“FIDO’s U2F specification is proving increasingly popular in digital authentication services…”

The FIDO Alliance has announced a “Proposed Standard” for version 1.2 of its U2F specifications.

In a statement announcing the update, FIDO Senior Certification Engineer Yuriy Ackermann said new support for ‘silent authentication’ is “the highlight feature of this update.” Ackermann also highlighted support for metadata statements allowing service providers to restrict what kind of authenticators can be accepted; and the ‘X.509 Transport Extension’, which “gives service providers a better picture of the types of authenticators the user has”.

FIDO’s U2F specification is proving increasingly popular in digital authentication services, with Keeper Security having recently incorporated it into its password manager app, and major brands like Facebook and Google having also embraced the standard.

FIDO says the new standard also includes improvements to the U2F specification’s JavaScript and MessagePort APIs, as well as small bug fixes.