Reminder for Bitwarden users: Starting in February, users without two-step login (2FA) enabled will need to enter a verification code sent to their email when logging in from an unrecognized device

[jim@programming.dev]

This is being purposefully obtuse. Choosing to force users to memorize a recovery code increases the likelihood of lock outs.

There is a real risk of account lockout, especially for those of us who travel frequently. Lockouts are a significant risk when you need to carry all your belongings and devices.

There are also some of us who also think about what happens to us when we are incapacitated and a loved one needs access to our passwords. In a situation, it's important to balance security vs expediency to access critical information. This new policy disrupts that.

At the very least, I wish Bitwarden would have given us more time to force this policy. I have to scramble to make changes to my estate planning documents and get in contact with my lawyer to change my advanced healthcare directives.

[jim@programming.dev]

I understand this change by Bitwarden, but I wish they gave us the option to turn this off or at least given us more time before forcing this on us.

There's a lot of comments talking about how this increases security, which is true. But it also increases the risk of account lockout. This is especially true in two scenarios: traveling and incapacitation.

Traveling - for those of us who travel frequently, we carry all of our belongings with us. This makes us particularly vulnerable to account lockouts. We can't securely store backup devices or documents in easily accessible locations. We can't easily rely on trusted friends or family because they are so far away. Also, internet accounts are more likely to lock us out anyway because we are logging in from a different country, which is suspicious behavior.

Incapacitation - god forbid, if there comes a time when we are permanently or temporarily incapacitation, it becomes important for our loved ones to access accounts. When we are in the hospital, it's important that our loved ones get access to our personal accounts. I personally have advanced directives and have worked with an estate lawyer to make sure that my Bitwarden account becomes available. I also have instructions for immediate trusted family on how to access my vault if I were ever in the hospital. With this short notice, I need to scramble to get all of that updated and provide a way for them to access the account without my 2FA devices.

The above scenarios are based off of my real experience. These are real and likely risks that I have to account for. Security is not just making sure that outside bad actors CANNOT gain access, but it also means that the right people CAN get access at the right time.

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What am I going to do? I'm weighing my options.

1. I believe the self-hosted version of Bitwarden does not require this. This comes with its own set of risks though.
2. Pay for premium, which comes with lockout support - I need to see if this can take care of both use scenarios above.
3. Turn on 2FA and memorize the recovery code. While viable, since I will only use the recovery code once, I'm likely to forget it.
4. Change the email to a non-2FA email address, only used by Bitwarden, with a strong but easily memorable password. This email must allow access from foreign countries without lockout (gmail is out). I'm actually strongly considering this.

[maiq@lemy.lol]

I rebuild my OS sometimes three times a year.

[mangopenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone]

The other option for traveling that might be better is use Keepass with the file stored on your phone, that way no internet is needed and there's no chance of lockout from your password DB.

[mangopenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone]

I have another 2FA app (Aegis) with the same keys added for my email and any other critical stuff.

[phoenixz@lemmy.ca]

I'd say the title would be more precise like "starting February, 2FA will be required for all users" as tth email is also a form of 2FA.

I think it's good, especially when done on the device level, making it that I don't have to use the 2FA part every single time I login, it's a good balance between security and usability

[acosmichippo@lemmy.world]

Choosing to force users to memorize a recovery code

now who's being purposefully obtuse.

[idkwhatusernametoputherelolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

Fuck Bitwarden.

They gave 3 days of notice. Absolute shitshow.

Use Keepass, minimize your reliance on cloud. The "cloud" is just someone elses computer.

[idkwhatusernametoputherelolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

Insanity is doing such a drastic chance on less than 3 days notice, a change that could potentiallt lock out people that aren't very tech savy, and only found Bitwarden by a techy friend's recomendation, or just happened to see it on their phone'a app store.

Absolute Shitshow

3 days notice lmfao, Fuck Bitwarden

Keepass all the way!

[toribor@corndog.social]

I self host Bitwarden (aka Vaultwarden) and recommend that to anyone who is comfortable hosting a container. For everyone else I still think Bitwarden cloud is the best most trustworthy free cloud credential manager.

KeePass rules though, I used it for years. I no longer recommend it mostly due to the difficulty of securely syncing the database which generally forces people to rely on a cloud provider anyway.

[toribor@corndog.social]

I've had a good experience self hosting Bitwarden (using Vaultwarden). I've printed off some instructions for my wife or family to gain access in case something happens to me. I haven't done this yet but I also want to occasionally export my vault to an encrypted USB to keep alongside things like passports and birth certificates.

Those might be good options for you too considering the risks you've outlined.

[toribor@corndog.social]

Bitwarden caches passwords locally so if your self hosted instance goes down or is inaccessible to can still access those caches credentials and OTP codes.

I tested this thoroughly and was very nervous that a server outage at home would lock me out of the credentials I need in order to fix it. It's been good enough for me to get by until I can fix whatever is broken.

[mangopenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone]

Yeah that's true. I just have worries that the app might do something weird and require a log in and re-sync.

[toribor@corndog.social]

Yeah it's worth considering risks. If I lose access to my credentials it would be a ridiculous amount of work to recover, probably losing access to some things forever.