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> On the desktop, I have nothing against Electron in theory — but I prefer native apps for something like passwords, if only because of speed — I have a few tho
by krmbzds 7y ago
> On the desktop, I have nothing against Electron in theory — but I prefer native apps for something like passwords, if only because of speed — I have a few thousand items in my vaults and BW was slow and 1PW is not.
I personally only use the browser extension. I never understood why a desktop app would be necessary since I have the browser window open at all times. If there was a native app I don't think I would use it.
> Browser integration for auto fill isn’t as smooth, at least on macOS and I miss having a dedicated area for my software licenses/loyalty cards (like airlines). I haven’t used it in a while so I’d need to try it again to give it a fair assessment, but the subjective answer is “it doesn’t ‘feel’ as good.”
I haven't had any problems with autofill personally. In the browser it's pretty decent. It also offers saving/updating passwords automatically when your vault is unlocked. ⌘⇧Y and ⌘⇧L shortcuts made my life easier when I discovered them. On iOS you can use the autofill if the app implements password fields properly (most apps don't). There is an option to choose Bitwarden instead of the default keychain application.
For license and memberships I simply create a folder named "Licenses" and add secure notes, create a folder named "Memberships" and add cards etc. Both entry types support key value fields inside them so you can add additional info too if it's necessary.
> And unrelated to UX, I’m sure the main person behind BitWarden is a great guy, but in 2019, I’m not trusting my password manager to what is largely a one person team. When I started using 1PW in 2007, I know it was a small team. But 12 years later, I’ve been burned too often when small shops close/sell/burn-out and a password manager is too important for me to switch from something I know/trust to something that reminds me of where 1PW was a decade ago. Open source doesn’t mean open development or an active developer community.
If 1Password isn't profitable one day it would shut down and you would be forced to switch. If Bitwarden's core developer disappeared anyone can fork it and continue development. If operations seize you can spin up your own Bitwarden server and continue from there without having to switch client apps right away. I also think there would be economic incentive to run an alternative service if Bitwarden stops functioning for some reason (+1 code quality, +1 permissive licensing).
> I also wasn’t impressed with the response to the critique of the cryptographic design in the security audit BW did last year. Not rotating encryption keys when you change your master password is a red flag and the problems BW faces on its own cloud are understandable, but not something I want to trust/deal with.
I followed Bitwarden security assessment closely. https://cdn.bitwarden.net/misc/Bitwarden%20Security%20Assessment%20Report%20-%20v2.pdf https://cdn.bitwarden.net/misc/Bitwarden%20Security%20Assess...
I agree the key rotation problem was a serious one (which is fixed now). Apart from that, I've read the assessment in detail and couldn't identify any case that would cause a problem for me as a personal account user. I use the browser extension on a Chromium based fork (auto-locked after ~5m) and the iOS app (w/ PIN). I also have 2FA enabled.
- BWN-01-001: You're safe unless you deliberately want to self-XSS yourself
- BWN-01-006: Minor issue, schemes:// are white-listed now.
- BWN-01-008: I don't use organization account so it doesn't effect me.
- BWN-01-010: Fixed, you can rotate keys now. I hadn't changed a compromised password before so it wouldn't affect me.
- BWN-01-009: You're safe unless you go to settings and decrease the KDF iteration count (why would anyone do that?). The first thing I did was to increase it when the option first came out. Not that the default value is unsafe, but higher is better.
- BWN-01-003, BWN-01-004 are related to the Electron desktop app. I don't know why anyone would use an Electron desktop app when they can use the browser plugin so I didn't even read these.
Overall, I'm sure 1Password is a little more polished on the UI department but I can't imagine myself using a proprietary password manager for security reasons. I made extensive research when I planned switching from my KeePass+WebDAV solution to an online password manager and decided to use Bitwarden after considering all the options. So far I'm pretty happy with it. I wanted to share my experience in case anyone else is looking for a similar solution.