's been several months since I tried
           | this setup. For my personal user experience it was
           | unacceptable.
        
           | larrik wrote:
           | Windows only! It doesn't work on Mac!
           | 
           | I honestly didn't know that was possible before that
           | extension.
        
             | animal_spirits wrote:
             | Chrome on mac should by default be able to work with the
             | Apple password keychain
        
               | rootusrootus wrote:
               | No, Google has not implemented support for Keychain in
               | Chrome. AFAIK neither has Firefox.
        
               | aequitas wrote:
               | They actually removed support for Keychain, Chrome on
               | macOS used to support it in the past.
        
               | azinman2 wrote:
               | And this annoys me greatly. I want cookies, bookmarks,
               | and passwords to be owned by the system. That way I can
               | switch between browsers with ease, and that would also
               | lower the bar for new browsers to come out.
        
               | mattmcknight wrote:
               | I switch between systems more than I switch between
               | browsers.
        
               | brycedriesenga wrote:
               | Maybe if you're only using devices from one type of
               | brand. But what if you wanna access those things on a Mac
               | and Google Pixel and an Amazon Kindle. Sure, might not be
               | that much of a mix, but I imagine a decent amount of
               | people have at least one device from a different brand.
        
               | toxik wrote:
               | I absolutely do not want this.
        
               | danudey wrote:
               | Agreed. This sounds like a nice user-friendly feature
               | until you realize what a colossal privacy disaster this
               | would be for any malicious app that the user grants these
               | permissions to.
               | 
               | "DerpCo Derpolizer would like to access your stored
               | cookies. This allows us to automatically log into your
               | DerpCo account!" and then bam, they hoover up your login
               | data in an instant and send it off as part of their
               | telemetry.
               | 
               | Much better to have a system like (for example) sign in
               | with Apple where you can easily click a button to have
               | the system authenticate you, but no one gets access to
               | anything without specifically asking for it.
        
               | ricktdotorg wrote:
               | interestingly, Chrome on iOS offers me passwords from
               | both the iOS Keychain and Chrome password stores.
        
               | Camillo wrote:
               | Meaning it ought to, but doesn't, right?
        
           | hcurtiss wrote:
           | And it's slow two star garbage.
        
         | dwighttk wrote:
         | It's not great, but the app you are looking for on macOS is
         | Keychain Access
        
         | xivzgrev wrote:
         | Also, if your phone is stolen / lost and someone can guess your
         | 6 digit passcode, then all your passwords are exposed.
         | 
         | That was biggest deal killer for me.
        
       | AdamGibbins wrote:
       | Edit: Removed initial comment, confused my iOS faults.
       | 
       | Keychain its current configuration is risky, given its coupled to
       | your iPhone password which many people frequently enter in a
       | public setting. One shoulder surf followed by a phone theft and
       | they've unlocked everything - including your iCloud account
       | (which you can change the password on using iPhone password
       | only).
        
         | buildbot wrote:
         | It needs biometrics or passcode to unlock?
        
         | Jaxan wrote:
         | > you can access it when your phone is unlocked without any
         | additional authentication.
         | 
         | No you can not. On my iPhone I have to authenticate with my
         | finger print or pin code again for the passwords.
        
         | azinman2 wrote:
         | If I go to system settings > password on iOS, it then requires
         | Face ID to get in. So I'm not sure what you're talking about.
         | Under Face ID & passcode you can also require Face ID for a
         | password auto fill. So I don't think any of this is correct.
        
           | sabin1001 wrote:
           | [dead]
        
         | simonklitj wrote:
         | Are you sure? I always have to scan Face ID, whether it's to
         | open the "Passwords"-section in Settings or to have it
         | automatically paste a password on a website/app. How do I
         | access these things without additional authentication?
        
       | robinhood wrote:
       | I'm okay to move my photos to Apple. I'm okay to move my music.
       | 
       | But I'm not ready to move my passwords and tie them to the Apple
       | ecosystem.
       | 
       | 1password for the win.
        
       | DantesKite wrote:
       | I get the impression Apple doesn't want a dedicated app for
       | passwords because they don't want people to think about
       | passwords.
       | 
       | It shouldn't be something people manage, hassle, or worry over.
       | They likely want people to just be able to open their phones and
       | have it uniquely identify them seamlessly across a variety of
       | sites.
       | 
       | Unfortunately, they're not quite there yet.
        
         | CharlesW wrote:
         | > _I get the impression Apple doesn 't want a dedicated app for
         | passwords because they don't want people to think about
         | passwords._
         | 
         | I think you're right. Ventura's Passwords Settings shows that
         | they're in transition away from the archaic Keychain app to
         | _something_. My guess is that they 're skating to where the
         | puck will be in 2025 when Passkeys are universally supported,
         | and for most use cases auth will be automatic.
        
         | ElijahLynn wrote:
         | Good point, the end goal is probably some sort of biometric MFA
         | solution.
        
