From 1471d1d578bbb78cd6a45274185e0b250bdc1c6c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jeff Emmett <jeffemmett@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2026 10:27:55 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] fix(passkey): derive WebAuthn user.id deterministically to
 stop duplicates
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Retries of /api/register/start previously generated a fresh random user.id
each time, so the authenticator (iCloud Keychain, Windows Hello, 1Password,
etc.) stored a brand-new passkey per attempt. Users who hit the failing
registration flow ended up with three or four orphan passkeys in their
password manager for every successful one.

WebAuthn spec: a create() ceremony with the same (rpId, user.id) overwrites
the existing passkey. Deriving user.id as SHA-256(salt + username) means
repeated start calls for the same username produce the same user.id and the
authenticator overwrites in place.

Salt chain: USER_ID_SALT → JWT_SECRET → fallback constant. No new env var
needed in prod — JWT_SECRET is already set.
---
 src/encryptid/server.ts | 13 +++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/encryptid/server.ts b/src/encryptid/server.ts
index 69b75915..20c65538 100644
--- a/src/encryptid/server.ts
+++ b/src/encryptid/server.ts
@@ -579,8 +579,17 @@ app.post('/api/register/start', async (c) => {
   // Generate challenge
   const challenge = Buffer.from(crypto.getRandomValues(new Uint8Array(32))).toString('base64url');
 
-  // Generate user ID
-  const userId = Buffer.from(crypto.getRandomValues(new Uint8Array(32))).toString('base64url');
+  // Derive userId deterministically from username so repeated /start calls for
+  // the same username produce the same WebAuthn user.id. Per WebAuthn spec, a
+  // repeated create() ceremony with the same (rpId, user.id) overwrites the
+  // existing passkey instead of creating a new one — stops failed retries from
+  // leaving orphan passkeys behind in the user's password manager.
+  const userIdSalt = process.env.USER_ID_SALT || process.env.JWT_SECRET || 'encryptid-user-id';
+  const userIdBuf = await crypto.subtle.digest(
+    'SHA-256',
+    new TextEncoder().encode(`${userIdSalt}:${username.toLowerCase()}`),
+  );
+  const userId = Buffer.from(userIdBuf).toString('base64url');
 
   // Store challenge in database
   const challengeRecord: StoredChallenge = {