How to go passwordless with Bitwarden using biometric login

Passwordless security is a revolutionary approach to identity verification, eliminating the need to enter traditional passwords and login credentials manually. At the heart of this innovation is biometric authentication, which leverages unique physical or behavioral characteristics to verify a user’s identity.

Passwordless security is gaining traction across various industries, including financial institutions, healthcare, and immigration enforcement. By adopting passwordless security, individuals and organizations can significantly reduce the risk of phishing attacks, password breaches, and other cyber threats, ensuring a safer digital environment for their users.

Many people assume biometric login eliminates the need for passwords entirely. This isn't true. Users still need strong, unique passwords for every account. Biometric authentication simply changes how they access those passwords.

This guide explains how biometric login works and how to use it effectively with Bitwarden Password Manager.

By leveraging advanced algorithms, biometric login analyzes and matches the user’s biometric data with a stored template, ensuring that only authorized individuals can access the system or device. This simplifies the login process and enhances overall security by making it significantly harder for unauthorized users to gain access, since biometric data is unique to each individual and cannot be easily compromised or shared.

This approach is particularly beneficial for mobile devices, where facial recognition and fingerprint scanners can authenticate users quickly and securely. Multimodal biometric authentication systems, which combine multiple biometric modalities, offer an enhanced security posture and improved fraud detection capabilities.

Biometric authentication works by capturing and analyzing a user’s unique biological characteristics, such as facial features, fingerprints, or voice patterns. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of the process:

1. Data capture: The user’s biometric data is captured using a sensor or camera, such as a fingerprint scanner or facial recognition camera.

2. Data analysis: The captured data is analyzed and processed using advanced algorithms to extract unique features and patterns. Combining physical biometrics with behavioral biometrics enhances security by allowing systems to detect inconsistent behaviors that may indicate spoofing attempts.

3. Template creation: A template or database is created to store the user’s biometric data for future verification.

4. Verification: The user’s biometric data is compared to the stored template to verify their identity. Biometric systems can detect changes in user behavior, such as variations in interaction speed or usage patterns, to prevent unauthorized access.

This process ensures that only a valid user can access the system, providing a secure and efficient method of identity verification.

Biometric systems employ advanced algorithms and machine learning techniques to analyze and compare biometric data, ensuring accurate and secure authentication. Facial recognition systems, in particular, have become increasingly sophisticated, with many biometric systems using 3D facial mapping and liveness detection to prevent spoofing attacks. However, biometric technology is not limited to facial recognition. Other modalities, such as fingerprint recognition, iris scanning, and behavioral biometrics, are also gaining traction.

Biometric technology has the potential to revolutionize the way we authenticate and verify identities, offering a more secure and convenient alternative to traditional passwords.

Going passwordless with biometrics starts with how a user unlocks their Bitwarden vault. To avoid typing a password, the user can enable biometric authentication, such as Touch ID in macOS, by navigating to Settings > SECURITY (Figure A) and clicking the Unlock with Touch ID checkbox. This step must first be completed within the Bitwarden desktop app in order to then enable biometric login with the Bitwarden browser extension.

In the mobile app, this is done in Settings > Security > Unlock with Biometrics.

Enabling biometric login is an easy first step toward living a passwordless life. Biometrics unlock the vault without the need to type a password, simplifying the login process while making it more secure since bad actors can’t use the fingerprint scan against the user. It also provides an extra layer of privacy when accessing accounts in public because no one can physically watch the password being typed. Additionally, biometric authentication allows users to quickly re-enter their accounts after session timeouts, enhancing convenience and efficiency.

The next step for going passwordless is to use the Bitwarden web browser extension, which is available for Firefox, Chrome, Edge, and more. Once a user has installed the extension and associated it with their Bitwarden account, the user will find that each entry has an Autofill option (Figure B). This help article goes into more detail on how to enable biometric login with the browser extension.

If the user clicks Autofill, it will automatically enter both the username and password for the site in question, provided the site to be logged into is already open.

This is even easier in the mobile Bitwarden app. Once autofill is enabled and after the user has authenticated with either biometrics or their mobile password/PIN, Bitwarden can autofill app credentials. Using biometrics tied to a mobile device ensures that authentication relies on unique physical traits, elevating the security of your login credentials. 

Going passwordless can be a great way to keep accounts secure, and it all begins with using a compatible password manager. By activating these simple features, users can achieve passwordless authentication with Bitwarden without losing a single layer of security.

Interested in trying Bitwarden? Sign up for a free business trial or a free individual account.