I currently use KeepassXC that is synced through NextCloud. The sync isn’t very elegant, especially on my phone. So I’m looking for a new password manager, which has a native server sync support that I can self host. What do y’all recommend? I need at least a phone app and a browser integration that can autofill.
Bitwarden.
My recommendation: Don’t use Vaultwarden (self hostable server side of bitwarden. Really easy to run and use). Why? You’re not a security personal, and securing your vault isn’t your job. You might do a slight mistake that’ll lead to the compromise of your vault.
The people at Bitwarden have their work dedicated to securing the vaults and all they do is security. And they’ll probably do it better then you. When it comes to serious matter, I prefer to trust the professionals.
Doesn’t the server just hold an encrypted vault? What could go wrong when the server is compromised? Just thinking out loud I don’t know the answer
I just don’t want any unauthorized persons anywhere near my vaults in general. I also see my vault as a critical service that requires high availability, and I know enough about system administration to know that my network and I are not qualified to provide that.
Let’s say I have an unupdated patch and my server is now vulnerable.
This could really happen. I have work and life to worry about and I might not notice.
This vulnerability, could be in the BW instance itself (say the web server or the backend itself), or in the server itself (say an old OpenSSH version), or another service (NextCloud instance hosted in the same server under a different subdomain).
So, first we see it’s a big attack surface. In any of those entrances an attacker could gain access to my server and with it the vault. It’s a short way from there to install a keylogger on the website where BW is hosted, and get my master password ¯_(ツ)_/¯.
Now take into consideration that I just sat a couple of minutes to think about this, and I’m not a professional in cyber security or web security. Neither blue nor red team. A professional, with more knowledge, time, experience and resources, could probably bring up much more things.
I would just put a server on the internet with only the bitwarden ports open to the internet. And put the server in its own isolated environment. With automatic updates I would be comfortable with this. Even if for any reason the isolated server gets compromised, the server is mostly a glorified sync server.
Yep, that’s right. In theory you could share the encrypted DB with the public and not degrade security. (Still don’t do that though…)
Security is also about backups. 3 Replicas 2 Formats 1 Offsite location
Ignoring the security aspect of it Bitwarden is responsible for hosting a fault tolerant, highly available web app.
They have redundant networking, redundant servers, load balancers, redundant databases.
While you could host this yourself to these tolerances it’s work and it’s not free.
If you’re using your password manager to the fullest you have a different password for every resource out there. It’s more than a minor inconvenience if you get locked out of your passwords.
Their service is dirt cheap and it’s absolutely worth every penny.
Just to play devils advocate. Bitwarden.com is a much more valuable target. My instance is behind a VPN. I think its actually far more likely Bitwarden will have a breach similar to LastPass then I will. But I agree with you mostly.
The data stored on Bitwarden’s servers is completely encrypted though, which means a breach will not yield useful data, unlike the plain text storage for LastPass.
I have the ability to selfhost BW so I am interested in counterpoints.
Yes I agree. I was just offering a counter to the statement that Vaultwarden isnt as safe as Bitwarden. They both are encrypted but my vaultwarden instance is a lot less likely to experience a breach than Bitwarden. The guys with real skill are going after Bitwarden not me.
VW isn’t the self hostable version of BW. It’s a complete rewrite. I don’t know if it is audited in the same way as BW, so I wouldn’t recommend it until you check that. BW can be self hosted as it is. VW is a rewrite with all the premium features unlocked for free