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What if there is something 100% secure than passwords but doesn’t have too much weight on the configuration and still a phishing resistant authentication method? Passkeys are your answer. Passkeys are not new as you have seen it’s been used pretty much everywhere these days. Why Passkeys is the Future of Passwordless Authentication?How Passkeys Satisfy MFA?Passkey Key Pair – WebAuthn Protocol in ActionWhen the Passkey is in a Different DevicePlug-in passkeysPasskeys in Authenticator AppsTypes of PasskeysDevice Bound PasskeysDevice Bound Passkey UsageSynced PasskeysConfiguration Time!Configuring Passkeys in EntraCreating a Synced Passkeys policyGetting the End Users to Register for a PasskeyCreating an Authentication Strength in EntraDesigning Your CA PolicyFIDO2 Coverage for Entra KerberosWhat's coming soon? Mid-March 2026 Microsoft Entra is fully supporting Passkeys. Both Device Bound and Synced passkeys are in GA and this article is basically going through every aspect of passkeys when it comes to Entra. Why Passkeys is the Future of Passwordless Authentication? Simply put, passkeys are phishing-resistant.
Attackers can no longer trick users into authenticating on fake websites because passkeys are bound to the legitimate service provider’s domain. Additionally, passkeys cannot be reused or stolen. Authentication requires the private key stored securely on the user’s device, making it impossible for attackers to replay or misuse credentials.
How Passkeys Satisfy MFA? Passkeys typically satisfy the Multi Factor Authentication even it sounds like a single authentication method. Something you have – the device storing the private key (your phone, laptop, etc.) Something you know or are – the PIN/password or biometric (fingerprint, Face ID) that unlocks it Passkey Key Pair – WebAuthn Protocol in Action Understanding passkey security is important. When the user registers the passkey for their account, a key pair will be created. The Private key will be securely stored in the device if the passkey is device bound and the public key will be located in the user account in Entra ID. But in a Synced Passkey situation, the private key will be encrypted and will be saved in the service that supports synced passkeys. This is the basic of the WebAuthn (Web Authentication) open standard.
User tries to login to a M365 resource using the passkey Entra sends a challenge – a fresh random nonce (a value used only once), along with the Relying Party ID (login.microsoftonline.com) The browser/client passes it to the authenticator this is the device’s TPM/ Secure Enclave, FIDO2 key or the Authenticator App via the WebAuthn API. User verification happens locally – The user provides biometric or PIN, which unlocks the private key on the device or scans the QR code from the phone which then verifies that with the Authenticator app. Upon successful step 4 verification, the device signs the challenge, specifically it signs the authenticator data + a hash of the client data (which includes the nonce, the origin, and the Relying Party ID) The signed response is sent back to Entra. This includes: The credential ID – so Entra knows which public key to look up The authenticator data – flags confirming user presence and verification The signature – produced by the private key Entra looks up the public key – using the credential ID, it finds the matching public key on the user’s account Entra verifies the signature, it checks the signature against the public key. If it matches, the challenge was signed by the correct private key Token issued, Entra is satisfied the user is who they claim to be and issues an access token.