       | crossroadsguy wrote:
       | Apple needs to fix iCloud (or anything where a sync/etc is
       | required) to something that's at least reliable and transparent
       | from the 2023 standards! Period. As of now it's so poor if not
       | downright broken.
       | 
       | Because without that everything on the software side by Apple
       | will just remain glorified things that the fans keep bleating
       | about - "just works", "is perfect", "just what I need".
       | 
       | For heaven's sake Apple does a shoddy job of syncing et cetera
       | and obscures it from the user in the guise of usability and that
       | "Apple knows what users need to do", not what they want.
        
       | pyuser583 wrote:
       | Lots of apple "settings" deserve an app.
        
       | thom wrote:
       | Gimme something to make family passwords easy (eliminate
       | passwords!) Enable Apple ID logins for kids. Throw your weight
       | around to move safety settings into some sort of open web
       | standard. I've got 1Password but the daily pain of managing a
       | family of users with various accounts is just too much right now
       | and I would pay almost any amount of money to have a simple
       | solution that I never had to think about.
        
         | noizejoy wrote:
         | Have you seen this?
         | 
         | https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/10/passk...
        
       | bert2002 wrote:
       | The goal is to go passwordless.
        
       | geuis wrote:
       | I _really_ want to use Keychain for all of my password
       | management. But nothing works.
       | 
       | Like I'm in serious need of a highly secure cross browser/cross
       | platform password solution.
       | 
       | On my phone, everything is fine. But I use Chrome on MacOS and my
       | Windows desktop. Chrome used to use Keychain on MacOS, but some
       | years back Google changed the product to tie into their own user
       | accounts. I refuse to sign into a browser itself just to use the
       | web.
       | 
       | The iCloud password extension for Windows (chrome/edge)
       | absolutely DOES NOT WORK. I have tried getting it to work for the
       | better part of a year. Finally gave up and removed the useless
       | thing.
       | 
       | I probably dumbly still trust Apple's security policies and would
       | prefer to use Keychain as my fits-all-sizes security tool, but
       | the combo of product incompatibilities and non-working Apple
       | authored software makes it impossible.
        
       | imWildCat wrote:
       | Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
       | 
       | Don't put all your passwords into one single software provider.
        
       | cglong wrote:
       | I appreciate Apple adding the ability to export your passwords,
       | but it's ridiculous it took until 2021 for this to happen.
        
       | sacnoradhq wrote:
       | This is unnecessary because it's a problem that's already solved.
       | 
       | - BitWarden - for personal use, stores 2FAs and acts as an iOS
       | password source. (The claimed attacks were mitigated)
       | 
       | - Keeper - for enterprise use, stores 2FAs and acts as an iOS
       | password source
       | 
       | - Duo - for 2FA for enterprise use with backup text mechanisms.
       | Edit: Duo's primary app mechanism is similar to Google Gmail
       | app's mechanism of a yes/no popup to approve a 2FA request
       | 
       | ^ The above are cross-platform and extend beyond Apple.
        
       | rtpg wrote:
       | I think icloud is pretty decent as a solution, but one thing I
       | think is kind of worrying is that it unlocks with the same "key"
       | as your phone.
       | 
       | So if someone sees your PIN code, they can not only unlock your
       | phone, they can get all of your passwords and change those
       | passwords very quickly.
       | 
       | I enjoy 1Password being separate in that regard, and I would
       | really like it if the iOS keychain would let you set a separate
       | password in that respect.
        
       | Despegar wrote:
       | I guess everyone is over the anti-"self-preferencing" policy push
       | over the past few years and is back to normal. Sherlocking is in
       | fact good.
        
       | mzmzmzm wrote:
       | Tangential but I hate that Mozilla abandoned their password
       | manager app that uses the sync service they still maintain,
       | instead of adding a TOTP/OATH feature and giving people a better
       | and more open option than Duo and skeezy password managers.
        
       | OCISLY wrote:
       | I still miss Mozilla Lockwise.
        
         | benatkin wrote:
         | At least Firefox makes it easy to view your Firefox passwords.
         | In Chrome it's nested in settings and the text box where it
         | shows the password is tiny.
        
       | Bondi_Blue wrote:
       | You can always make a Shortcut to open the Passwords section of
       | System Settings. And put that in your dock or wherever.
        
       | cush wrote:
       | One word. Liability
        
       | chrisfinazzo wrote:
       | I might argue instead that simply having Passwords as another
       | item inside Settings is appropriate for what functionality it
       | exposes.
       | 
       | It's a feature, not a product, doesn't do everything that
       | Keychain Access does in macOS, and doesn't need (or deserve) to
       | be in your face all the time.
       | 
       | Do keyboards/wallpaper/voip apps/whatever really need to have
       | their own app icon on your homescreen? Probably not, but Apple's
       | conditioned us over the course of 15 years that all apps have
       | icons you can see - a view at odds with things like Fantastical
       | and SwitchGlass, which are really "apps that run in your menubar"
       | and can be used without a Dock icon at all.
       | 
       | iOS doesn't have the concept of "Utilities" within
       | "/Applications" like macOS does, but maybe it needs to in order
       | to address this class of app which has such a specific focus.
       | 
       | After 15 years, are we at a point where some of the early
       | affordances aren't neccessary anymore?
        
