Disabling keychain doesn't let me use Face ID with the Southwest Airlines app

ajahn

I've never been able to get Face ID working with my Southwest app on my iPhone. I reached out to a friend at SWA and was told the following:

Our app stores your username and password in the keychain which is encrypted and can only be unlocked using your biometric authentication. That's the only way we were allowed (at the time) to support biometric auth.

I recently disabled the keychain for autofill on my phone so as not to conflict with 1Password when auto-filling passwords. I'm wondering if that is why the app isn't allowing me to use Face ID. This is what my configuration looks like on my phone.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

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Dave_1P

Hello @ajahn! 👋

Are you trying to use Face ID to unlock the SunLife app itself? Or are you trying to use Face ID to unlock 1Password when filling your username and password into the SunLife app?

If it's the latter issue then are you able to unlock the main 1Password app itself using Face ID? I look forward to hearing from you.

-Dave

ajahn

Hi @Dave_1P. Yes, I'm trying to unlock the "Southwest Airlines" app (SunLife?). I already use Face ID to unlock 1Password on my phone. 1P will fill in the username/password in the SWA app like it should but, I would like to just use Face ID to unlock the app (without using 1P), if that makes sense. I think un-checking keychain (see screenshot in original post), is preventing the app from using Face ID. Do I need to check the keychain items in my settings? When I do that, it interfires with 1P for filling in username/passwords.

Dave_1P

@ajahn

For help with using Face ID to open the Southwest Airlines app I would suggest reaching out to Southwest Airlines support. That sort of issue is generally beyond the scope of the 1Password community. 🙂

That being said I'll help as far as possible. Have you stored your login for Southwest Airlines in 1Password? Is the experience different when using Password AutoFill and Face ID to fill your username and password into the Southwest Airlines app from 1Password than using Keychain? What does it look like when you open Southwest Airlines using Face ID when Keychain is enabled?

I look forward to hearing from you.

-Dave

ajahn

I actually work for Southwest Airlines. I contacted a co-worker that works in that area. He is the one that told me the username/password is stored in the keychain. I realize this is really not a 1P problem, but what I'm trying to figure out is how I can continue to use the keychain to get the Face ID to work, but not conflict with 1P, if that makes sense.

To answer your other questions: Yes, the login info is stored in 1P. I actually use it to log in to the app. But I would prefer to log in using Face ID, so I don't have to click on Passwords (below), which of course uses Face ID to open 1P, then fill in the username and password. I have not been able to get Face ID to work even when the keychain option is checked.

I assume that even if I un-check the "iCloud Passwords & keychain" in the "ALLOW FILLING FORM" section, the keychain is still working on the iPhone, but NOT when filling out a form. Is that right? Also, I also assume that the "iCloud Passwords & keychain" in the "SET UP VERIFICATION CODES CODES USING" section, is only for verification codes, and I should be able to check that without any 1P conflicts since I'm not using verification codes at the moment.

Thanks for trying to help me with this.

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Dave_1P

@ajahn

Thank you for the reply.

I assume that even if I un-check the "iCloud Passwords & keychain" in the "ALLOW FILLING FORM" section, the keychain is still working on the iPhone, but NOT when filling out a form. Is that right? Also, I also assume that the "iCloud Passwords & keychain" in the "SET UP VERIFICATION CODES CODES USING" section, is only for verification codes, and I should be able to check that without any 1P conflicts since I'm not using verification codes at the moment.

The options that you've mentioned have to do with Password AutoFill, the Apple technology that allows password managers to save and fill passwords inside of other apps. Apps still have the ability to save information to the iOS Keychain even if you disable Keychain for Password AutoFill. For example: when you enable Face ID unlock for 1Password itself 1Password stores in the iOS Keychain an obfuscated version of a secret that is equivalent to your account password. The secret is used to unlock 1Password when your face is recognized.

Here's a post from the Southwest Airlines subreddit that mentions that Face ID support is limited in their app: https://www.reddit.com/r/SouthwestAirlines/comments/127m19n/improvements_to_you_mobile_southwest_account/jef7u8s/

I'm not a Southwest Airlines customer myself but it sounds to me like the app may not actually support Face ID and is instead just allowing you to fill your username and password from Keychain using Face ID, the same experience that you're seeing with 1Password currently. You could confirm this by temporarily disabling 1Password for Password AutoFill and enable just Keychain to see the result. Let me know how that goes. 🙂

-Dave

ajahn

@Dave_1P That is what I was thinking. If I can use Face ID with other apps, like 1Password, the IOS Keychain should be working somewhere in there. I already found and read that Reddit post and was confused about the "store in Safari" comment. What would Safari have to do with using the App unless you open the SWA website in a browser, and not actually use the App. Not sure why so many of the apps I use allow Face ID and this app makes it so difficult. I have reached out to someone else at the company to see if they can give me a step-by-step.

@bugwhat When I go to Settings -> Southwest, there is no Face ID option there. When I actually open the app and look in Settings, there is no Face ID option available. I haven't tried removing and reinstalling the app yet. iCloud, passwords, and keychain is enabled. The good news is 1P works great to auto-fill the username/password, but Face ID would be faster. Thank you for chiming in and offering to help. I appreciate it.

GreyM1P

@ajahn

Although they have very similar names, the iOS keychain and iCloud Keychain (uppercase K) are separate. The iOS keychain is always available, whether you have iCloud Keychain turned on or not, and whether you have Password AutoFill turned on or not. (For example, when you use Face ID to unlock 1Password, we use the iOS keychain to store the unlock secret, since nothing else on the device can read it and it is limited to only that device, unlike iCloud Keychain.)

In this case, I'd be curious to hear how Southwest have implemented Face ID if they're not using the standard iOS keychain and are relying on iCloud Keychain instead, which as we know, isn't always going to be available. If you get any update from Southwest about this, we'd love to hear it. :)

— Grey

ajahn

@GreyM1P I just verified that it uses IOS keychain (nothing stored in the cloud).

Dave_1P

@ajahn

Thank you for the update. If the Southwest app is storing data in the iOS Keychain then the option that you select in Settings > Passwords > Password Options shouldn't make any difference as far as I know.

Let us know if you receive any other details from Southwest or have any other questions from the 1Password end of things. 🙂

-Dave

ajahn

I was told to delete the app and re-install it. At first sign in it should ask if I want to use Face ID. I tried that, but it didn't ask me. I'm still looking into it and will report back when and if I figure it out.

Dave_1P

Thank you for the update. 🙂

-Dave

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Dave_1P

Thank you for sharing those suggestions @bugwhat. 🙂

-Dave