In my opinion one of the easiest things an individual can do to improve their overall computer security is use a password manager. I had been using 1Password for years and have nothing but good things to say about it. However, when I decided to move from macOS to Linux, I decide that I needed a different option. 1Password’s support on Linux is only available through 1Password X, which is strictly a browser plugin. Moreover, in order to use 1Password X, you need to pay a subscription (I was using a one-time paid license for 1Password 7 on macOS as well as the one-time paid version for iOS), which I generally prefer to avoid.
Bitwarden bubbled to the top of my list because it’s both open source and can be self-hosted (which is what I ended up doing). While Bitwarden lacks several nice features that 1Password has, using it has been an overall pleasant experience. Besides missing some features that I’ve come to enjoy, another downside to Bitwarden has been the lack of a security audit. Two days ago the Bitwarden team announced that a third-party vendor has completed a code audit and the results were good:
In the interest of providing full disclosure, below you will find the technical report that was compiled from the team at Cure53 along with an internal report containing a summary of each issue, impact analysis, and the actions taken/planned by Bitwarden regarding the identified issues and vulnerabilities. Some issues are informational and no action is currently planned or necessary. We are happy to report that no major issues were identified during this audit and that all issues that had an immediate impact have already been resolved in recent Bitwarden application updates.
The full report can be read here [PDF].
With this announcement I’m of the opinion that Bitwarden should be given serious consideration if you’re looking for a password manager. It’s an especially good option if you want to go the self-hosted route and/or want support for Linux, macOS, and Windows.