Stylized illustration of a public key handshake between a browser and a relying party server.

Inside WebAuthn: How Passkeys Really Work Under the Hood

WebAuthn replaces shared secrets with public key cryptography bound to a device. This post walks through the registration and authentication ceremonies, the role of authenticators and the client, and why passkeys are phishing-resistant by construction.

September 3, 2026 · 11 min · 2327 words · martinuke0
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