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User verification serves to ensure that the person using the FIDO2 security key is in fact who they say they are. In other words, User verification ensures that the person is the true owner of the device. In comparison to user authentication that is carried out remotely by an MFA server or service, user verification is carried out locally by the security device itself and/or by a local client application. 

User verification can take various forms, such as PIN, fingerprint etc. 

There are 3 options for user verification

Note that:

• When User Verification

 is

•  is set

to 

• to No Required, this doesn’t mean that User Verification is never performed. For instance, when registering a FIDO2 security key that has PIN set, user verification might be required depending on the application. 

• When User Verification

 is

•  is Preferred, the user experience depends on whether or not a PIN is set or a fingerprint is enrolled on the user’s security key. To achieve a uniform user experience, explicitly set User Verification

 to either 

•  to either Not Required

 or

•  or Required

 according

•  according to your specific use case.

• When User Verification

 is required

•  is Required, keep in mind that registration or authentication will fail in the following cases:

  1. the user has not set a PIN or enrolled a fingerprint on his or her security key. Some browsers will ask the user to set a PIN or enroll a fingerprint during registration, but others don’t.  So, the behaviour cannot in general be relied on.

  2. the user is using a security key that does not support user verification (for instance, a U2F key)

  3. the user is using a browser that does not support user verification (for instance, browsers that implement CTAP1 only)

...