         | HeavyFeather wrote:
         | Do you really need to go back to your car, open your trunk, get
         | the wallet just to show your ID?
         | 
         | Passwords are my ID, sometimes I have to enter them onto
         | another computer or app or just share them with someone; I
         | shouldn't need to hunt my ID in the trunk of my car.
         | 
         | Keychain Access did this right decades ago, so there's some
         | logic behind it. The issue is that the app is not built for
         | this decade and its UI is lacking.
        
       | rohan_ wrote:
       | >(And it all syncs across your devices, for free?!)
       | 
       | IMO the worst part about apple keychain is they can't be used
       | with Chrome (the most common browser for mac!)
        
         | apike wrote:
         | I too find this frustrating, but I'm curious about the claim
         | that Chrome is the most common browser on Mac. I sometimes see
         | this claim, but I struggle to find any data to back it up.
         | 
         | The US government web analytics
         | (https://analytics.usa.gov/data/), which seems like a
         | reasonable source for general usage in the US, show Safari
         | substantially ahead of Chrome on Mac.
         | 
         | Have you seen any sources that show Chrome ahead of Safari on
         | Mac for a general audience?
        
         | fckgw wrote:
         | You can, Apple has an extension for iCloud Keychain.
         | 
         | https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/icloud-passwords/p...
        
           | rohan_ wrote:
           | Windows only
        
           | snowwrestler wrote:
           | > iCloud Passwords is a Chrome extension for Windows users...
        
         | sargun wrote:
         | I believe this is as much on the Chrome side as it is on the
         | Apple side:
         | https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=312105
         | 
         | Chrome could access those natively on Mac, or use the keychain
         | as the native backing store, from what I can tell.
        
       | cramjabsyn wrote:
       | I agree it could be more polished but there is an app called
       | Keychain Access that does give reasonable
       | access/search/management of icloud passwords
        
       | mattkevan wrote:
       | I've always used Keychain Access to view/manage passwords. If
       | they cleaned up the UI a bit it'd do pretty much exactly what
       | Cabel is talking about here.
        
       | teeeg wrote:
       | i would prefer icloud keychain allows an alternative password - i
       | refrain from adding some credentials to the keychain since my
       | passcode is easy to steal?
        
         | isleyaardvark wrote:
         | Reading other comments in this thread and I feel like I am
         | taking crazy pills. There was a big article that I thought a
         | lot of people had read and would realize having passwords saved
         | under an iCloud account is a recipe for disaster, since only a
         | phone passcode is necessary to gain full control of an iCloud
         | account.
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34984821
        
       | thiht wrote:
       | I'd never use a password manager built by Apple for the same
       | reason I don't use Chrome's password manager or Firefox's
       | password manager. All these passwords managers have strong
       | incentives for "working best on <platform>(tm)". I want a
       | password manager independent from any platform like Bitwarden or
       | 1Password, because it's actually valuable for THEM to target all
       | the platforms they can.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | HeavyFeather wrote:
         | The problem is that the integrated managers really do work best
         | on platform, i.e. alternatives aren't nearly as well-
         | integrated.
         | 
         | So here I am using Safari on my computer and phone.
        
         | sowbug wrote:
         | I don't understand. Chrome and Firefox don't have platforms.
         | Which means they run pretty much everywhere they're allowed to.
         | 
         | Apple is the only one of those three that restricts their
         | software to hardware that only they sell. So in that case I do
         | understand your position.
        
           | thiht wrote:
           | A browser is a platform. I have no easy way to use passwords
           | saved in Chrome in Safari for example.
           | 
           | It matters to me because I use Firefox and Chrome on my work
           | desktop, Safari and Firefox on my personal desktop, and
           | Safari on my phone. And I want the ability to switch browser
           | easily.
           | 
           | Same goes for Apple passwords, I still use Windows for some
           | games, and I want to access my passwords easily.
        
           | HeavyFeather wrote:
           | > they run pretty much everywhere they're allowed to.
           | 
           | Yep, they're allowed to run on Chrome, that's Google's
           | platform.
           | 
           | Good luck using your Chrome/Google passwords outside
           | Chrome/Google apps.
           | 
           | Firefox at least does (or used to) offer a Lockbox app to use
           | the password on your phone.
        
       | kernal wrote:
       | Setting up TOTP on an iPhone. I had no idea it could do this.
       | 
       | https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/iphone/ipha6173c19f/io...
        
       | abraxas wrote:
       | If Apple password manager is anywhere as well thought out as
       | their 2FA for Apple TV then I don't want to come next to it
       | within 10 light years.
       | 
       | Every time it asked me to either "confirm on your iPad" (I have 3
       | of those around the house) or "confirm on your iPhone" (I have 0
       | of those) I was ready to hurl shit. SMS option buried in some
       | dark pattern, of course.
       | 
       | If these companies want to encroach in the secrets management
       | space they really need to hire more qa and test more than a
       | single happy path. The number of failure modes in these systems
       | is astonishing for the billions of dollars these companies can
       | throw at the problem.
        
         | Tepix wrote:
         | I suggest you move to Ross 248, which is a mere 10.3 light-
         | years away. However, 32000 years from now it will be the
         | closest star to our sun at 3.024 light-years so keep that in
         | mind!
        
