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Why self host a password manager? (programming.dev)
submitted 2 months ago by el_abuelo@programming.dev to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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I'm going to move away from lastpass because the user experience is pretty fucking shit. I was going to look at 1pass as I use it a lot at work and so know it. However I have heard a lot of praise for BitWarden and VaultWarden on here and so probably going to try them out first.

My questions are to those of you who self-host, firstly: why?

And how do you mitigate the risk of your internet going down at home and blocking your access while away?

BitWarden's paid tier is only $10 a year which I'm happy to pay to support a decent service, but im curious about the benefits of the above. I already run syncthing on a pi so adding a password manager wouldn't need any additional hardware.

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[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 months ago

That's largely why I haven't self hosted either. But problems can be mitigated:

  • regular, automated backups to something else (say, KeePass), encrypted with your master pass and backed up off-site
  • host your PW manager on a VPS, or have the VPS ready to deploy a snapshot from offsite backup
  • change your master pass regularly - limits the kinds of breaches that can impact you
  • randomize usernames - makes it easier to detect a breach, because you can see if any of those were exposed without the org being breached

But honestly, my main reason is that I don't trust my server to stay up 100%, but I do expect Bitwarden to. I also trust their security audits.

[-] BaroqueInMind@lemmy.one 15 points 2 months ago

I'm self hosting Vaultwarden and my home server got killed by the hurricane, yet I can still access my passwords just fine on the app because it stores them locally encrypted on my phone from the last time it synced. I just can't update or change anything until I can bring everything back on.

So, host your own shit you cowards, it'll be fine.

[-] aksdb@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

Bitwardens local cache does not include attachments, though. If you rely on them, you have to rely on the server being available.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 months ago

I just... don't see the benefit. I host videos so I can access video content even if my internet goes out, and it's a lot cheaper than paying for streaming. I host my own documents because I don't want big tech scraping all my data. I host my own budgeting software, again, because of privacy.

I could host Vaultwarden. I just don't really see the point, especially when my SO and I have a shared collection, and if that broke, my SO would totally blame me, and I don't think that's worth whatever marginal benefits there are to self-hosting.

Maybe I'll eat my words and Bitwarden will get hacked. But until then, stories like yours further confirm to me that not hosting it is better.

this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2024
166 points (96.6% liked)

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