Credentials for Linux (FOSDEM 2026)
1st February 2026
Bringing Passkeys to the Linux desktop
Talk at FOSDEM 2026 in Brussels, Belgium.
Abstract
Passkeys are now first-class citizens on Windows, macOS, Android and iOS - but the Linux desktop still has no standard FIDO2 platform APIs for browsers and native apps.
This talk presents Credentials for Linux (github.com/linux-credentials), a cross-desktop effort to bring Passkeys and other credentials to Linux in a way that works for sandboxed apps and browsers alike.
We’ll cover:
Very short refresher on passkeys & platform authenticators : Why WebAuthn/FIDO2 passkeys matter, what platform authenticators are, and how this is solved on Windows Hello, Android and Apple platforms today, and the current state on Linux.
: Why WebAuthn/FIDO2 passkeys matter, what platform authenticators are, and how this is solved on Windows Hello, Android and Apple platforms today, and the current state on Linux. Architecture of Credentials for Linux libwebauthn : a Rust FIDO2/U2F platform library with support for USB, BLE and Hybrid authenticators (ie. Android & iOS smartphones), designed with pluggable transports and passkey features such as resident keys and user verification. credentialsd : a D-Bus service and proposed XDG portal for credential management, including a reference UI, Firefox integration (web extension + patched Flatpak build) and distro packages via OBS (Fedora/openSUSE).
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