Security and access control remain some of the most critical topics for developers and companies. By 2025, the industry has reached an important turning point: the world is rapidly moving toward passwordless authentication and standards based on cryptography and biometrics. Passkeys are already used across billions of Google, Apple, and Microsoft accounts, and major platforms report a 20–30% improvement in login speed and simplicity compared to traditional passwords.
At OneEntry, we see these changes every day: developers no longer want a basic “login and password” flow, but secure, fast, and modern authentication that doesn’t require maintaining their own backend infrastructure. In this article, we will examine the key approaches of 2025 -from OAuth2/OIDC to MFA and WebAuthn - and show how OneEntry enables reliable authentication without building your own backend authenticator.
Why Classical Authentication Stopped Working
Password-based authentication was considered the foundation of security for decades, but its weaknesses have long since become systemic. Users create simple passwords, reuse them across dozens of services, and database leaks occur so frequently that they no longer surprise anyone. Adding phishing and social engineering to the picture makes it clear that passwords as a protection mechanism have exhausted themselves.
Attempts to “strengthen” passwords with complexity only worsen the user experience. We force people to come up with combinations they eventually forget, write down, or copy from other services.
2025: A Turning Point
Today, the situation is changing radically. With the widespread adoption of WebAuthn and passkeys, the industry is moving toward a truly modern approach - passwordless authentication. It is faster, more reliable, and significantly more convenient. We see businesses and developers embracing passwordless not because of trendiness, but because it brings real security benefits and reduces operational costs.
For this reason, at OneEntry we made passwordless not an add-on but a fundamental part of our authorization architecture.
The Evolution of Authentication: From Passwords to Cryptography
Authentication mechanisms have evolved significantly in recent years: we began with simple passwords, and today we work with cryptographically protected keys. This transformation reflects the industry’s broader shift toward more secure and user-friendly authentication methods.
Passwords
Once, this was the primary way to protect accounts. Today, this approach results in low security, a high support burden, poor user experience, and frequent risks of data breaches.
OAuth2 → OpenID Connect
The next stage of development introduced tokens. These standards made it possible to move authentication outside the application itself, rely on external providers, and greatly simplify access management.
FIDO2 → WebAuthn → Passkeys
The modern industry is moving toward a model where security is ensured by cryptographic keys and authentication is performed through biometrics. The keys are stored on the user’s device, never sent to the server, and cannot be intercepted by phishing or MITM attacks.
The industry chooses passwordless authentication because:
the absence of passwords eliminates the risk of password theft
cryptographic keys are tightly bound to the user’s device
biometrics make the login process fast and intuitive
WebAuthn provides strong protection against phishing and man-in-the-middle attacks
At OneEntry, we observe this shift every day. Passwordless is no longer an experiment and has become the default standard that reduces operational costs and increases security by design.
OAuth2 and OpenID Connect as the Foundation of Modern Authentication
OAuth2 emerged as a solution for secure access delegation, and OpenID Connect added a full-fledged layer of user identification on top of it. These standards have formed the foundation of modern authentication, on which most applications rely today.
The most common flows include:
Authorization Code with PKCE — suitable for web applications and mobile clients
Client Credentials — used for service-to-service communication
Implicit — considered outdated and no longer used
Device Code Flow — intended for devices such as TVs, consoles, and IoT systems
Why OAuth2 and OIDC remain essential:
they ensure secure token transmission between client and server
they allow integration with external providers such as Google, Apple, GitHub, and others
they offer a wide range of ready-to-use libraries for any language and framework
they provide a clear model for working with access and refresh tokens, making it easier to scale applications
At OneEntry, we rely on these standards as a core architectural layer. They enable developers to build authentication that is predictable, secure, and free from the need to invent custom mechanisms.
MFA: Why a Second Factor Is Necessary
A password by itself, and even OAuth by itself, no longer provides an adequate level of security. A second factor becomes an essential part of protection, especially in a world where phishing and automated attacks continue to grow every year.
MFA helps protect against:
password compromise
phishing attempts
unauthorized access even if credentials are leaked
The main MFA methods and their characteristics:
By 2025, push notifications and passkeys are gradually replacing SMS and TOTP, as they provide both a better user experience and a significantly higher level of security.
At OneEntry, we focus on these modern methods and ensure that enabling MFA is as simple as possible for developers and as natural as possible for end users.
Passwordless and Passkeys (WebAuthn)
Passkeys are a pair of cryptographic keys stored directly on the user’s device. They are not sent to the server and cannot be stolen from a database, because no such database exists. Authentication is performed through the device’s built-in biometric systems: FaceID, TouchID, Windows Hello, or Android Biometrics.
What this approach provides:
protection from phishing, since the keys cannot be forged or requested externally
the absence of passwords eliminates the risk of password leaks
login becomes two to three times faster thanks to biometrics
keys can be synchronized across devices, making the experience even more convenient
By 2025, passkeys are becoming the de facto standard for both web and mobile applications.
Biometric login
Biometric login is often misunderstood. A fingerprint or a face is not sent to the server and is not stored anywhere outside the device. Biometrics simply unlocks a private key that is already located in the device’s secure storage.
In other words, even biometrics operates on top of WebAuthn cryptography.
Benefits of biometric login:
there is no need to search for or enter a password
the device itself confirms the user’s identity
authorization happens quickly and almost imperceptibly
As a result, biometrics becomes a natural extension of the passwordless approach: secure, instant, and convenient for the user.
Comparison of approaches
Below is a brief comparison of the technologies in terms of reliability, speed, user experience, and implementation cost.
OneEntry: Authentication Out of the Box
A modern authentication flow typically looks like this:
Frontend → Authorization Server → Tokens → API → Access Control
General authorization flow through OneEntry:
Frontend → OneEntry Users API → MFA/Auth Providers → Tokens → Access Control
OneEntry provides a ready-made, multi-layer authentication system that eliminates the need to build your own security service. The developer only needs to connect the SDK and work with the existing methods without dealing with infrastructure or data storage.
Key capabilities of OneEntry:
• Built-in multi-factor authentication (MFA): Can be enabled directly in the administrative interface.
• Flexible integration with external authorization providers:The UI allows you to add Google, Apple, GitHub, Facebook, and any custom OAuth2/OIDC provider.
Documentation: https://doc.oneentry.cloud/docs/users/auth_provider/
• Ready-to-use integration examples
For example: Google OAuth —https://doc.oneentry.cloud/docs/users/examples/google
• AuthProvider support in the JS SDK: https://js-sdk.oneentry.cloud/docs/category/authprovider
• User and role management out of the box: Registration, login, profiles, roles, and access control.
• Token-based authentication: Access/Refresh tokens with renewal and lifetime control.
• Inter-service security with mTLS: All internal OneEntry services communicate through a secure channel.
Capabilities for Integrating Authentication into an Application with OneEntry
In conclusion, we want to highlight the capabilities that OneEntry provides for fast and secure integration of authentication into web and mobile applications. The platform includes:
password authentication
OAuth2 / OIDC providers
MFA (TOTP and additional factors)
token-based authentication for APIs
role and access management (RBAC)
integration of external providers without writing code through the admin panel
flexible registration and login schemes for different scenarios
Documentation:
Auth Provider: https://doc.oneentry.cloud/docs/users/auth_provider/
Example: Google OAuth — https://doc.oneentry.cloud/docs/users/examples/google
JS SDK AuthProvider — https://js-sdk.oneentry.cloud/docs/category/authprovider
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