         | twobitshifter wrote:
         | I think there's a setting for that in setup. Is your problem
         | that Apple thinks you have a iPhone or that you have to
         | interact with the tv on a second device?
         | 
         | As with all things apple when you buy in you get the best
         | experience. That feature on AppleTV works really well with an
         | Apple Watch.
        
           | capableweb wrote:
           | Which really sucks and puts you off from getting more Apple
           | devices if you're a person who slowly buys into the ecosystem
           | rather than go all-in without testing things.
           | 
           | Personally, I was a fan of Apple laptops between something
           | like 2010 - 2015, but after that I just couldn't deal with it
           | anymore, as I had a Android phone and nothing else Apple.
           | 
           | Fast forward to 2019, Apple finally releases a phone that
           | fits in my tiny hands, so I get a iPhone 12 Mini, thinking
           | that the CarPlay experience will be loads better than Android
           | Auto on a measly Moto G.
           | 
           | But holy smokes if I wasn't wrong, CarPlay is a UX disaster
           | and I can't wait for the iPhone to break somehow or get too
           | slow because of OS upgrades, so I can justify buying a new
           | phone again.
           | 
           | Just the simple fact that a phone calls covers the entire
           | screen (which I use for GPS) seems like such a simple use
           | case that they somehow missed, that I just wanna bin the
           | entire system and I'll never buy Apple hardware for daily use
           | again.
           | 
           | I still have to use Apple laptops for software I release, but
           | every time, I'm reminded how great the UX used to be, but how
           | far they have fallen. Really sad to see. Windows is no better
           | either, each version gets worse and worse...
        
       | teabee89 wrote:
       | I will tell my family to use iCloud Keychain the day when it
       | works across all major browsers and OSes. Or at least that they
       | provide an API to sync with other password managers.
        
       | twobitshifter wrote:
       | Anyone know how to use Microsoft otp with another app?
        
       | galad87 wrote:
       | They already have an app, Keychain Access, but for weird reasons
       | they integrated the new features into System Setting instead of
       | expanding the existing app.
        
       | waboremo wrote:
       | Fully in agreement here, getting people used to Apple Passwords
       | can be a task purely because it's stuffed into settings.
       | 
       | Would like to see them in the process of transitioning it away
       | from settings, also include the ability to change the name of the
       | entries. Multiple URLs per login would be great too (or even a
       | linking of separate entries). Think these are the biggest things
       | keeping many general users still relying on the likes of
       | 1Password/Bitwarden, which is where I disagree with the writer
       | here, I think third party password tools should be replaced by
       | sane defaults as soon as possible outside of niche cases.
        
       | sholladay wrote:
       | I don't personally care much whether Passwords is in Settings or
       | a separate app. But I do have one problem with it. As far as I
       | can tell, you must save a password for a site in order to use the
       | TOTP 2FA feature. I don't want my device filling in passwords for
       | me because it defeats the purpose of a password being "something
       | I know". The 2FA code is more like "something I have" and I'm
       | okay with the device filling that in, but not the password.
       | 
       | There doesn't currently seem to be a way to set up only the 2FA
       | code for a site.
        
         | shortcake27 wrote:
         | The "something you know" is your devices
         | pincode/passcode/iCloud password, not the password to the
         | website. If you know the password to a website it means you're
         | reusing passwords or using a pattern to generate passwords,
         | both of which are less secure than randomly generated passwords
         | (especially the former).
         | 
         | Of course, nothing is stopping you from saving a bogus password
         | either.
        
           | sholladay wrote:
           | I don't buy it. Complex, random passwords are great against
           | brute force attacks but that's not usually how these things
           | play out.
           | 
           | Many password breaches are caused by technical lapses on the
           | part of a platform, where password complexity often becomes
           | irrelevant. Your password gets hovered up along with everyone
           | else's and eventually gets decrypted, and tried en masse
           | against other platforms. In this scenario, even a simple
           | pattern for passwords is probably enough to prevent the
           | problem from spreading, as long as it's not too obvious.
           | 
           | The other way passwords often get compromised is from someone
           | looking over your shoulder or key logging, infrared on PIN
           | pads, etc. In this scenario, your system is WAY, WAY worse,
           | since one password unlocks the kingdom, and that password is
           | frequently being used.
           | 
           | As it stands, if someone peeks over my shoulder and discovers
           | my phone password, then steals my phone, it's damaging but
           | not game over. They can't access any websites.
           | 
           | If I allow my phone password to be the only gatekeeper to
           | access everything, IMO that's lousy security.
        
       | muhammadusman wrote:
       | I resisted using 1Password for a long time but then once I got
       | into the 1P world, it was better than all the alternatives.
       | LastPass is unsafe, Dashlane has subpar experience, and all the
       | proprietary ones are missing tons of features.
       | 
       | Chrome, Firefox, Apple, I'm sure Windows too, have all their own
       | password managers and all of them are hard to use and expect you
       | to only have devices in their ecosystem.
       | 
       | 1Password is worth every penny for how well they've kept up with
       | updating their apps and their prevalence on all platforms. And
       | the 2FA integration is great too!
        
