Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC): Complete Guide with Policy Examples
The death of the password in b2c software
Ever wonder why your users drop off at the login screen? It’s usually password fatigue.
Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC): Complete Guide with Policy Examples
The death of the password in b2c software
Ever wonder why your users drop off at the login screen? It’s usually password fatigue. Honestly, making people remember strings like P@ssw0rd123! is just bad ux nowadays and it’s killing your conversion rates.
Most folks just reuse the same weak strings across every saas they join. This makes credential stuffing way too easy for hackers because they just take one leaked password and try it everywhere. According to Alliedmarketsearch, the passwordless market is hitting $40.2 billion by 2031 because companies are finally realizing passwords suck for security.
Security holes: Static credentials are prone to phishing.
High friction: Resets cost money and annoy customers in retail or finance.
Better tech: Using biometrics or magic links via an api is just smoother.
It’s not just about being “cool”—it’s about survival. Next, we’ll look at how this mess actually hurts your bottom line.
The ROI of Passwordless
If you want to convince your boss to ditch passwords, you gotta talk about the money. Password resets are a silent killer for your budget. Estimates usually say a single helpdesk password reset costs about $70 when you factor in labor and lost productivity. For a b2c app with millions of users, that’s a massive drain on resources.
Then there’s the conversion side of things. When a user hits a “forgot password” wall during checkout, they often just leave. Passwordless systems—like using a face scan—can boost conversion rates by over 10% because there’s zero friction. You’re basically removing the biggest hurdle between the customer and the “buy” button. Less money spent on support and more money coming in from sales? It’s a no-brainer.
Understanding ciam and the industry shift
So, you’ve probably heard of ciam (customer identity and access management). It’s basically the engine behind how your users sign up and stay logged in without making them want to throw their phone across the room. Traditional iam focuses on employees, but ciam is all about that smooth b2c flow.
The shift to passwordless isn’t just a trend; it’s a massive market move. According to The Business Research Company, this space is projected to jump from $17.13 billion in 2023 to over $20 billion in 2024.
Here is how different industries are actually using it:
Finance: They are ditching those clunky hardware tokens for device binding. This makes the phone itself the “key,” so you don’t need to type in codes.
Retail: Using magic links or passkeys to stop cart abandonment. They also use “visual-only confirmation”—which is basically a simplified, user-friendly CAPTCHA that uses images instead of annoying text—to stop bots without annoying humans.
Healthcare: Ensuring hipaa compliance by using secure device biometrics, which is way harder to fake than a written password.
Honestly, most devs just want an api that handles the heavy lifting so they don’t have to manage “salting and peppering” for hashes. For the non-techies: salting and peppering are just ways to add extra random data to passwords before encrypting them to make them harder to crack. With passwordless, you don’t even need to worry about these old-school encryption tricks because there’s no password to steal.
Core technologies for b2c passwordless login
So, we’ve established that passwords are a total nightmare. But how do you actually build the “magic” without breaking your stack? For most b2c apps, the gold standard is now fido2 and webauthn.
Basically, you’re using the hardware already in your customer’s pocket. According to a 2024 guide by SuperTokens, platforms like theirs allow for passwordless login via email or sms magic links as a solid fallback.
Passkeys: These are cryptographic keys stored on a device. Instead of a password, the browser talks to the os to trigger face id or a fingerprint.
WebAuthn: This is the api that makes it happen. It’s a bit of a beast to code from scratch, so most devs use an external api to handle the public key exchanges.
Fallbacks: If a user is on a dusty old desktop without a sensor, you gotta have magic links ready.
Mfa doesn’t have to be a buzzkill. Modern systems use risk-based auth. If a user logs in from their usual iPhone in Chicago, don’t bug them. But if they’re suddenly in a different country? That’s when you trigger the extra layer. Honestly, sms otp is getting pretty weak due to sim swapping. Moving to hardware-backed passkeys is just safer. Next, we’ll dive into how this shift actually makes your app way more secure.
Preventing the next big data breach
Ever wonder how much a single leaked database of bcrypt hashes actually costs you? Even with salts, modern gpu clusters chew through them fast. Switching to passwordless doesn’t just help users—it shrinks your blast radius. If you don’t store a password, there is nothing for a hacker to crack after a server breach.
Ditch the hashes: Stop managing a “secrets” table. When you use fido2, you only store public keys which are useless to an attacker.
jwt and sessions: Use short-lived json web tokens for your saas. According to Identité MFA, using “full duplex” authentication ensures the session is verified on both ends.
Blast radius: If your db leaks, hackers get public keys. They can’t use those to spoof logins without the physical device.
Honestly, protecting an api is easier when you aren’t holding the “keys to the kingdom” yourself. Next, let’s look at some implementation best practices to get this live.
Implementation Best Practices
Building a login that actually converts means treating registration and login as the same thing. Don’t make users choose, just ask for an identifier and route them. Using a modern sdk can cut your dev time in half because they handle the complex backend logic for webauthn for you.
Unified flow: Use one input for email/phone. If they’re new, create the account; if not, log them in.
Smart fallbacks: If biometrics fail on a desktop, trigger a magic link via your auth api immediately.
Reduced Complexity: By using an external auth provider, your devs don’t have to build custom logic for session management or device tracking.
Cross-device sync: Ensure passkeys work across a user’s ecosystem (e.g., icloud or google password manager).
As mentioned earlier, moving to passwordless reduces support tickets for resets significantly. Honestly, just use a solid g2.com rated tool to handle the edge cases so you can focus on your actual product.
At the end of the day, the “death of the password” is a win for everyone. You get better security because there are no credentials to steal, and your users get a faster way to get into your app. It’s one of those rare times where the more secure option is actually the easier one to use. Stop overthinking it and just ship.
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from SSOJet – Enterprise SSO & Identity Solutions authored by SSOJet – Enterprise SSO & Identity Solutions. Read the original post at: https://ssojet.com/blog/attribute-based-access-control-abac-complete-guide-policy-examples
About Author
