Failure Pattern
Browsers mark a device as “trusted,” allowing passwordless or MFA-less login flows later. Trusted device prompts then create a false sense of security.
User Impact
Users think “it’s safe because it’s my device,” even after malware compromises the browser.
Underlying Causes
Trust based on local storage
No hardware-backed continuous validation
Token-based trust, not identity-based trust
Trust-Native Resolution
A device becomes trusted only while its TrustKey is valid and uncompromised, not permanently.
Broken Trust Assumption
Many of the most damaging breaches of the past decade occurred in environments that were fully authenticated, encrypted, and compliant.
Incidents including SolarWinds, NotPetya, Capital One, and MOVEit show a consistent pattern: attackers succeeded by inheriting trust, not by breaking it. Security controls validated access, but not intent.