       | sabin1001 wrote:
       | [dead]
        
       | dbg31415 wrote:
       | Apple would put 0 effort into making the app work across
       | platforms and browsers and devices. They're not a good fit for
       | this space.
        
       | ajani wrote:
       | > Passwords are productivity, not preferences.
       | 
       | Surely passwords are security?
        
       | dwheeler wrote:
       | > And it all syncs across your devices, for free?!
       | 
       | Really? My Linux devices? Android? Windows? I don't think so.
       | 
       | I recommend considering one of the _most_ important features of a
       | password manager is that it doesn 't force you to use a single
       | manufacturer's products forever. Even if you swear undying fealty
       | to Apple (or anyone else) today, you might change your mind in
       | the future. 1Password, Bitwarden, and others allow me to switch
       | PC manufacturer, phone manufacturer, browser, and so on.
       | 
       | I can't tell you how many people used to think "Internet Explorer
       | is popular, it'll always be the one and only browser". That did
       | not end well.
        
         | sowbug wrote:
         | This is as good as comment as any to hang my off-topic thoughts
         | on...
         | 
         | I use Chrome's built-in password manager. I always set up
         | website security questions with gibberish answers. I wish
         | Chrome would give me a field to store those answers. Or, better
         | yet, treat them like password fields and autofill them.
        
         | klabb3 wrote:
         | This. Wouldn't matter if they had the best UX, and I have both
         | an iPhone and a MacBook. First, I want to be able to use my
         | Linux and Windows machines like they are first class citizens.
         | But more importantly, if I lose my devices I don't want to be
         | locked out.
         | 
         | Apple is, to this day, largely unable to recognize that there
         | is a world outside their beautiful dystopian garden. I'm sure
         | they're drooling about making the MacBooks run iOS so you can't
         | use any software that hasn't been scanned and approved. When
         | that day comes, I'm out for good.
        
         | geocar wrote:
         | > Even if you swear undying fealty to Apple (or anyone else)
         | today, you might change your mind in the future.
         | 
         | Changing my mind is easy enough: I can export my iCloud
         | passwords to a csv file, and I've done this to transfer a bunch
         | of passwords to Firefox Linux desktop.
         | 
         | I'll tell you something though: If Bitwarden leaked passwords
         | nothing would happen because America has very weak consumer
         | protections, but if Google or Apple leaked passwords, they'd be
         | hit in every EU member state for GDPR.
         | 
         | Some of these things are outside of my control, and using a
         | password manager is too useful that I think it's worth a little
         | risk, but I can't justify trusting any company unless they've
         | got some skin in the game, and Bitwarden specifically wants to
         | disclaim all liabilities? AgileBits thankfully is in Canada and
         | you can at least sue them for what you've paid them in six
         | months, but I personally have passwords more important than
         | that. Surely there's someone else you could recommend?
        
           | dwheeler wrote:
           | LastPass' entire business model was about protecting
           | passwords, and passwords still got leaked. Most prople want
           | security, not "ability to sue" which is not at all the same
           | thing.
        
             | geocar wrote:
             | I don't want something just because "most people" want that
             | thing.
             | 
             | And I disagree: I think everyone who has been harmed by
             | another wants the ability to have their story heard by a
             | judge and jury and be cured by the law. Maybe they would
             | prefer to not be hurt in the first place, but as you point
             | out with LastPass, they may not have that option.
             | 
             | What we _can_ choose is the jurisdiction in which we trade,
             | and I would recommend people spend less time navel-gazing
             | and more time thinking about what they can be doing to make
             | things better for themselves.
        
           | error503 wrote:
           | Self-host vaultwarden at the cloud provider of your choice?
        
             | tasuki wrote:
             | What is the point of this? Isn't it easier/simpler/better
             | to just sync a file with the passwords rather than keep a
             | server running?
        
       | monocularvision wrote:
       | Am I the only person on Earth that needs sharing of passwords
       | among my family? Any time folks bring up password solutions, they
       | are always missing this requirement for me.
       | 
       | 1Password is a life-saver in this regards. All my kids have their
       | own vaults but for the little ones I have them use a shared vault
       | between my wife and me so we have access to their passwords. I
       | can also easily share passwords for services like Netflix so the
       | kids don't have to bug me.
       | 
       | It has been great for teaching kids about password hygiene (what
       | makes for a good password) and management (don't reuse
       | passwords!).
       | 
       | And it being cross-platform is great for my older kids with
       | gaming PCs.
        
         | rodgerd wrote:
         | > Am I the only person on Earth that needs sharing of passwords
         | among my family?
         | 
         | No, and it's equally bizarre to me that I can't share selected
         | Contacts with my Family account. It would make keeping track
         | of, say, the details of my kids' friends' parents.
        
         | e40 wrote:
         | 1Password with son, wife, father and mother... life saver.
        
         | marcellus23 wrote:
         | > Am I the only person on Earth that needs sharing of passwords
         | among my family
         | 
         | No, and the article specifically discusses that use case and
         | the fact that iCloud keychain doesn't support it.
        
         | ellisv wrote:
         | I agree that is one of the big issues with keychain. You _can_
         | share keychain items with people but it is awkward.
        
