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Reittinger, Tobias ; Pernul, Günther

No Password, No Problem? A Large-Scale Field Study of Passkey Adoption and Usage

Konferenz- oder Workshop-Beitrag

Reittinger, Tobias und Pernul, Günther (2026) No Password, No Problem? A Large-Scale Field Study of Passkey Adoption and Usage. In: 47th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy 2026 (SP), May 18-21, 2026, San Francisco, CA.

DOI zum Zitieren dieses Dokuments: 10.5283/epub.81140


Zusammenfassung

Passkeys were introduced to mitigate passwordrelated security risks. However, passwords remain prevalent, and the usability of synchronization, one of the core benefits of passkeys, has not yet been studied. To address this gap, we conducted a large-scale field study examining passkey adoption and usage by partnering with an industrial healthcare service. In Phase 1(n=5,057), users chose between ...

Passkeys were introduced to mitigate passwordrelated security risks. However, passwords remain prevalent, and the usability of synchronization, one of the core benefits of passkeys, has not yet been studied. To address this gap, we conducted a large-scale field study examining passkey adoption and usage by partnering with an industrial healthcare service. In Phase 1(n=5,057), users chose between a passkey and a password with 2FA during registration. We reveal that (especially inexperienced) users struggle with passkey adoption but still perceive passkeys to offer superior usability and acceptance. Our survey results identified novel reasons why users decline passkeys, notably the habit of using passwords and lack of passkey experience, and pinpointed adoption barriers, including new misconceptions and manual passkey activation. In Phase 2(n=2,716), we monitored authentication behavior over six months and captured immediate feedback through surveys. We found that passkey usability and acceptance continued to increase, and success rates surpassed the declining metrics of passwords. Still, we uncovered new issues with crossplatform synchronization, passkey sharing, and interactions with password managers. Finally, we provide recommendations to streamline the adoption and usability of passkeys.



Beteiligte Einrichtungen


Details

DokumentenartKonferenz- oder Workshop-Beitrag (Paper)
ISBN979-8-3315-6065-2, 979-8-3315-6066-9
Buchtitel2026 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP)
SeitenbereichS. 3607-3626
Datum2026
Veröffentlichungsdatum10 Nov 2026 05:35
InstitutionenWirtschaftswissenschaften > Institut für Wirtschaftsinformatik > Lehrstuhl für Wirtschaftsinformatik I - Informationssysteme (Prof. Dr. Günther Pernul)
Informatik und Data Science > Fachbereich Wirtschaftsinformatik > Lehrstuhl für Wirtschaftsinformatik I - Informationssysteme (Prof. Dr. Günther Pernul)
Identifikationsnummer
WertTyp
10.1109/SP63933.2026.00022DOI
Stichwörter / KeywordsAuthentication; Passwords; Security; Synchronization; Printing; Matrices; Usability; Surveys; Conferences; Uniform resource locators; authentication; passkey; password; fido2; security; user study; field study; accounts; usability
Dewey-Dezimal-Klassifikation000 Informatik, Informationswissenschaft, allgemeine Werke > 004 Informatik
StatusVeröffentlicht
BegutachtetJa, diese Version wurde begutachtet
An der Universität Regensburg entstandenJa
URN der UB Regensburgurn:nbn:de:bvb:355-epub-811404
Dokumenten-ID81140

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