Emergency Access

Emergency access allows users to designate and manage trusted emergency contacts, who can request access to their vault in cases of emergency.

Setting up emergency access is a 3-step process in which you must Invite a user to become a trusted emergency contact, they must Accept the invitation, and finally you must Confirm their acceptance:

Once setup, the following sections will help you Initiate access as a trusted emergency contact or Manage access as someone who has designated a trusted emergency contact:

• Initiate access
• Manage access

Initiate emergency access

Complete the following steps to initiate an emergency access request:

1. In the Bitwarden web app, navigate to Settings → Emergency access:

   

2. In the Designated as emergency contact section, select the  menu icon and choose Request Access:

   

3. In the confirmation window, select the Request Access button.

You will be provided access to the grantor's vault after the configured wait time, or when the grantor manually approves (see Manage access tab) the emergency access request.

Access the vault

Complete the following steps to access the vault once your request has been approved:

1. In the Bitwarden web app, navigate to Settings → Emergency access:

   

2. In the Designated as emergency contact section, select the  menu icon and choose the option from the dropdown that corresponds with your assigned access:

   • View - Selecting this option will display the grantor's vault items on this screen.

   • Takeover - Selecting this option will allow you to enter and confirm a new master password for the grantor's account. Once saved, log in to Bitwarden as normal, entering the grantor's email address and the new master password.

Approve or reject emergency access

You can manually approve or reject an emergency access request before the configured wait time lapses. Complete the following steps to approve or reject emergency access:

1. In the Bitwarden web app, navigate to Settings → Emergency access:

   

2. In the Trusted emergency contacts section, use the  menu icon to select Approve or Reject:

   

Revoking access

The steps to take to regain exclusive access to your vault after using emergency access depend on which access level was granted:

Revoke view access

Trusted emergency contacts who are given View access will be able to view your vault items once they are approved and until their access is manually revoked. To manually revoke access, use the  menu to  Reject access:

Revoke a takeover

Trusted emergency contacts who are given Takeover access will, once used, have created a new master password for your account. As a result, the only way to revoke access involves:

1. Obtaining the new master password they created for your account and using it to log in the web vault.

2. Changing your master password to one that they do not know.

Trusted emergency contacts must be existing Bitwarden users, or must create a Bitwarden account before they can accept an invitation. Trusted emergency contacts do not need to have premium to be designated as such.

A user's status as a trusted emergency contact is tied to a unique Bitwarden account ID, meaning that if a trusted emergency contact changes their email address there is no reconfiguration required to maintain their emergency access. Likewise, if the emergency access grantor changes their email address, no reconfiguration is required.

If a trusted emergency contact creates a new Bitwarden account and deletes the old account, they will automatically be removed as a trusted emergency contact and must be re-invited.

There is no limit to the number of trusted emergency contacts a user can have.

Trusted emergency contacts can be granted one of the following user access levels:

• View: When an emergency access request is granted, this user is granted view/read access to all items in your individual vault, including passwords of login items and attachments.

  tip

  You may revoke access to a trusted emergency contact with view access at any time.

• Takeover: When an emergency access request is granted, this user must create a master password for permanent read/write access to your vault (this will replace your previous master password). Takeover disables any two-step login methods enabled for the account.

If the grantor is a member of an organization, the grantor will be automatically removed from any organization(s) for which they are not an owner on takeover. Owners will not be removed from or lose permissions to their organization(s), however the master password requirements policy will be enforced on takeover if enabled. Policies that are not usually enforced on owners will not be enforced on takeover.

Emergency access uses public key exchange and encryption/decryption to allow users to give a trusted emergency contact permission to access vault data in a zero knowledge encryption environment:

1. A Bitwarden user (the grantor) invites another Bitwarden user to become a trusted emergency contact (the grantee). The invitation (valid for only five days) specifies a user access level and includes a request for the grantee's RSA Public Key.

2. Grantee is notified of the invitation via email and accepts the invitation to become a trusted emergency contact. On acceptance, the grantee's RSA Public Key is stored with the user record.

3. Grantor is notified of the invitation's acceptance via email and confirms the grantee as their trusted emergency contact. On confirmation, the grantor's User Symmetric Key is encrypted using the grantee's RSA Public Key and stored with the invitation. Grantee is notified of confirmation.

4. An emergency occurs, resulting in grantee requiring access to grantor's vault. Grantee submits a request for emergency access.

5. Grantor is notified of the request via email. The grantor may manually approve the request at any time, otherwise the request is bound by a grantor-specified wait time. When the request is approved or the wait time lapses, the Public Key-encrypted User Symmetric Key is delivered to the grantee for decryption with the grantee's RSA Private Key.
   
   Alternatively, the grantor may reject the request, which will prevent the grantee gaining access as described in the next step. Rejecting a request will not remove the grantee from being a trusted emergency contact or prevent them from making access requests in the future.

6. Depending on the specified user access level, the grantee will either:

   • Obtain view/read access to items in the grantor's vault.

   • Be asked to create a new master password for the grantor's vault.