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Bitwarden_rs

#passwordmanager #rust #web 

Bitwarden is an open source password manager. Your vault is encrypted with your master key, so even if your server is compromised the hacker will only get some unreadable gibberish. Hosting your own Bitwarden server can be useful if you are paranoid about the server security and want to be in full control, or want the premium features for free because you have a webspace anyway.

Note

The installation of the official bitwarden server repository via docker is heavy, difficult and relies on docker, which isn’t supported at uberspace due to the fact of shared hosting. In this guide we’ll use the Rust implementation Bitwarden_rs of the Bitwarden API, so you can still use the official clients.

Note

For this guide you should be familiar with the basic concepts of

License

Bitwarden_rs is released under the GNU General Public License version 3 or any later version.

Prerequisites

We’re using Node.js in the stable version 13:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace tools version use node 13
Selected Node.js version 13
The new configuration is adapted immediately. Minor updates will be applied automatically.
[isabell@stardust ~]$

If you want to use Bitwarden_rs with your own domain you need to set up your domain first:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace web domain list
isabell.uber.space
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Installation

Install Bitwarden_rs

Clone the repository into your home directory. It will create the directory ~/bitwarden_rs automatically.

Warning

At the moment (current date: 24.07.2020) there is an unofficial patch of some dependencies that have not yet made it into all the official repositories. You can find the discussion about it on GitHub. Therefore you have to use a special branch to install bitwarden_rs currently. Make sure to check back and update your installation, once all dependencies have been updated.

[isabell@stardust ~]$ git clone https://github.com/dani-garcia/bitwarden_rs.git
[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd bitwarden_rs
[isabell@stardust bitwarden_rs]$ git checkout origin/async
[isabell@stardust bitwarden_rs]$

In order to build bitwarden_rs successfully you’ll need to set an environment variable pointing to the sqlite3 header files:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ export SQLITE3_LIB_DIR=/var/lib64

cd into the automatically created folder and create the data directory:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd bitwarden_rs
[isabell@stardust bitwarden_rs]$ mkdir data
[isabell@stardust bitwarden_rs]$

Build the server executable:

Note

If that doesn’t work the first time and the build failed, just try again until it’s done.

[isabell@stardust bitwarden_rs]$ cargo build -j 1 --release --features sqlite

In the next step we will download the latest build for the web vault. Check this page for the newest build number and replace it in the following snippet:

Note

If you don’t want to use the web-vault feature (web-app access to your vaults) for any security reasons you can skip this step. Please note that without the web-vault, newly created users can’t verify their email address. So it would be best to disable the web-vault after you’ve created your user accounts. Add the following line to your env file later if you do so: WEB_VAULT_ENABLED=false

[isabell@stardust bitwarden_rs]$ wget https://github.com/dani-garcia/bw_web_builds/releases/download/v2.16.0b/bw_web_v2.16.0b.tar.gz
[isabell@stardust bitwarden_rs]$ tar -xvzf bw_web_v2.16.0b.tar.gz
[isabell@stardust bitwarden_rs]$ rm -r bw_web_v*.tar.gz

Generate an openssl -base64 key now and save it temporarily, you’ll need it in the next step.

[isabell@stardust bitwarden_rs]$  openssl rand -base64 48
Ig/8bZXhqVFK11F2tQZTfODO/6QpCHE3DGyCH/2Eh40xUWMFC13J6nJVPLlyU3nO

Use your favourite editor to create ~/bitwarden_rs/.env with the following content:

ADMIN_TOKEN=PASTE YOUR TOKEN GENERATED ABOVE HERE # generate one with ~$ openssl rand -base64 48
ROCKET_PORT=62714 # your port here

SMTP_HOST=stardust.uberspace.de
SMTP_FROM=isabell@uber.space
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_SSL=true
SMTP_USERNAME=isabell@uber.space
SMTP_PASSWORD=MySuperSecretPassword

DOMAIN=https://isabell.uber.space

Replace the mail placeholder variables with your valid IMAP credentials, otherwise the bitwarden_rs server will not be able to send you mail notifications or tokens to verify newly created user accounts. SMTP_USERNAME and SMTP_PASSWORD must be the login data from a valid mail account. Replace the server domain with your final URL.

Note

You can configure any type of service here, you’re not limited to an uberspace IMAP user. If you prefer e.g. gmail refer to their documentations for SMTP_Port etc. accordingly.

You can edit other options, look into .env.template to see a list of available options.

Configuration

Setup web backend

Note

Enter the port 62714 as configured in the env file before.

If you want to use a subdomain refer to the web-backend manual.

