Let's expand that specifically generic headline. ""You probably can't trust anything if it's been compromised". More extra non-news at eleven.
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Uhhhh.... What even is this headline
Ya think?
You probably can't trust anything if it's compromised
Well the specific point here is that these companies claim that a server hack won't reveal your passwords since they're encrypted and decrypted on your local device so the server only sees the encrypted version. Apparently this isn't completely true.
At the point someone pulls off a valid MIM attack - which is basically a requirement here unless the whole BW/Vaultwarden server gets compromised- that is the least of someones problems. MIMs are incredibily hard these days.
Yeah, the title there really doesn't reflect the article text. It should be "you probably can't trust your password manager if the remote servers it uses are compromised".
Are you trying to say the front fell off?
That's not very typical
It wasn’t designed for the front to fall off, that’s for sure!
Well, what sort of standards are these tools built to?
For the front to stay on!
🤯
No shit?
These password managers claim your passwords are secure, even if their servers get compromised, which is what is expected from a security standpoint. But that is apparently not the case.
JFC this headline. BREAKING NEWS: Healthy people die off an old age.
Jfc this headline is almost as bad.
Password managers are supposed to be designed to resist a situation where they're compromised, and are only ever supposed to see a mysterious blob of encrypted data without ever having access to any information that would help decrypt it. The headline's more like M1 Abrams Tanks Vulnerable to Small Arms Fire - it'd be totally expected that most things die when shot with bullets, but the point of a tank is that it doesn't, so it's a big deal if it does.
Things you should know: Your car won't drive after it's broken down.
If the entire supply chain up to the software you're running to perform actual decryption is compromised, then the decrypted data is vulnerable. I mean, yeah? That's why we use open-source clients and check builds/use builds from separate source, so that the compromission of one actor does not compromise the whole chain. Server (if any) is managed by one entity and only manage access control + encrypted data, client from separate trusted source manage decryption, and the general safety of your whole system remain your responsibility.
Security requires a modicum of awareness and implication from the users, always. The only news here is that people apparently never consider supply chain attacks up until now?
Additional vendor responses by Bitwarden to put the remediations and threat models into perspective:
What a headline
Since the summary doesn't say which three popular password managers:
As one of the most popular alternatives to Apple and Google's own password managers, which together dominate the market, the researchers found Bitwarden was most susceptible to attacks, with 12 working against the open-source product. Seven distinct attacks worked against LastPass, and six succeeded in Dashlane.
Next do proton pass
And glosses over what it claims are the two that dominate market (combined market share of 55%) which negates their headline, since it's likely the reader is using one of those two password managers.
I'll be honest, password managers are like the holy grail of desirable to breech. If you're using one it will be constantly under attack. It being breeched or vulnerable shouldn't be a surprise. There isn't really a secure way to store large amounts of passwords that doesn't have some vulnerability issues.
I just write down password hints on a scrap of paper.
If you don't have to use your passwords from multiple locations, your hints are intelligible only to you, and you don't leave the paper anywhere too obvious, this isn't a bad solution.
Bitwarden says all issues have already been addressed.
https://bitwarden.com/blog/security-through-transparency-eth-zurich-audits-bitwarden-cryptography/
Yes, although it sounds like they haven't finished fixing some of them:
All issues have been addressed by Bitwarden. Seven of which have been resolved or are in active remediation by the Bitwarden team. The remaining three issues have been accepted as intentional design decisions necessary for product functionality.
Edit: There's more information about the specific threats and remediation steps in the PDF report linked at the end of the Bitwarden blog post:
Looking through, it seems like for the most part these are very niche and/or require the user to be using SSO or enterprise recovery options and/or try to change and rotate keys or resync often. I think few people using this for personal would be interacting with that attack surface or accepting organizational invites, but it is serious for organizations (probably why they’re trying quickly to address this).
Honestly I think a server being incognito controlled and undetected in bitwardens fleet while also performing these attacks is, unlikely? Certainly less likely than passwords being stolen from individual site hacks or probably even banks. Like at that point, it would just be easier to do these types of manipulations directly on bank accounts or crypto wallets or email accounts than here, but then again, if you crack a wallet like this you get theoretically all the goodies to those too I suppose, for a possibly short time (assuming the user wasn’t using 2FA that wasn’t email based as well).
Not to mitigate these issues. They need to fix them, just trying to ascertain how severe and if individual users should have much cause for concern.
Regarding a malicious server acting under Bitwarden's fleet: As I see it, the most vulnerable target would be an organization's self-hosted Bitwarden server.
Bitwarden. Shit.
These attacks are more around the encryption and all require a fully malicious server. It sounds like Bitwarden is taking these seriously and personally I'd still strongly prefer it to any closed source solution where there could be many more unknown but undiscovered security concerns.
Using a local solution is always most secure, but imo you should first ask yourself if you trust your own security practices and whether you have sufficient hardware redundancy to be actually better. I managed to lose the private key to some Bitcoin about a decade ago due to trying to be clever with encryption and local redundant copies.
Further, with the prevalence of 2FA even if their server was somehow fully compromised as long as you use a different authenticator app than Bitwarden you're not at major risk anyways. With how poorly the average person manages their password security this hurdle alone is likely enough to stop all but attacks targeted specifically at you as an individual.
I suggest KeepassXC, I like it. Can use it with TOTP too
Or if you have like $5/mo to spend on a VPS, self-host vaultwarden. It's compatible with the bitwarden apps and browser plugins.