Dive Brief:

• Apple introduced a Passwords app Monday that extends the company’s credential management offering to a standalone app across its operating systems. 
• The app, which was made available Monday as a developer beta in updated versions of macOS, iOS, iPadOS and visionOS, will synchronize login credentials, passwords, verification codes and passkeys with end-to-end encryption in iCloud across users’ devices. Apple is also making Passwords available on Windows devices via the iCloud for Windows app. 
• “For over 25 years we’ve been adding features to make logging into your accounts easier,” Craig Federighi, SVP of software engineering at Apple, said Monday during the keynote for the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference. “Passwords makes it easy to access your credentials and have them securely stored all in one place.”

Dive Insight:

Passwords puts Apple’s password-management system on stronger, platform-level footing and increases pressure on third-party password managers such as 1Password, LastPass, and Bitwarden.

Password managers are heavily targeted by cybercriminals and multiple vendors have been compromised to varying levels.

A cyberattack on LastPass evolved into one of the most high-profile security blunders of 2022 when an attacker stole a cloud-based backup of all customer vault data, including encrypted passwords. In late 2023, 1Password was impacted by a cyberattack against Okta’s support system, but concluded no user data was accessed.

Keychain, Apple’s password-management system first released in 1999, is currently buried under a menu in settings. With Passwords, the functionality moves to a more readily available and visible repository on Apple devices.

The app organizes passwords by credential type or the mode of authentication, and alerts users to common weaknesses, including easily guessed passwords, reused passwords or credentials that appear in known data leaks.

The reorganization effort could increase Apple users’ exposure to and use of its native password management tools. Third-party password managers are especially vulnerable to increased competition from Apple.

LastPass CEO Karim Toubba reacted to Passwords as a counter move against device and platform agnostic third-party offerings.

“At LastPass, we believe independence matters. Independence means that people have the freedom to access whatever application or website they want through any mobile device, any OS and any browser,” Toubba said. “Tying people down to one vendor’s operating system limits their options and the freedom to choose how they live their digital lives.”

Passwords will be broadly available to Apple’s massive customer base when iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS 15 are released in the fall.