           | jtbayly wrote:
           | Are you referring to Airdrop password and passkey sharing?[1]
           | That's the only way I can find other than manual copy/paste.
           | 
           | Also, I very much doubt if I later change the password I
           | shared via Airdrop that it will update on the other person's
           | device... which is half the point.
           | 
           | [1]: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/share-passkeys-
           | passwo...
        
             | ngai_aku wrote:
             | Yeah, that's how I share with my wife. I don't anticipate
             | that it would stay in sync if I updated it, but I can't say
             | that I've tried. Do you regularly rotate passwords?
        
               | jtbayly wrote:
               | No, but it does happen that passwords get updated, and
               | the beauty of 1P is that you just save it, and then
               | whoever has it gets the updated one. I share passwords
               | with as many as 4 people, so it's practically impossible
               | to keep everybody in sync manually.
        
         | probablynish wrote:
         | Bitwarden lets you do this with an 'Organization'. Free to
         | share things between two accounts, looks like $40/yr to share
         | between up to 6 users.
        
           | Jnr wrote:
           | Free if hosting Vaultwarden yourself.
        
         | prepend wrote:
         | That's interesting. I don't share any passwords with family and
         | have taught my kids to share passwords with no one (written in
         | a sealed envelope as backup).
         | 
         | I don't like shared passwords although if I really had to, I
         | would just enter it once and let iCloud save it to their
         | account. Stinks if I have to change the password, but I almost
         | never change passwords.
        
           | MobileVet wrote:
           | I definitely appreciate the 'security forward' approach...
           | but what about end of life planning or general 'dad's in a
           | comma and XYZ needs to happen'?
           | 
           | 1Password with a 'parents vault' that my wife and I share has
           | been a life changer for coordinating family access to
           | important accounts AND ensuring solid passwords are being
           | used.
        
             | AdamN wrote:
             | My iCloud is set up for end of life (Legacy I think they
             | call it?). The recipients would then get iCloud passwords
             | and my 1Password vault.
        
               | theshrike79 wrote:
               | Coma is not "end of life". So your family must either
               | euthanise you or wait for you to wake up to access the
               | passwords?
        
             | crimsontech wrote:
             | I don't share passwords with family, they all know good
             | password hygiene though and use generated passwords for all
             | their services. For end-of-life scenario apple does have
             | digital legacy https://digital-legacy.apple.com/
        
               | foogazi wrote:
               | What about Netflix or Hulu ?
        
               | TheNewsIsHere wrote:
               | Speaking as someone who has lost six family members and
               | managed four of those estates since 2019, these digital
               | legacy features are generally incomplete or developed
               | with little view toward reality. Edit: they're often also
               | not setup by the user or if they are, they're not
               | reliably updated.
               | 
               | Apple's implementation, for example, starts a timer that
               | will eventually nuke the account, and it doesn't provide
               | access to end-to-end encrypted data. That data
               | specifically includes iCloud Keychain, which many people
               | use to store their credentials.
               | 
               | I understand the privacy reasons for that, but when we
               | die we are leaving behind increasingly large or
               | complicated estates of accounts, services, apps, and
               | devices with various and sometimes unpredictable
               | safeguards. Having a loved ones actual credentials has
               | been invaluable every time I've managed an estate.
               | 
               | I absolutely understand what you're saying and I don't
               | necessarily disagree with it. But break glass access to
               | credentials has proven important in my experience.
               | Especially where continuity of that access is relied upon
               | by others.
        
         | Saris wrote:
         | I've been using bitwarden for that, the vaultwarden server is
         | selfhosted which is what I do, or you can buy their fairly
         | cheap premium version.
        
           | JenrHywy wrote:
           | Same. Bitwarden (with self-hosted vaultwarden) so far seems
           | to be a great solution. I had ben using `pass` for many
           | years, but the lack of sharing functionality is what finally
           | got me looking at other options.
        
         | whalesalad wrote:
         | A 1pass team w/ my wife was a huge level-up.
        
           | MobileVet wrote:
           | Our company utilizes 1Password, which means all of our
           | employees have family accounts. As you said, it is SUCH a
           | huge game changer for my wife and me. Honestly don't know how
           | / why I didn't pursue such a solution before hand. It was
           | always 'let me send you a one time password' or 'I can export
           | that key'. What a mess.
           | 
           | Shared vault FTW!
        
           | elbigbad wrote:
           | Same, anytime the family creates a new account that everyone
           | else should have access to (utilities, streaming services,
           | bank information, pass codes, etc) we just create it in the
           | shared vault. It's a game changer.
        
             | dhc02 wrote:
             | Yep, same here. Honestly can't imagine living without it.
             | [Wrings hands as he thinks about 1password's venture
             | funding]
        
         | willhackett wrote:
         | Not at all. Bring on the shared family iCloud Note. lol
        
           | unilynx wrote:
           | You can share folders in Notes
        
             | Jolter wrote:
             | Yes, I think the joke is that they don't make a very secure
             | "vault" for sharing passwords.
        
