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
Keepass on phone, desktop and tablet. Sync serverless via Syncthing.
- completely private
- always available when needed
- no dependency on services which may go away
- all open source software
- maximum security
Yup. Same system here. I really like it.
Same here. Home server to which desktop and phone connect with OpenVPN.
Check out tailscale (or headscale)
It lets you connect those devices without necessarily sending all data through your home network when you are remote. (Though that is an option along with many other great features like ssh authentication)
It also uses WireGuard for the backend which is more secure and efficient than openvpn.
Thx! Will check out.
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 option 1 with Syncthing for a distributed cloud solution
Same, works like a charm!
Ditto, but with Resilio Sync.
I’m very happy with self-hosted Vaultwarden.
Keepass fIle in my own nextcloud instances, synced to my phone so I can also use keepass2android. This way if something happens I at least have another copy of it, beyond my backup system.
that’s actually exactly how I have my setup. I just use syncthing to keep everything dynamically backed up as I add passwords. my main login password is memorized and not written down anywhere so I think I’m good
I do the same, but synced to Dropbox from computers and phone.
I have the Proton password manager as well but not sure yet if I’ll do a full swap over.
I’ve used Option 1 with my Nextcloud and it works perfectly. Other options seem more apropriate when you need scale, many user each with their own vault.
Stupid me, didnt even remember using nextcloud instead of commercial clouds. I like it
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 1, KeePassXC plus SyncThing, done. Works amazing on all my devices.
I’ve never heard of Syncthing, I use Keepass on Windows and my Android, syncing to Dropbox. If I change to Syncthing is it an easy swap, anything I should watch out for?
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).
I use and prefer option one, but take it a step further in that I host my own cloud service. I used to use Dropbox for years, but we got divorced.
Host your own bitwarden
I do keypassXC and Syncthing. It’s cross platform with only a couple bucks needed for lifetime access to all all necessary features depending on platform. Besides I use Syncthing for a bunch of other stuff as well, so it fits right into my flow. I’m considering moving to a command line tool simply called Pass, and still syncing with Syncthing, but I’ve yet to pull the trigger on that switch yet.
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
Bitwarden+vaultwarden, harden the chosen VPS, set SSH to use keys only, then setup fail2ban for webserver and ssh Also consider putting ffsync on it as well for extra browser benefits.
Remember to back that up, and test the back at intervals to make sure they work
Not watertight ofcourse but I love that the bitwarden clients keep a local copy so if the server ever goes down youve still got access just no sync.
goes without saying.
I like this one as well, technically more challenging though
