Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, Bitwarden has a Public API (Restful API) that provides organizations a suite of tools for managing members, collections, groups, event logs, and policies. Bitwarden also has a Vault Management REST API for programmatic access to Vault secrets.
There is! Users with a premium subscription can proactively setup trusted emergency contacts who can access your vault in case of emergency. For more information, see Emergency Access.
As a zero-knowledge encryption solution, Bitwarden and its systems have no knowledge of, way to retrieve, or way to reset your master password. If you have already lost your master password, there is unfortunately no way for the team to recover the account. For help understanding what to do next, or what to do proactively to protect yourself from such a scenario, refer to the article on your master password.
Changing your account email address will not change the address that received 2FA codes if you are using two-step login via email.
Open the web vault, select the profile icon and choose Account Settings from the dropdown.
On the My Account page, find the Change Email section.
Enter your current Master Password to prove you have the authority to take this action, and specify the New Email you'd like to change to.
Select the Continue button.
Bitwarden will email a verification code to the specified email address. Check your inbox for the code and enter it into the Code text input displayed in your web vault to finalize the change.
If you have a paid subscription, also contact us to let us know about the change so that we change your billing information.
Be sure to logout of all Bitwarden apps you use, and log back in with the new credentials. Sessions using a "stale" email address will eventually be logged out.
To change your master password hint:
Open the web vault, select the profile icon and choose Account Settings from the dropdown.
From the account settings menu, select the Security page and the Master Password tab.
Enter a hint in the Master Password Hint box and select the Save button.
For information on the Bitwarden approach to security and underlying architecture (including data flow diagrams), see Bitwarden Architecture and Security Whitepaper.
If you use Bitwarden authenticator, Bitwarden will automatically copy a login's TOTP code to the clipboard when the login is auto-filled by any of the methods outlined in the Auto-fill Logins in Browser Extensions Help Center article.
Bitwarden can securely auto-fill your login information into websites using the browser extension and mobile apps (Android and iOS) using associated URIs. To auto-fill on desktop, use the keyboard shortcut, right-click context menu, or enable 'Autofill on page load' in the browser extension settings menu. For items without a corresponding URI, navigate to the vault item and tap the auto-fill button.
Viewing Billing information is different depending on whether you’re viewing it for an Individual or Organization subscription. For step-by-step instructions, check out the Update Your Billing Information help article to walk you through both processes.
For information on the structure of the Bitwarden team, compliance with international standards, and historical uptime, visit the compliance page, SOC 3 report and Bitwarden Status page.
Bitwarden currently serves tens of thousands of businesses and millions of end users globally.
Yes, see the 2022 SOC 3 Report for more information.
Yes, see the 2022 SOC 3 Report for more information.
Yes. Bitwarden conducts regular third-party security audits and is compliant with major privacy and security regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, and SOC 2. Visit the Bitwarden Security and Compliance page for more information.
The Bitwarden Security and Compliance Program is based on the ISO 27001 Information Security Management System (ISMS). More information in the Bitwarden Security White paper.
Bitwarden also completes a wide range of compliance certifications including SOC 2, GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA as well as penetration testing, code testing, and other third party audits. More information on the Bitwarden Security and Compliance page. Bitwarden Inc. has not yet completed ISO 27001 certification directly.
Bitwarden uses zero knowledge encryption to ensure neither Bitwarden nor subprocessors have access to customer vault data. See Bitwarden Subprocessors and administrative data for more information.
Deleting a Bitwarden account or Organization permanently deletes the account or Organization and all data that is associated with it. Bitwarden does not "soft delete" any data. For administrative data, see bitwarden.com/help/administrative-data.
Yes, you can export your existing data and import it into your Bitwarden Organization. For a full list of supported import formats, refer to this FAQ item.
Bitwarden stores encrypted Administrative Data and Vault Data. Vault data is encrypted locally on your device before being sent to Bitwarden servers and only you have the keys required to decrypt your vault. Neither Bitwarden, nor subprocessors have access to your vault data. For detailed information, view the full Privacy Policy.
Backups can be created, managed and retrieved at any time by exporting individual or organization vault data. This process can be automated with CLI scripting.
Directory Connector (downloadable application available for all business plans) will query the source directory and provision and deprovision users, groups, and associations. SCIM (available in the web vault for Enterprise Plans) will automatically push updates to Bitwarden, to provision or revoke users.
Your data is never sent to the Bitwarden Cloud without first being encrypted on your local device. Bitwarden uses TLS/SSL to secure communications between Bitwarden clients and user devices to the Bitwarden Cloud. Bitwarden’s TLS implementation uses 4096-bit X.509 certificates for server authentication and key exchange and a strong cipher suite for bulk encryption. Our servers are configured to reject weak ciphers and protocols. Bitwarden also implements HTTP Security headers such as HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), which will force all connections to use TLS. For more information, see the Bitwarden Security Whitepaper.
When creating a password protected vault export, the encryption key is generated through PBKDF2 and stretched using HKDF. KDF iterations are currently hard-coded to 100,000, which is the same default for a Bitwarden account and Bitwarden Sends.
Bitwarden uses AES-CBC 256-bit encryption for your Vault data, and PBKDF2 SHA-256 to derive your encryption key. For more information, see the Bitwarden Security Whitepaper.
Bitwarden always encrypts and/or hashes your data on your local device before it is sent to the cloud servers for syncing. The Bitwarden servers are only used for storing and synchronizing encrypted Vault data. It is not possible to get your unencrypted data from the Bitwarden cloud servers. Specifically, Bitwarden uses AES 256-bit encryption as well as PBKDF-SHA256 to secure your data. For more information, see the Bitwarden Security Whitepaper
Bitwarden processes and stores all data securely in the Microsoft Azure cloud using services that are managed by the team at Microsoft in the US. Since Bitwarden only uses service offerings provided by Azure, there is no server infrastructure to manage and maintain. All uptime, scalability, and security updates, patching, and guarantees are backed by Microsoft and their cloud infrastructure. For more information, see Microsoft Azure Compliance Offerings.