To make the application accessible from the outside, configure a web backend:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace web backend set / --http --port <port>
Set backend for / to port <port>; please make sure something is listening!
You can always check the status of your backend using "uberspace web backend list".
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Setup web vault

Now it’s time to test if everything works. If there is no error, you are good to go. You should be able to access your vault on https://isabell.uber.space

[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd ~/bitwarden_rs
[isabell@stardust bitwarden_rs]$ target/release/bitwarden_rs
/--------------------------------------------------------------------\
|                       Starting Bitwarden_RS                        |
|                      Version 1.14.1-843604c9                       |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| This is an *unofficial* Bitwarden implementation, DO NOT use the   |
| official channels to report bugs/features, regardless of client.   |
| Report URL: https://github.com/dani-garcia/bitwarden_rs/issues/new |
\--------------------------------------------------------------------/

[2020-04-03 17:27:40][start][INFO] Rocket has launched from http://0.0.0.0:62714

Setup daemon

Use your favourite editor to create ~/etc/services.d/bitwarden_rs.ini with the following content:

[program:bitwarden_rs]
directory=%(ENV_HOME)s/bitwarden_rs
command=%(ENV_HOME)s/bitwarden_rs/target/release/bitwarden_rs
autostart=yes
autorestart=yes

After creating the configuration, tell supervisord to refresh its configuration and start the service:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl reread
SERVICE: available
[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl update
SERVICE: added process group
[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl status
SERVICE                            RUNNING   pid 26020, uptime 0:03:14
[isabell@stardust ~]$

If it’s not in state RUNNING, check your configuration.

Finishing installation

Your done. Point your Browser to your installation URL https://isabell.uber.space and create your user. You can access the admin panel via https://isabell.uber.space/admin and log in using the openssl token you created during the installation process.

Best practices

Backing up your vault manually

You can create a backup of the database manually. cd to your project folder, create a folder to store the backup in and use the given sqlite3 backup command. This will ensure the database does not become corrupted if the backup happens during a database write.

[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd ~/bitwarden_rs/data
[isabell@stardust data]$ mkdir db-backup
[isabell@stardust data]$ sqlite3 ~/bitwarden_rs/data/db.sqlite3 ".backup '~/bitwarden_rs/data/db-backup/backup.sqlite3'"

Note

You could run this command through a CRON job everyday - note that it will overwrite the same backup.sqlite3 file each time.

Restore up your vault manually

Before you restore a database backup make sure to stop the service:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl stop bitwarden_rs

To restore your database simply overwrite db.sqlite3 with backup.sqlite3. After replacing the file successfully you can restart the service again.

[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl restart bitwarden_rs

Hardening

Disable registration and invitations

By default, bitwarden_rs allows any anonymous user to register new accounts on the server without first being invited. This is necessary to create your first user on the server, but it’s recommended to disable it in the admin panel (if the admin panel is enabled) or with the environment variable to prevent attackers from creating accounts on your bitwarden_rs server.

Use your favourite editor to edit ~/bitwarden_rs/.env and add the following content:

SIGNUPS_ALLOWED=false

Note

While through this setting users can’t register on their own, they can still be invited by already registered users to create accounts on the server and join their organizations. This does not pose an immediate risk (as long as you trust your users), but it can be disabled in the admin panel or with the following environment variable:

INVITATIONS_ALLOWED=false

In addition to SIGNUPS_ALLOWED=false you can create an except for specific domains. Make sure to sue this setting only in addition to SIGNUPS_ALLOWED=false!

SIGNUPS_DOMAINS_WHITELIST=example.com # single domain
SIGNUPS_DOMAINS_WHITELIST=example.com,example.net,example.org # multiple domains

Warning

be careful using this feature. At the moment the emails are currently not checked, meaning that anyone could still register, by providing a fake email address that has the proper domain. So at the moment this is more security by obscurity. This seems to be fixed in an upcoming release, so make sure to check the feed regularly to stay informed about the newest version.

Disable password hint display

bitwarden_rs displays password hints on the login page to accommodate small/local deployments that do not have SMTP configured, which could be abused by an attacker to facilitate password-guessing attacks against users on the server. This can be disabled in the admin panel by unchecking the Show password hints option or with the environment variable:

Use your favourite editor to edit ~/bitwarden_rs/.env and add the the following content:

SHOW_PASSWORD_HINT=false

Update

Note

Check the update feed regularly to stay informed about the newest version.

Updating bitwarden_rs is really easy. Just stop the server, pull everything and download the new web vault, build the executable and start the server again. To get the download link for the newest version of the web-vault look here web-vault-feed.

[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd ~/bitwarden_rs
[isabell@stardust bitwarden_rs]$ supervisorctl stop bitwarden_rs
[isabell@stardust bitwarden_rs]$ git pull
[isabell@stardust bitwarden_rs]$ mv web-vault web-vault.old && mkdir web-vault
[isabell@stardust bitwarden_rs]$ wget new-release.tar.gz
[isabell@stardust bitwarden_rs]$ tar -xvzf new-release.tar.gz
[isabell@stardust bitwarden_rs]$ rm new-release.tar.gz
[isabell@stardust bitwarden_rs]$ cargo build -j 1 --release --features sqlite
....
[isabell@stardust bitwarden_rs]$

After creating the configuration, tell supervisord to refresh its configuration and start the service:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl reread
SERVICE: available
[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl update
SERVICE: added process group
[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl status
SERVICE                            RUNNING   pid 26020, uptime 0:03:14
[isabell@stardust ~]$

If it’s not in state RUNNING, check your configuration. You can check the service’s log file using supervisorctl tail -f bitwarden_rs.

Acknowledgements

This guide is based on the official bitwarden_rs documentation as well as the bitwarden_rs guide from Tom Schneider.

Tested with Bitwarden_rs 1.16.3 and Web-Vault v2.16.0b, Uberspace 7.5.1.0

Written by: Achim | pxlfrk <hallo@pxlfrk.de>