Firefox Nightly now offers FIDO U2F security key support, thanks to a helping hand from Yubico.
It’s the first big step toward U2F key support on the Firefox browser proper. Firefox Nightly is essentially a testing ground, compiling code from Mozilla developers on a daily basis for testing on the following day. Over time, code is refined in this testing ground enough that it makes its way into the official Firefox browser, which claims the second largest user base after Google Chrome.
In a post announcing the integration on its blog, Yubico notes that after the GitHub developer platform first announced U2F support in 2015, “the open source community voted U2F as the most wanted feature in Firefox.” It should thus prove popular among Firefox Nightly users, who will be able to use Yubico’s YubiKey USB devices to add a ‘Something You Have’ element to compatible authentication processes.
And given that Google has already enthusiastically supported second-factor authentication in Chrome and other Google services, when U2F support arrives in Firefox, it will help to ensure that a wide swath of internet users have access to this increasingly important security technology.
Sources: Yubico Blog, Mozilla Wiki
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