         | Hamuko wrote:
         | > _Am I the only person on Earth that needs sharing of
         | passwords among my family?_
         | 
         | I needed to share my Netflix password back in the day. My
         | random alphanumerical 32-character password with special
         | characters drove my family up the wall though. But in general,
         | passwords are for personal use only.
        
       | vbezhenar wrote:
       | I tried to use Apple passwords.
       | 
       | 1. It really hates storing anything but website passwords. I have
       | servers with ssh login/passwords. I have bank cards with cvv and
       | pins. I have phones with pins. WiFi passwords. And other things
       | not fitting to website/username/password.
       | 
       | 2. Not enough fields. I'm ascetic when it comes to storing
       | passwords, but it doesn't even have "notes" field.
       | 
       | So experience is subpar. It's possible to emulate some things,
       | but in the end I decided to go with StrongBox. It's not ideal, I
       | don't like UI, but it has all the functions I need. I also like
       | KeePassium, but it's missing sync and mac app.
       | 
       | I know that Apple KeyChain has secure notes, but those are not
       | accessible on iPhone, AFAIK.
        
         | kstrauser wrote:
         | It does have a notes field now. I'm not sure when that was
         | added.
        
       | cmnt wrote:
       | It's incredible how Apple make it's users happy to lock-in in
       | their eco-system. I don't really know Apple eco-system but it
       | seems weird to migrate from tierce app (already well integrated)
       | like Bitwarden to keychain. I've lost count of the people who
       | have switched from their Music App to Apple Music for no reason
       | other than "it's Apple". Apple make good hardware and their eco-
       | system seem amazing too, but people should see the advantages to
       | be not entirely depedent from a company.
        
         | deergomoo wrote:
         | > but people should see the advantages to be not entirely
         | depedent from a company
         | 
         | I think you're overestimating how much the average person
         | thinks or cares about their computing platforms. They want
         | something that works and gets out of the way, and to that end
         | having everything come from one company is a feature, not a
         | bug.
         | 
         | I mean I consider myself a power user and I still use iCloud
         | Keychain purely because I was already using Safari when it
         | launched, so it already had all my passwords. I recognise the
         | advantages of third-party offerings, but to me they're not
         | enough to bother moving all my stuff over.
         | 
         | Similarly I still use a third-party 2FA app because I was using
         | it before Apple added it into iCloud Keychain (and also because
         | the third-party app has an Apple Watch app and I've grown
         | accustomed to reading the codes off my wrist).
        
       | defulmere wrote:
       | Every time I see a question like "Why doesn't Apple build $THIS?"
       | I assume the answer is "because they'll make more money selling
       | 3rd-party $THIS in the app store".
        
         | culturestate wrote:
         | _> I assume the answer is  "because they'll make more money
         | selling 3rd-party $THIS in the app store"_
         | 
         | Apple has a long and storied history of doing almost exactly
         | the opposite - any sufficiently popular third-party utility
         | either gets bought and integrated (eg Workflow, Dark Sky) or
         | Sherlocked (eg f.lux, Watson).
         | 
         | Apple takes a _very_ long-term view of revenue generation, and
         | the App Store commissions from $random_app are _way_ less
         | valuable to Apple than the LTV of a customer who's locked into
         | buying Macs and iPads because of Apple's proprietary version of
         | $random_app.
        
       | willhackett wrote:
       | I'm all for this, a better cross-platform Keychain app would be
       | awesome.
       | 
       | To get my Credit Card details, I need to go Settings > Safari >
       | AutoFill > Saved Credit Cards.
       | 
       | To get 2FA / Password details, I need to go Settings > Passwords.
       | 
       | In a lot of cases, they auto-fill without issue. But to manage
       | these is a bit of a flimsy process.
        
       | elsurudo wrote:
       | I use Keychain Access app, but admittedly the UX there is
       | terrible. I wish it was nicer, and also integrated with browsers
       | other than Safari.
        
       | tacker2000 wrote:
       | The worst thing is when I register a new password to a website on
       | my Mac on Firefox and then want to login to the site on my
       | iPhone. I literally have to type the (complicated) password again
       | so that it gets saved in Keychain.
       | 
       | Why wont Keychain allow Firefox sync? This seems like an
       | extremely common use case.
        
       | richardw wrote:
       | You should see the horror that is changing your country and phone
       | number. I spent weeks hunting around the phone to stop weird
       | things from happening. You would think Apple were smart enough to
       | say "it looks like you've changed details. Can I update the
       | plethora of places I use your number?"
        
       | r0m4n0 wrote:
       | I think a few problems imho:
       | 
       | 1)they don't do cross platform software well so they would never
       | make a windows app, chrome extension, android integration etc.
       | It's either all or nothing which I would never buy into (even as
       | an iPhone and mbp user)
       | 
       | 2) there are actually a ton of use cases here that make the
       | software actually very complex and high stakes. I'd wager the
       | pros don't outweigh the cons. Also apple isn't known for complex
       | software with niche use cases. Honestly their current
       | safari/iphone password manager is trash
       | 
       | They do a few things well and rely on lock-in and ecosystem
        
       | sylens wrote:
       | Even if macOS and iOS are my primary work (and personal)
       | platforms these days, I still like a solution that works great on
       | Windows, Linux, and Android as well.
       | 
       | I'm pretty happy with 1Password - it does all of the things
       | mentioned in this article with more platform support
        
         | ehsankia wrote:
         | Exactly, this is why many of the Apple services are useless
         | unless you are 110% in their ecosystem. At least Apple Music is
         | the _one_ app they somehow made available on Android and
         | Windows.
        
