Objective: Secure & private password management, prevent anyone from stealing your passwords.
Option 1: Store Keepass PW file in personal cloud service like OneDrive/GoogleDrive/etc , download file, use KeepassXC to Open
Option 2: Use ProtonPass or similar solution like Bitwarden
Option 3: Host a solution like Vaultwarden
Which would do you choose? Are there more options ? Assume strong masterpassword and strong technical skills
I used to self host Bitwarden, but didn’t want the hassle of securing it and updating it properly and consistently. So I just pay $10 for bitwarden premium and I get to support the company.
Option 2. It’s the most robust. You’ll never lose it (provided you have the redundancy), you can use it offline, you can transfer it using a USB pen, it’s available in all platforms, including web. I’ve been using this for 8+ years, on my phone, desktop, laptop, company computer, etc. I store it on a personal cloud (and on each machine, of course, by syncing).
Host your own bitwarden
Bitwarden for me. My password manager is not just for me, it’s also a crucial component of my family life so if something happened to me I want my next of kin to be able to access it
For that it needs to be an easy to access solution.
Same, I’m all for complicated things that only I know how to use but the keys to the kingdom shouldn’t be one of those when there are laypeople relying on me.
I still have to figure out how to let those people in when needed, I’m thinking writing the master password and the backup code on a paper that lives in a drawer, maybe in a “break in case of emergency” box, etc.
Curious what’s the best way to mitigate the wrong person getting that, but I think if you have to worry about someone breaking in your house who is also looking for that info, then you have a different threat profile to consider, and the above calculus doesn’t apply.
Bitwarden offer the option to set up an emergency contact.
You choose someone to be an emergency contact, it means that if they want they can request access to view your passwords.
When they send a request you receive several emails to warn you and after X (you can choose the amount) days if you don’t do anything they get access to your account.
Option 3: Vaultwarden + Wireguard.
I don’t have to worry about attacks from the internet. And a single wireguard connection on my phone sometimes doesn’t even appear on the battery stats.
Edit: Browser addons need valid ssl certificates, which I get by dns challenge.
could you expand a bit on your edit? so bitwarden extensions need a valid ssl certificate for the domain where the server is hosted? how do you get that for (i assume) a local domain? thank you for your time!
DNS-01 challenge allows for domain ownership verification without open ports and instead looks for a txt record. Using a tool like lego[1] with the respective dns provider’s API automatically creates and deletes the txt record after generating a certificate.
Because ownership is verified by dns txt entry, the (sub-)domain doesn’t have to point to a publicly routable host. This allows for using any IP, so I’m using a local ip only available through wireguard or my local network (E.g. bitwarden.example.com points to 192.168.1.123).
The disadvantage is that the provider has to be supported and you have to store an API key for your domain on the server.
that’s genius. i have never even considered that you could use a (sub)domain with a local ip like that to get a certificate from a trusted ca. i ma not sure i understand the neccessity for api access to your dns service. is the txt record for LE different every time you have to pass a challenge? otherwise i imagine you could just set and forget the record.
thank you for the explanation, well appreciated!
Yes it’s awesome. I never even considered that it’s possible to add not publicly routable IP’s to public DNS server, until I recently read a post about dns-01 challenge.
I believe the txt record is different every time.
Not the one who wrote initially, but i have the same setup (mostly).
I went with a self signed certificate. So the server is running with a certificate i have signed with my own certification authority certificate (ca-cert) .
That means I have to install the ca-cert on all devices to get vaultwarden to accept it.The alternative is a let’s encrypt cerrtificate, which are free, but you need to open port 80 (and another one if I remember correctly) for it to work (at least every 3 months)
If you own a domain name you can use the DNS-01 challenge instead of hosting a web server to serve the challenge response.
With DNS-01 it will add a TXT record to your DNS zones and check if the record exists to verify that you own the domain and then issue the certificate.
Depending on which tool you use, they usually support DuckDNS and some other free DDNS providers. If you have your domain on a registrar, chances are that it’s also supported.
Yep that would be a good alternative…I don’t have an official domain for it, so I went the self-signed way
Which enables me to provide tls/https for all my local services. And it was a fun experience to learn
Keepass + syncthing.
Don’t let your vault go unencrypted through the cloud.
Your vault is always encrypted very securly except when in RAM. There is no security concern with uploading it directly to the cloud.
It’s encrypted at rest with a passphrase. Syncthing encrypts it at transit with a random key.
There is a huge difference on the security of those.
Keepass allows you to use a passphrase in combination with a randomly generated keyfile. You only need to copy the keyfiles to your devices once (not via cloud services, obviously). Your actual database can then be synchronized via any cloud provider of your choice (hell, you could even upload it publicly for everyone to see) and it would still be secure.
I use keepassXC and sync across my devices with nextcloud and VPN to my home network with wire guard and this setup has never failed me.
I’ve toyed around with passbolt, and I really want to try because it just looks cool to me, but I keep having trouble with it playing nice with my reverse proxy.
My personal preference is hosting it myself on my own server and using a VPN to get to it. It gives me peace of mind because I’m not a big enough target for someone to try that hard to get my passwords and I’m not exposed to bitwarden or dashlane getting breached.
Keepassxc + syncthing to phone in read only mode and to other machine. So 3 copies on different machine, while one of them is on me
Option 1, except for the cloud bit. My KeePass file is stored in a restricted shared folder on my home file server, and auto-syncs to my phone on the rare occasion I update it from my desktop.
I’m very happy with self-hosted Vaultwarden.
I’ve been using option 1 for many many years. It lets me keep control of the encryption, and it’s accessible just about anywhere.
I’m currently hosting vaultwarden on my rack, mostly just because I can really. It’s easy enough and I have plenty of resources.
Vaultwarden behind mutual tls and reverse proxy and https://github.com/oguzhane/bitwarden-mobile until https://github.com/bitwarden/mobile/pull/2629 is merged
But honestly all services you mentioned are worthy.
Anything that fits your needs imao
I’m currently using KeePassXC. The setup that I created below gives me 3-backups of my passwords, but it’s a bit to manage.
Computer
On my computer, I have my keepassxc database and key file stored in a veracrypt container. Next to my computer, I have a piece of paper that has the password for my keepassxc database and the password for my veracrypt container.
computer -> veracrypt container -> keepassxc database AND keepassxc key filepaper -> keepassxc database pw AND veracrypt pwKeePassXC Export File (text file that contains all of my login information)
I store this file inside of a veracrypt container, on my USB LUKS. Next to my USB LUKS, I have a piece of paper that has the associated veracrypt password.
usb luks -> veracrypt container -> keepassxc export filepaper -> veracrypt pwCloud
I store my database in cloud service a.
I store my key file in a veracrypt container, in cloud service b.
On a piece of paper, I have the login information to both of these cloud accounts and the password for the veracrypt container.
Been using option 3 but with Bitwarden for almost 5 years at this point. First started out on a VM in a cloud provider. Now it’s in a VM on unraid behind a local HAProxy or Cloudflare tunnel for remote access.
Bitwardens full docker stack provides great daily backups which I’ve had to restore on occasion or go back to one from months ago to dig out a password for my wife.
Been testing and hoping to move to the unified-container from them soon, assuming I can replicate encrypted backups like their solution.
