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Naming convention

Since Bitwarden will both store passkeys in users' vaults and support login with passkeys, it is important to understand how to refer to these two different concepts in code, regardless of how they are referred to in the marketplace, especially since the term "passkey" is one that is evolving over time.

The current convention is:

  • When working with Provider code (i.e storing a credential in the vault), use Fido2.
    • Example: Fido2Credential, Fido2Client.
  • When working with Relying Party code (i.e. authenticating to Bitwarden with a passkey), use WebAuthn.
    • Example: WebAuthnLogin for passkey login, WebAuthn for the older 2FA log in.
  • Use the term Credential (and not Passkey) when referring to a FIDO2 Credential in code.

FIDO2 vs WebAuthn​

This naming scheme is not based on any hard rules defined in the specifications, but rather on which parts of FIDO2 are used to build the Provider and Relying Party code.

Historically, the Provider code was built on both the WebAuthn and CTAP2 specifications and so Fido2 was used to refer to it. Today, the Provider code is almost exclusively based on the WebAuthn specification. However, if Bitwarden chooses to support any authenticator extensions in the future (e.g. hmac-secret), they will likely be defined in the CTAP2 specification.

In contrast, the Relying Party code is built exclusively on the WebAuthn specification and does not need to refer to CTAP2 at all, which is why the term WebAuthn was chosen. The older 2FA implementation is also based on the WebAuthn specification, but it is not a "login method" and so it is not referred to as WebAuthnLogin.

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The implementation of 2FA login will eventually be consolidated with the newer passkey login implementation under the WebAuthn namespace.