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Bitwarden SDK relicensed from proprietary to GPLv3

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Re: Bitwarden SDK relicensed from proprietary to GPLv3

#201
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The second factor isn’t a second device, it’s the TOTP code.

No, factors are supposed to have different qualities, such as: "Something you know"; "something you have"; "something you do"; "something you are [biometrics]"; "somewhere you are [geolocation]". Passwords are in your head - "something you know". TOTP codes are generated by a hardware token - "something you have". If the TOTP codes are crammed into your password manager, then the factors are no longer distinguished b…

2FA via TOTP implies two things: 1) you know a password; 2) you know the seed. This is why people criticize that approach. In practice, knowing a password and having a file (seed) seem different enough, and work against some phishing threats.

Logging in through a password manager requires that you know a password (your master password), and have a file (your vault).

Re: Bitwarden SDK relicensed from proprietary to GPLv3

#202
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two things are preventing me from doing that: I occasionally want to access my passwords in a browser (and I do not want to log in to iCloud on that machine), and I'd feel really bad about having my passkeys stored in an Apple service with absolutely no way of exporting them in case I ever do switch platforms. (Bitwarden at least includes passkeys in their JSON export format, as far as I know.)

As another commenter has mentioned, Apple Passwords allows export to simple CSV: https://support.apple.com/en-us/guide/passwords/mchl35b12625... What I dislike about Apple Passwords is how tightly coupled everything is. I just tried to set it up on my Windows 10 machine with a local account, but it requires Windows Hello to be turned on, which can't be done except with a Microsoft account. Kinda ridiculous of them to…

> Apple Passwords allows export to simple CSV

Not of passkeys, to my knowledge.

> What I dislike about Apple Passwords is how tightly coupled everything is.

That’s definitely also discouraging me as well.

Re: Bitwarden SDK relicensed from proprietary to GPLv3

#203

GPLv3 is interesting because it means to use their code in a commercial setting, then you must also have the guts to open source too.

Not if offered as a service. That's why they introduced the AGPL, that one has the service restriction too. In terms of a service offering, GPL software is free for the taking, and the restrictions don't apply as the distribution clause doesn't trigger.

Re: Bitwarden SDK relicensed from proprietary to GPLv3

#204

Thank you to Bitwarden for relicensing a thing to Free/Open License! Unfortunately, I no longer recommend Bitwarden for normal people because the built-in password manager in Firefox is too good. But for anyone with more advance needs (or who doesn't trust a password manager built into a web browser, I always recommend Bitwarden because KeepassXC + syncing is way too difficult for normal people.

> Unfortunately, I no longer recommend Bitwarden for normal people because the built-in password manager in Firefox is too good. I use both Bitwarden and Firefox and I would strongly encourage everyone to not use the password manager in Firefox. Do you know the tab sync across devices is broken in firefox? It was broken since Aug 24 and it is still not fixed https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1913795 . If t…

Interestingly, password syncing is one of the most reliable things I've seen Firefox doing during the last years. If you don't even have to think about it, that means it "just works"

Re: Bitwarden SDK relicensed from proprietary to GPLv3

#205
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unfortunately, I no longer recommend Bitwarden for normal people because the built-in password manager in Firefox is too good Interesting, I've always felt that browser-based password managers provided remarkably little value for most people. Using them on mobile is tricky and platform dependent, it's easy to have local-only, non-synced data and then lose it, and being multi-device is trickier, especially in a work…

I'm not sure how it is on iOS, but I've been using firefox as my password maanger on android. It's a trivial change in the settings and works across all apps as well. I also recommend it to my friend group, as they can use firefox with uBlock Origin, and also have their passwords synced.

[deleted]

Re: Bitwarden SDK relicensed from proprietary to GPLv3

#206

Thank you to Bitwarden for relicensing a thing to Free/Open License! Unfortunately, I no longer recommend Bitwarden for normal people because the built-in password manager in Firefox is too good. But for anyone with more advance needs (or who doesn't trust a password manager built into a web browser, I always recommend Bitwarden because KeepassXC + syncing is way too difficult for normal people.

The problem with the Firefox (or Chrome) password managers is that they only work on their browsers. Bitwarden works on any browser, on windows, macos, linux, ios, android.

Re: Bitwarden SDK relicensed from proprietary to GPLv3

#208
post #64

What would be a good way to backup the passwords stored in Bitwarden? I am worried that someday suddenly bitwarden could stop working and I will lose access to all the stored passwords? Should I have a physical copy of all the passwords stored in a vault at home?

I personally went (a year ago) to pass: https://www.passwordstore.org/.

It just creates a git repository that I can back up wherever I want.

Re: Bitwarden SDK relicensed from proprietary to GPLv3

#209
post #127
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK they went closed source the other day which triggered backlash and now they're opening back up.

My understanding is they were never closed source. Some of their code is GPL and some is proprietary, but all is source-available on GitHub. There was a bug where you couldn't build their client without a proprietary dependency, but they have fixed that so you can now build their client with only GPL code again.

I don't think it was a bug. They dismissed it and clearly said that they had no intention to adjust the license: https://github.com/bitwarden/sdk/issues/898.

Re: Bitwarden SDK relicensed from proprietary to GPLv3

#210
post #180

Can somebody ELI5?

People are dicks to one of the last companies which operate in a transparent manner and open source their product. There was a bug, it got fixed. Nothing to see here, move along.

This doesn't look like a bug: https://github.com/bitwarden/sdk/issues/898
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