           | cglong wrote:
           | Apple Music started its life as Beats IIRC, so a good cross-
           | plat UX was part of the acquisition. See also Shazam.
        
           | mmmmmbop wrote:
           | There's a feature on the AirPods that allows you to enroll
           | them in your iCloud account enabling Find My.
           | 
           | All you need to do is connect the AirPods to an iCloud-
           | enrolled Apple device, and it will automatically connect to
           | that iCloud account.
           | 
           | Oh, but it's not any iCloud-enrolled device, it must be an
           | iOS device. Connecting them to my MacBook didn't do anything.
           | 
           | I went into the Apple Store to ask for a solution to that
           | problem. They legitimately asked me why I'm buying AirPods if
           | I don't have an iPhone -- they're called _Air_ Pods after
           | all... Anyway, their proposed solution was for me to buy a
           | refurbished iPad for $450 to connect the AirPods to my
           | iCloud.
        
         | lfciv wrote:
         | I find 1Password to be sort of a pain when signing up for new
         | accounts on my iphone - the generate secure password & autofill
         | doesn't always work for me - on the web it's great though
        
         | Hamuko wrote:
         | I considered 1Password when shopping around for a new password
         | manager, but the pricing of the subscription and the fact that
         | it was an Electron app killed it for me.
         | 
         | Currently test-driving a smaller alternative with a one-time
         | payment.
        
           | kitsunesoba wrote:
           | My passwords are split between iCloud on my Apple stuff and
           | 1Password doing cross-platform duty.
           | 
           | I've been paying for 1Password for a while, but boy that
           | electron app they rolled out with v8 is a clunker... will
           | probably keep paying so long as 1Password 7 works but after
           | that I'm gonna have to figure something else out.
        
       | AnonC wrote:
       | Perhaps this is one of the "user requested features" Apple is
       | going to implement in iOS 17 and its cousins? As per a recent and
       | vague rumor, Apple is going to add more user requested features
       | and is adding them late in the development cycle. [1]
       | 
       | It would be great to have a nice UI for managing passwords, 2FA
       | codes, etc. Add password sharing over iCloud and it could be a
       | game changer!
       | 
       | [1]: https://www.macrumors.com/2023/03/26/ios-17-to-provide-
       | sever...
        
       | Schiendelman wrote:
       | I think the reason Apple hasn't prioritized this is that with
       | their login with Apple implementations and passkeys, the utility
       | of copying/pasting or looking up a password is dropping over
       | time.
        
       | aeharding wrote:
       | You can make an iOS shortcut to make it appear as an "app"
       | (launches keychain manager). I did this for some elderly folk,
       | works great.
        
       | hot_gril wrote:
       | I've been using Keychain since 2003. Only now am I aware that it
       | does TOTP. I've been avoiding TOTP like the plague this whole
       | time because I don't trust the other apps not to somehow get me
       | locked out.
        
         | hot_gril wrote:
         | (Especially Google Authenticator, especially the original
         | version where they said it's WAI that you can't transfer codes
         | across phones. Keep that nerd stuff away from me.)
        
       | ElijahLynn wrote:
       | One problem with that is if a person has a non-Apple product,
       | Apple won't build the app cross-platform, so they are even
       | further locked into Apple hardware then.
       | 
       | Might not affect that many people. But it would surely limit
       | choice for those who don't even know about the lock-in later in
       | their lives.
        
         | m000 wrote:
         | Any attempted lock-in is guaranteed to attract attention of EU
         | regulators.
         | 
         | This is what Apple probably wants to avoid. They won't be
         | allowed to play a "Safari" this time (i.e. all password
         | managers are allowed, as long as they are a frontend to our own
         | password manager).
         | 
         | Also, having the password manager as a separate app, it is
         | likely they will be asked to provide a standalone password
         | migration API for third party password managers. This would
         | make switching to another ecosystem trivial for moms & pops,
         | who currently need to deal with CSV import & export* if they
         | want to move their passwords out of iCloud.
         | 
         | * Not sure what the situation is ATM, but a few years back
         | exporting passwords from iCloud was not directly supported. I
         | had to run a third-party AppleScript script to generate a CSV
         | to import in another password manager.
        
       | pantojax45 wrote:
       | I wish you could add a second password or different passcode on
       | top of iCloud Keychain / apple passwords.
       | 
       | I get nervous at how easy it is to compromise all passwords:
       | 
       | 1. Give someone your phone passcode, they can change apple
       | account password. P0wned
       | 
       | 2. Have iCloud Keychain on laptop... other user account resets
       | password on account. (Or use it on work computer without
       | realizing)
       | 
       | 3.
        
         | nytesky wrote:
         | Turn on screentime and prevent account changes with a 2nd PIN
         | 
         | Might also limit password changes but unsure.
        
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       (page generated 2023-03-28 23:01 UTC)