Real time system updates and historical uptime are available on the Bitwarden Status page.
Yes, Bitwarden also offers a Provider Portal to help MSPs manage their clients more easily. Learn more on the MSP page and contact sales to get started.
The Enterprise Plan includes Login with SSO, Enterprise Policies, and the option to self-host. Both plans include Premium features for all enrolled users, and sophisticated password management including Member Roles, Groups, Shared Collections, and options to integrate with directory services. To compare features supported in the Bitwarden Business plans, check out our Help Article on Bitwarden Plans.
Bitwarden is available on all modern devices and platforms, including desktop (Windows, MacOS and Linux), browser extension (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Safari, Vivaldi, Tor Browser and Opera), mobile (iOS and Android), Command Line Interface (CLI), and by using the web vault.
You can set the Bitwarden desktop app to automatically open on startup.
Select the Start (Windows Logo) button, select All apps, and scroll to find the Bitwarden shortcut.
Right-click the Bitwarden desktop app, select More, and then select Open file location.
With the file location open, press the Windows logo key + R, type shell:startup, then select OK. This opens the startup folder.
Copy and paste the shortcut to the Bitwarden desktop app from the file location to the startup folder.
Policies (available on Enterprise plans) enable Organizations to set a secure system-wide foundation for all users, for example Require single sign-on authentication, setting a maximum Vault Timeout or configuring minimum complexity requirements for the Password Generator. Enterprise Policies can be set by Organization Administrators or Owners. Check out the list of Enterprise Policies to learn more.
Vault health reports (available on all paid plans) can be used to evaluate the security of your Bitwarden individual or organization vault and include exposed, resused, weak, unsecure websites, inactive two-step login and data breach reports.
Event logs are timestamped records of events that occur within your Teams or Enterprise organization. Events logs are exportable, accessible from the /events endpoint of the Bitwarden Public API, and are retained indefinitely. Event logs record over 50 different types of events and captures a Timestamp for the event, client app information including application type and IP (accessed by hovering over the globe icon), the User connected to the event, and an Event description.
Yes, when exporting data from Bitwarden into other systems, a combination of data from the event log exports, API and CLI may be used to gather data.
Yes, login with SSO allows Enterprise organizations to leverage their existing Identity Provider to authenticate users with Bitwarden using the SAML 2.0 or Open ID Connect (OIDC) protocols.
Bitwarden protects against online attacks through the master password, 2FA, API rate limiting, and vault timeout options.
Offline attacks are protected by a user's master password, multiple layers of encryption on vaults at rest—including column level encryption on sensitive fields through keys held on an HSM, and transparent data encryption for the entire database at rest.
https://bitwarden.com/help/what-encryption-is-used/
https://bitwarden.com/help/bitwarden-security-white-paper/
As an open source product, Bitwarden code can be reviewed by anyone at any time. To maintain the integrity of the codebase, Bitwarden relies on the following protocols for code contributions:
Bitwarden maintains extensive compliance certifications with international standards.
Regular security training sessions conducted for all Bitwarden employees—including simulated attacks.
Code branches include protections to prevent unapproved changes being deployed without being reviewed.
Code and proposed changes are subject to automated scans and require in-depth review by other team members.
Dependency analysis monitors for potential vulnerabilities.
Partnership with security researchers at HackerOne to monitor for exploits.
Regular third party audits conducted.
Bitwarden uses Cryptography libraries maintained by industry experts.
Additional resources:
Bitwarden is open source, which means the source code, features, and infrastructure security are vetted and improved by a global community.
Bitwarden is regularly audited by reputable third-party security firms as well as independent security researchers.
Bitwarden seals your sensitive information with end-to-end AES-256 bit encryption, salted hashing, and PBKDF2 SHA-256.
Bitwarden maintains zero knowledge encryption because only you retain the keys to your vault, including the websites you visit, as well as the names of your individual items and folders.
Join our community on Reddit or our Community Forums to hear from real users about why they trust Bitwarden.
Yes. Bitwarden offers a discount to all educational and non-profit organizations. Contact the sales team to request a custom quote today.
Teams & Enterprise plans include 24/7 priority support. All employees, regardless of member role, may contact the support team directly at bitwarden.com/contact. For more information on available resources for account owners and administrators, see the Rolling Out Bitwarden to Your Organization guide.
Contact the sales team to ask about training opportunities.
Users in Bitwarden organizations can be granted a variety of member roles and access controls in order to manage their permissions and access. You can set member roles and access controls when you invite users to your organization, or at any time from the Manage → Members screen in your organization. For more information see the Help Center article.
Bitwarden Teams and Enterprise organizations will automatically scale up user seats as you invite new users. You can set a seat limit on scaling to prevent your seat count from exceeding a specified number, or manually add seats as desired. Regardless of how you choose to add seats, you will need to manually remove seats you're no longer using. For more information, see the User Management Help Center article.
Typically, this is because am app's vault data has fallen behind a web vault or other app's. Performing a vault sync should bring everything up to date. For more information, see https://bitwarden.com/help/vault-sync/
You can use encrypted exports to make secure long-term backups of your vault data that are encrypted with your account encryption key.
Alternatively, you can use a program such as PeaZip to create an encrypted archive of the file after exporting a plaintext file from Bitwarden.
You can learn more about PeaZip here:
http://www.peazip.org/
https://github.com/giorgiotani/PeaZip
Warning
Disclaimer: PeaZip is a third-party program and is not supported by Bitwarden. These links were shared with you as an alternative for use at your own risk.
