Apple iOS 11.3 To Bring Single Sign-On Authentication For Websites

With iOS 11.3 beta now out for people to dig around in, there are folks doing just that, looking for what Apple has in store for the future. One of the things that has been discovered, while digging around inside the beta OS, is evidence that Apple is working on a single sign-on service for the web. This was evidenced by the discovery of something called "SecureChannel."

The indication with that discovery is that Apple is working on a solution that will let users log into various websites using their Apple ID. Think something along the lines of logging into various websites using your Facebook credentials, and you have the idea of what Apple might be working on. Reports indicate that strings found in SecureChannel mention that a website using this type of authentication would be able to allow the user to access their personal iCloud data.

It's not clear exactly what type of data the user would be accessing, but it is presumed to be their real name and email address only. The code below is what was found in the beta.

Another discovery in the iOS 11.3 beta is a component that will allow the user to scan a QR Code with their phone and receive a prompt for authentication using Apple ID when scanning. It would be useful if you could just scan your fingerprint of Face ID to enable that login, but there is no evidence of that. There is mystery surrounding that QR feature, presumably, the use scenario would be the ability to log into 3rd party websites without having to create usernames and passwords each time. We do already know some of what Apple will be offering in iOS 11.3, it will have battery monitoring and health record integration among other things.