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Bitwarden releases “emergency access” feature

bitwarden.com

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Re: Bitwarden releases “emergency access” feature

#51

Post by teej »

pkage wrote: post #47
toomuchtodo wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep a copy in there if you want for convenience, I argue you’ll still want a paper backup somewhere. Opsec is hard, people are fallible. “What was the password?”, “Where’s the Yubikey?”, etc. These are not the failure scenarios you want to encounter during a tragedy (speaking from experience).

Bank safety deposit box is probably a good option for backup, it's very unlikely that both your home and the bank will burn down at the same time.

The bank across the street from me is 100% burning up in the same fire as my apartment if the California wildfires get to me.

Re: Bitwarden releases “emergency access” feature

#52

Post by legerdemain »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #49
pkage wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bank safety deposit box is probably a good option for backup, it's very unlikely that both your home and the bank will burn down at the same time.

A lot of banks have been phasing this product out, but if your bank supports it, I highly recommend it. Usually, they’ll even allow you access with a drilling fee if you’ve lost the key but can show multiple forms of ID. Whether this is good or bad depends on your threat model.

What's a good, safe place to store the key?

Re: Bitwarden releases “emergency access” feature

#54

Post by fraudsyndrome »

yepguy wrote: post #41
itake wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been using Bitwarden for over a year now and there are still tons of UX bugs that annoy me. In Firefox extension: 1. There is no memory. If you close the window, to copy the password, you have to re-search for the account to find the username. 2. If you open up bitwarden before the page is loaded, it says it can't find the password box to fill in. This is probably an extension limitation, but still annoying. i…

Maybe you can use the sidebar instead of the toolbar button if you're annoyed by the 'no memory' issue.

This is what I figured out by accident that helped me overcome the memory issue. Ctrl + H on Firefox, click the top-left dropdown for Bitwarden.

> 2. If you open up bitwarden before the page is loaded, it says it can't find the password box to fill in. This is probably an extension limitation, but still annoying.

The sidebar trick above also helps this issue. When it can't find the password box you just click the "refresh" icon on the Bitwarden sidebar and it'll fill it in. This limitation may be by design so it doesn't have constant access to everything you browse, only allows a "snapshot" of the HTML to fill in when loaded (or refreshed) - complete guess though.

Re: Bitwarden releases “emergency access” feature

#55

Post by dalrympm »

I'm really happy to see this come to BitWarden. I switched from LastPass to BitWarden and this Dead Man's switch was the only thing I found missing. I actually kept my LastPass active just to provide instructions on how to get into my BitWarden in case of an emergency. I'm still not clear if both the granter and grantee need to be premium/paid subscribers or not. Hopefully I can grant emergency access to someone without a paid subscription... I guess I'll find out when I dig into it over the weekend.

Re: Bitwarden releases “emergency access” feature

#56

Post by dyingkneepad »

_wldu wrote: post #33
aunlead wrote: post #16

The pandemic has made me (re)evaluate how my family can get to my finances and online services. Such solutions can solve issues related to bank/trading account access and key documents but what about subscription services? All my subscription services from Netflix/Plex (less important) to VPN/Blackblaze (more important) are tied to my credit cards, which upon my untimely demise will be deactivated. My family will sur…

Have one email account on your domain (example.com) and use that for everything important. Use a long random password for the account and don't 2FA it. Share that with your family. That's probably all they need to gain access and reset your other accounts. If you 2FA the email account, you risk locking you and them out permanently for many services. I've written some about this. If you care to read it: https://www.go…

I don't buy the "don't use 2FA" argument.

My partner knows how to unlock my phone. She can read the eventual SMS (I know, it's insecure, but still the only 2FA method in many US bansk), she will receive the email with the eventual password reset on the phone, she can use my authenticator apps. She also knows about my Yubikeys and where they are stored.

She also has access to my laptop, where backups for the above are stored.

Re: Bitwarden releases “emergency access” feature

#57

Post by toomuchtodo »

legerdemain wrote: post #52
toomuchtodo wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of banks have been phasing this product out, but if your bank supports it, I highly recommend it. Usually, they’ll even allow you access with a drilling fee if you’ve lost the key but can show multiple forms of ID. Whether this is good or bad depends on your threat model.

What's a good, safe place to store the key?

Either on your keyring or in your fire safe. As I mentioned, if you lose it, you can get the lock drilled at the bank with sufficient ID. All trust waterfalls to meatspace trust providers, just like if you lose your Yubikey AWS support will reset your hardware 2FA with sufficient evidence you are you.

Re: Bitwarden releases “emergency access” feature

#58

Post by sebmellen »

ZackJ37 wrote: post #50
aunlead wrote: post #16

The pandemic has made me (re)evaluate how my family can get to my finances and online services. Such solutions can solve issues related to bank/trading account access and key documents but what about subscription services? All my subscription services from Netflix/Plex (less important) to VPN/Blackblaze (more important) are tied to my credit cards, which upon my untimely demise will be deactivated. My family will sur…

I actually put together a service that is focused on this issue called Fidelius Vaults ( https://www.fideliusvaults.com ). If you have a moment to look, I'd be curious to hear your feedback on whether it solves the problem you stated.

I really like this idea, but what's the longevity of the service? Do you have any sort of contingency plan if you die, or if you don't have the funds to maintain the service anymore?

Re: Bitwarden releases “emergency access” feature

#59

Post by shortandsweet »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #21
aunlead wrote: post #16

The pandemic has made me (re)evaluate how my family can get to my finances and online services. Such solutions can solve issues related to bank/trading account access and key documents but what about subscription services? All my subscription services from Netflix/Plex (less important) to VPN/Blackblaze (more important) are tied to my credit cards, which upon my untimely demise will be deactivated. My family will sur…

Everything should be documented. We have a binder with checklists that walk you through gaining access to everything the other partner might need in the event of death (email accounts, domain registrar, bank and brokerage accounts, auto/home/life insurance, ongoing recurring bills of all sorts). Bitwarden databases are exported to paper, 3 hole punched, and put in the binder on a schedule. Both partners get setup wit…

Absolutely read that same book. One of the most useful I've read.

Re: Bitwarden releases “emergency access” feature

#60

Post by nickthemagicman »

aunlead wrote: post #16

The pandemic has made me (re)evaluate how my family can get to my finances and online services. Such solutions can solve issues related to bank/trading account access and key documents but what about subscription services? All my subscription services from Netflix/Plex (less important) to VPN/Blackblaze (more important) are tied to my credit cards, which upon my untimely demise will be deactivated. My family will sur…

Keep everything in Lastpass notes or the notes of whatever password manager you use.

Then put the password to that somewhere safe for people to have.

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