Re: [webauthn] isUserVerifyingPlatformAuthenticatorAvailable() timeout really 10 minutes?

@kpaulh wrote in https://github.com/w3c/webauthn/issues/575#issuecomment-330594383:
> Even if the client supports a platform authenticator, the user has to approve the sharing of that information by responding to a prompt of some sort.

Well, neither the spec, nor PR #904, presently specifies that the user MUST be prompted -- rather, it just suggests that might occur.

Also, wrt @emlun wrote in https://github.com/w3c/webauthn/issues/575#issuecomment-386545474
> The method checks for the presence of an authenticator, not a credential, so it should be fine to always return immediately.

 However the situation this time-out stipulation is in regards to is:
> This is done so that callers cannot distinguish between the case where the user was unwilling to create a credential using one of the available user-verifying platform authenticators and the case where no user-verifying platform authenticator exists.

The rationale above (from that parag) is one of privacy. I do not recall offhand who championed adding the entire parag to the spec -- perhaps they can speak up?  Are we saying that we have thought about this and do not feel this privacy concern merits distinction in the spec?  I agree a huge long timeout would be problematic UX-wise in some edge cases (I presume the are edge cases assuming most users will be fine creating a platform cred, and ultimately most platforms will feature userVerifyingPlatformAuthnrs).

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Received on Wednesday, 30 May 2018 00:00:58 UTC