Building a better login

with the credential management API

James Allardice

Evolution of login

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Username/password forms

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Stored credentials

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Autofill

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You can sync passwords across devices.

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Federated identity providers

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The Credential Management API

  • Spec work started early 2015 [1]
  • Championed by Mike West at Google [2]
  • Provides 2 key mechanisms
    • Help the user authenticate by providing access to credentials
    • Help the browser store credentials provided by the user

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Assertion about an entity which enables a trust decision

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Browser support

autocomplete

autocomplete="username"
autocomplete="current-password"
autocomplete="new-password"
Content-Type / Accept
res.format({
  html: () => { /* ... */ },
  json: () => { /* ... */ },
});
fetch
fetch('/', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    Accept: 'application/json',
  },
  credentials: 'include',
  body: formData,
})
.then((response) => response.json())
.then((json) => { /* ... */ });
navigator.credentials

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const credential = new PasswordCredential(form);

navigator.credentials.store(credentials)
.then(() => { /* ... */ });

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PasswordCredential

  // Ask the browser for the stored password credential.
  navigator.credentials.get({
    password: true,
  })
  .then((credentials) => {
    // Make request.
  });

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  // Prevent automatic logins for the rest of the session.
  navigator.credentials.preventSilentAccess();

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  • Federated credentials?
  • Offline support?
  • Multi-factor authentication?
  • Security concerns?

What next?

Thank you!

@james_allardice #websc

Building a better login (WebSC 2017)

By James Allardice

Building a better login (WebSC 2017)

  • 1,102