Discord strengthens its security with control systems and WebAuthn technology , offering advanced protective features.
Discord is expanding security for all users of the platform by providing security key multi-factor authentication (MFA) and WebAuthn technology . With this development, Discord’s more than 500 million users benefit from significant security and anti- phishing measures .
The social platform first promoted the benefits of using security keys with WebAuthn in August 2023, making additional protective features available to its employees. Now, users can replace the older MFA system, which relies on one-time codes and SMS, with the advanced WebAuthn.
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Discord users can now go to Settings > My Account > Security Key Enrollment and use WebAuthn to configure Windows Hello, Apple’s Face ID or Touch ID, and hardware security keys for authentication. This new feature strengthens protection against credential theft, as it requires the presence of a physical device to access your Discord account.
WebAuthn represents a web standard for secure, passwordless authentication, developed by the W3C and the FIDO Alliance.
This feature allows users to log in to online accounts using biometrics, mobile devices, and physical security keys. This is more secure than conventional passwords and is also resistant to phishing threats.
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Discord's post highlights three key benefits of integrating the WebAuthn API:
- Phishing detection: Only the discord.com website can request authentication via WebAuthn, preventing access to keys by malicious users.
- Resilience to replay attacks: The WebAuthn response changes every time someone connects, preventing replay attacks.
- Ease of Use: With seamless integration with Windows Hello, Apple Face ID , and Touch ID, securely logging into your Discord account becomes more convenient and faster.
Although WebAuthn is supported in all major web browsers, integrating it into Discord's electron client and apps was initially a bit complicated. On mobile, Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android were used to develop the implementation in native languages.
Information source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com
